I have been following news about the realsize 1:1 Gundam since it was mentioned in April. At the time we didn’t know we were going to visit Tokyo so I didn’t have a lot of expectation of taking pictures of it. The last time when they had Gundam Crisis in Fujiku Highland Park in 2007, I miss seeing it when we were in Tokyo. This year, we just happened to have a trip to Tokyo when Gundam at Odaiba is being exhibited. Actually the official opening is not until July and we were there in June. It was a nice surprise that I got to see a fully standing Gundam and I really appreciate the results of excellent project management in Japan :)
If you are interested in reading about Gundam Crisis, please see Danny Choo’s coverage.
To get to Odaiba, we took the Yurikamome train from Shimbashi station.
The fare is a bit more expensive than the JR lines but it is a worthwhile splurge as it goes through the Rainbow Bridge to arrive at Odaiba.
Rainbow Bridge during daytime looks like a regular suspension bridge. It is large and all but the special part of the bridge is that it lights up at night in rainbow colors. Too bad we didn’t get to take pictures of it at night during this trip.
The train has no operator onboard. It is an automated system kind of like the Skytrain in Vancouver. We managed to sit at the front row on the train.
Have you noticed that the tracks are not the typical train tracks? That is probably why it is a lot quieter than the regular trains.
The stations are nicely constructed with a very modern feel to them.
Just like highways in Tokyo, the train tracks are elevated and run through the city in between buildings.
Just before getting on to the Rainbow Bridge.
On the bridge.
And finally we can see Gundam from afar. It is big indeed.
I just can’t help it to keep taking photos for an hour on a hot, sunny, high humidity, high UV index day. So here I am sharing with your some of the photos I took.
This Gundam stands 18 meters tall.
An raving fan of Gundam taking a close up photo.
Some school even had a field trip for their students out to see Gundam.
Back of Gundam has a lot of details as well.
Side of Gundam looks awesome.
Some close up pictures below with more details of the decals and mechanics. Really makes me want to make some gunpla soon.
Can you read the text of the decals?
Hope you enjoyed reading this blog post.
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8 Responses to Visiting Tokyo (Part 3)
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Gotta luv the Japanese attention to detail, huh? I would suspect a version made here would look like a big, white cardboard box with a gundam head. Yeeeah Gundam!
Ah, forgot to comment on the train. Could it be a local version of a maglev train where they ride atop magnets? Looks like its guided by the rail on the side, but could be wrong. Maybe its just plain magic.
According to Wikipedia, the Yurikamome is a kind of Automated Guidway Transit system:
“Automated guideway transit (AGT) is a fully automated, grade-separated transit system in which vehicles (usually rubber-tired) are guided (usually by horizontally running guide wheels) on a guideway.”
I think it has rubber tires.
You mean like this?
http://jeremybailey.net/rhizomeApp.html
at least this one moves in real-time :P
Nice pics of the details! Will definitely visit the Gundam on August! ^^
Your photos of the Gundam look great! Did you do any post-processing on them?
Thanks IchiBaru, I did some processing using iPhoto.
[...] still love the design of the original Gundam. It was a good feeling to visit Odaiba earlier this year when the real size Gundam was [...]