Glico Sign Dotonbori

This guide to the Glico Sign above Dotonbori in Osaka traces the runner back to confectioner Riichi Ezaki, who noticed how healthy fishermen's children in Saga looked, traced it to the glycogen in the oysters they ate, and built a candy and a company around it. You'll hear how the runner became the brand's mascot and then a lit billboard over the canal starting in 1935, and how wartime metal shortages tore the whole structure down in 1943. The guide follows what it took to bring him back and keep him glowing ever since.