Tokyo Diaries – Gao, Gao!

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Godzilla in Roppongi is just about right – Saki, Satoru and Kiromaru ran into just about everything else.

Today was my birthday (still is, for another hour) so I dragged my aching back out of the flat and made a little circuit of the city and snapped a few pics.  For the next month Tokyo Midtown in Roppongi has a Godzilla in the garden – I understand he shoots fire at night, but even during the day he’s quite a sight. Afterwards I stopped off at Shibuya Parco before meeting up with a couple of Swedish expat friends, and while the bad news is that the Yowapeda popup store I photographed a few weeks ago has sadly joined the choir invisible (it’s been replaced by a Haikyuu!! one) the good news is that a Hoozuki no Reitetsu popup has moved in on the floor.  Check it out if you’re a fan – they have a lot of cool stuff.

The last few pics are from the Yebisu Beer Museum at Yebisu Garden Place, and the strange exhibit set up in the complex that I’ve dubbed the “Trippin’ Balls Dome“.  From the outside it looks like a small temporary free-standing planetarium – which was my guess, and it wasn’t far off.  What it is, in fact, is a combination of pretty flowers and shodou (calligraphic) Kanji projected onto a dome with creepy music in the background.  In practice it’s something like a cross between a planetarium show and an immersive jellyfish tank, and quite cool and bizarre.  But what I really want to know is, what was the meeting like where someone suggested this as an attraction?  It’s one of those “only in Japan” oddities – this country just has a huge appreciation for the weird and wonderful.

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14 comments

  1. e

    Happy Trippy Birthday you youngster :D.
    The dome looks quite something. I must say for a moment and befire checking the picture the Museem Beer context had me wondering if some of the projected object in the dome in the vid were actually beer-related a tender rain of foam, cereal grains and hop…
    In any case, mandatary figurative celebration pint toast at you sir. Best wishes for your aching back.

  2. e

    I think I've reached my new typos record in the above message >.< . My apologies.

  3. v

    I've been wanting to check out Godzilla but there's just so many other things happening around Tokyo and Yokohama during the summer weekends.

  4. m

    Happy Birthday dude!! Haha did you go out in Roppongi and find some Gaijin hunters?

  5. As much as I hate Roppongi, there is the odd desirable destination there. Midtown is a very nice complex, there are some good restaurants, etc.

  6. w

    Happy birthday, Enzo! Figures it'd fall on the same day Hunter x Hunter airs (sort of)…

  7. N

    Happy birthday!
    ….I'm pretty sure these are Cannabis leafs floating around in that dome

  8. More like magic mushrooms or blotting paper.

  9. R

    Happy birthday, Enzo!

    That "Trippin' Balls Dome" is surely odd and weird…I clicked on the video before reading and was wondering what it is. I guess sometimes people can find wonder if you're not afraid of trying something weird, but I'm just fascinated to read about any odd or unheard-of things that you discovered. By the way, I'm actually quite happy about the Haikyuu popup store — I really like that show, and, I guess, it's only timely to make some money…

  10. R

    Whoops…forgot to say… I really like the portraits — love the antique look, and I just can't help but giggle how girl bear posters work in any country or era…lol.

  11. I don't think making money is any problem for Haikyuu at the moment.

    The thing I like about the Yebisu posters is that the first set are traditional Nadeshiko, and the second are Japanese women as Western flappers. And they're really beautifully drawn, all of them.

  12. R

    Well, I only hope that they make enough money for a second season. Yes, they're all so beautifully drawn…love the details.

  13. That's nothing anyone need be concerned about – there will be as many seasons as they can make without passing the manga. I suspect they'll alternate with Kurobas to avoid competing for the same set of buyers in the same season.

  14. R

    Is Haikyuu an on-going series? I thought it was only green-lighted for two cours, but I will be really happy if I'm wrong. Yeah, I remember you mentioned about the coming back of Kurobas…not too excited about it.

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