Starting tomorrow, prominent Tokyo landmarks — with their fixed steel columns and beams — will likely be feeling a bit inadequate as a new, mobile player is set to rise up and illuminate the capital's skyline.
Near the Rainbow Bridge, on the manmade peninsula of Odaiba, a "life size" rendition of a Gundam robot will stand guard as a representative member of the influential "Mobile Suit Gundam" television series, which this year is celebrating its 30th anniversary.
The 18-meter-high armored figure, replicated right down to its double-nozzle jet pack, sits as the centerpiece of the Green Tokyo Gundam Project, an event aimed at raising funds for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's push for a more environmentally friendly future.
Organizers are expecting 1.5 million visitors to arrive at Shinagawa Ward's Shiokaze Park through the end of August to view, free of charge, the 35-ton fabrication of fiberglass and steel up close and mingle at the surrounding booths and stalls selling robot models and T-shirts. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Green Tokyo Fundraising Campaign, an organization that will utilize the ¥800 million it hopes to collect by 2010 for such activities as the planting of roadside trees and the establishment of lawns within schools.
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