This past weekend I visited Kyoto and saw another giant robot. Because Japan has a ton of them, apparently.
Anyway, this is Tetsujin-28, or Gigantor, as he's known in the US. He's actually located near Kobe, which is about an hour and a half away from Kyoto. Although giant robots are always awesome, I have to say the Gundam was a bit cooler. And this is coming from someone who watched Gigantor as a kid, but never bothered to watch any Gundam series besides Wing. I guess the people that were building Gigantor didn't think that having him be surrounded by a shopping mall and apartment buildings would detract from the coolness factor a bit...although it *is* pretty awesome that he's also next to a school. I mean when you're bored in class and staring out the window, it must be nice to be like 'Oh look a giant robot.'
I think there were two big differences between Gigantor and Gundam. First, the Gundam was located in the middle of a field, so it was the only thing around, and it loomed over everything else, making it pretty impressive to look at. Gigantor on the other hand is surrounded by buildings, most of which are as tall or taller than he is, so he's a bit underwhelming.
The second difference is that while Gigantor looks like a cartoon (gee, I wonder why), the Gundam actually looked, well, real. Or as real as a gigantic space-warrior robot can look anyway. In other words, Gigantor is obviously just a statue, while the Gundam is actually a secret Japanese military project, developed under the guise of being 'just a statue.' Sure it is, whatever you say Japan. I know the truth!
Anyway, here is one more picture:
After checking out the robot, we wandered around the area a bit more, and found 'Shoes Plaza' which I guess is famous to Japanese girls or something. Girls sure love their shoes...
The girl in the picture is Hitomi, and she was studying abroad and didn't get to see the Gundam, so we decided to go see Gigantor instead. In Japan, even the girls like giant robots!
After wandering around Robot-land, we went to Kobe and did some shopping, and also happened to stumble upon a really big Christmas tree:
The next day, I kind of forgot that I had a camera, so although we went hiking through a mountain path behind a temple, this was the only picture I took:
Water from a nearby stream is run through bamboo pipes to continuously flow into the bucket. I thought it was a pretty interesting way to keep the fruits and vegetables cool until customers came to buy them. This temple had rest stops and places to eat every five minutes or so - so much for the hard life of a 'pilgrim.'
Finally, one more Christmas tree, this time in Kyoto Station:
Now, I don't know if you've ever heard of an Electone before, but it's similar to a piano, except I'm pretty sure they only exist in Japan. Also, they're apparently really good for playing video game music. There happened to be an Electone concert going on, and though you probably can't tell in the picture, all of the performers were Elementary school students - one girl was so tiny her feet didn't even reach the pedals! Obviously, since this is Japan, they were all super-awesome.
Anyway, that concludes this blog update. I actually had a really, really awesome weekend, but I didn't take many pictures, so there wasn't much to write about.
Until next time!
