To celebrate Gundam's 30th anniversary, a life-size (and fully operational no doubt, despite reports to the contrary) RX-58 Mobile Suit was put on display in Tokyo's Shiokaze Park, on the artificial island of Odaiba. It stands a full 18 meters (59 feet) tall, and at night it lights up, issues steam from various air vents, and moves its head. This is their way of keeping it from rusting in place, while not giving away the secret that the entire robot can move, as opposed to just its head.
Since the main point of my trip out to Odaiba was to see this guy, here are a few more pictures:
From the back:
Profile view:
Taking his first steps... And man, those humans by his foot are tiny!
A close-up:
One more shot of that beautiful face:
Unfortunately, when we ("we" being me, Ashley, Drew, Koji, and Akiko) finally found the Gundam, it was both raining and getting dark, so unfortunately I don't have the best pictures in the world. I might go back in a few weeks though, so maybe I can get some daylight photos then. However, I do have some nighttime photos of other, non-giant robot landmarks (I know, I know, not nearly as cool) that turned out fairly decent, and so here they are:
First, Tokyo Bay, with Tokyo Tower and the Rainbow Bridge in the background (at least, I think it's the Rainbow Bridge...) Tokyo Tower is basically Japan's version of the Eiffel Tower, and the Rainbow Bridge is their version of the Brooklyn Bridge, only larger. Odaiba Island is like Manhattan, except not at all. It's a man-made island, and its only purpose as far as I can surmise is to be a tourist spot, since it has a Gundam, a lovely view of the bay, a huge shopping center, the Fuji TV building, and an indoor amusement park known as "Joypolis." It also has a lot of really nice, expensive looking hotels. You know, the kind that you'd never be able to afford to spend a night in, even if you won the lottery. As far as I was concerned, since it took me a half an hour (by train no less!) to get here, this place was on the fringes of Tokyo civilization, though I had to admit that *maybe* they had some modern utilities when I saw the Gundam. Anyway, getting back to how Odaiba wishes that it was Manhattan, does this particular landmark look familiar to any of you?
Once more, just in case that wasn't close enough for you to get a good look:
Okay, okay, last one, I promise:
It was really hard getting those pictures to turn out halfway decent, so I'm going to post them whether you like it or not!
As proof that I have friends, and that "Ashley, Drew, Koji, and Akiko" are not all just figments of my imagination, here are two pictures of Akiko (I just kind of forgot about everyone else I guess), since I promised I'd post them for her so that she can use them for facebook...despite the fact that she is completely and utterly computer-illiterate.
Before anyone asks, since I'm sure someone will, she's not my type. And my "not my type" I mean "it was fun joking around and talking with her, but she's not my type." I just posted these pictures here, and not on facebook, because I'm still in the middle of uploading my China photos there, and then I need my first set of Japan photos, and I want my albums to go in chronological order because I'm OCD like that, so there was no way these were going on facebook before I was completely caught up. Which would take, like, another ten years, considering China was three years ago already. Stacy, I'm so jealous of you! I wanna go back to Nanjing!
Moving along, here was a giant globe in the Fuji TV building...I have no idea what purpose it serves, but I want one of these in my future home:
Now, the 6th floor of the shopping center had a "Muscle Zone," which was basically a bunch of games you could play, one of which was the following:
Here you attempt to guide a basketball through the maze. The bars are magnetized, and the poles that you use to hold the ball are metal, so it's harder than it looks. Needless to say, the poor little girl on the left could barely even manage to hold the bar, let alone keep the ball from dropping, even without the magnets pulling the bar in every direction. Not pictured: An indoor miniature version of the "Sasuke" obstacle course - also known as "Ninja Warrior" on G4. Yes, you too can try your hand at being a ninja. I totally wanted to do it, but it wasn't worth the 1 hour+ wait just to make a complete fool of myself. It should be noted that people came completely pimped out in athletic gear for their shot at this, so I was pretty sure that I would not be faring too well with my white dress shirt, tight jeans, and 1920's depression-era hat.
Moving along, we have this:
Now, I don't even KNOW what this elephant is, but supposedly it's a 'monster burger.' All I know is that God intended hamburgers to be round, not square, and clearly consuming something that is in direct conflict with the natural order of the world cannot be good for one's digestion.
And here, we see some wonderful art from some elementary school children...
Oh wait...
You mean to say that...
Modern art is ridiculous.
This is a tag for the painting on the left in the photograph above. It is titled "Cell phone" and costs somewhere in the area of $250. I will spare you all my rant on modern art, but let it be known that I fail to see the hidden artistic beauty when a thirty year old adult duplicates the work of a three year old child.
And finally, to mark the return of Evangelion to the silver screen:
Actually, the Evangelion statues were in Ikebukuro, and these pictures are a few weeks old, but I figured now was a good time to post them, since now we've come full circle:
In other words, back to the giant robots!
To conclude things, I'll just thank Kotaku for the Gundam information, and also point you to this blog for some absolutely awesome pictures of the Gundam at night.
And now, onward to Kobe, and more giant robots! Robots in Japan are like an arms race, once one city has its giant robot, EVERY city needs a giant robot, or it just feels inadequate. It also feels a lot safer knowing that it can call upon its giant robot when atomic lizards come crawling out of the ocean, and not have to always rely on those silly Power Rangers.
This article brought to you by:
Michael Jackson (1958-2009)
