The Future Visits the Present...Only to Become the Past

The English edition of the Mainichi News's daily photo journal window featured a shot from Kobe's new-ish Gundam-themed bar named "Axis", a drinking establishment I would very much like to down a martini at. The bar, named after an asteroid base used by both warring sides in the original Universal Century storyline of the historic series, features hundreds of mobile suit models painstakingly assembled by its proprietor and has become a sort of Mecca for local fanboys. With the thought of giant model robot assembly fresh in my mind I was reminded of the 1:1 scale model RX-78 Gundam on display throughout summer in Odaiba, Tokyo. It was taken down in early September, I believe, only lighting the riverside park it occupied for a few months. Financial responsibility for the project was taken by the Tokyo city government and the Gundam license holder, Sunrise Studios, and though the cost of the installation eludes me (Update: the cost was kept secret from the public! Tokyo taxpayer funds were used to construct the thing and they're not disclosing how much!) I'm willing to bet it was at least half a million.

This is typical Japan. For nearly two decades now Japan has been trying to spend its way out of recession by wasting boatloads of cash on public works, many of which are of questionable usefulness. Roads and bridges to nowhere, land reclamation projects in areas with no lack of space, river damming on waterways with no history of flooding and the list goes on. It's like a nightmare version of our Depression Era Works Progress Administration, only without anything particularly useful or beautiful coming out of it. I look around the Bay Area in my minds eye and see the beautiful murals painted at Coit Tower, the Beach Chalet and elsewhere and wonder where their analogs are in Japan. Nowhere, because that cash has been going into the pockets of corrupt politicians and construction company bigwigs instead of anywhere more worthy.

They should at least have left the thing up until it started to show some signs of wear and tear. How unspeakably wasteful.

--Matt