Jessy told us about a Doraemon exhibition at Roppongi Hills the other day. So we decided, we’re gonna start the day there to check it out. Today, both Jessy and Shuta will be spending the day with us for some sight-seeing around Tokyo.
After a little effort to locate the Doraemons, we found dozens of life-size statues from various episodes, each holding a secret tool from one of the episodes. It was tough to take pictures because the place was crowded and almost everyone wanted to take pictures with the statues.
The exhibition was part of Summer Events 2017 at Roppongi Hills, from 15 July through 27 August 2017, sponsored and surrounding TV Asahi Station. Apparently, besides the usual Bon Odori event, there were also shows related to popular TV programs on the outdoor stage nearby, kids workshops and morning Tai-chi at the venue.
Around the Doraemon statues, there were also these giant metal spider statues — called Maman — that we’ve seen ages ago in NYC’s Rockefeller Center Plaza. These spiders were everywhere!
There were also some people doing acrobatic slacklining. There was one girl and one boy, taking turns jumping and flying on the slackline. And they were pretty impressive! Aina was so into it. She kept watching and recorded a few videos, especially the girl. You can see one of the videos below.
Apparently, after the slacklining show, there was somekind of slacklining workshop for kids. Aina’s eyes immediately brighten up and she asked if she could join the workshop. Unfortunately, we had to register for the workshop days before today, so she couldn’t join…
We didn’t actually go into the Doraemon exhibition, because the line was way too long and it was way too hot to stand in line. So we opted to eat some shaved ice instead. The line was still long, but at least, this one was under the shade.
Now these turned out to be GIANT shaved ice, much bigger than your typical shaved ice found in summer festivals in Japan. And they cone in exotic flavors such as mango, peach, grapefruit, as well as your typical strawberry milk and chocolate, and were supposedly made from real fresh mountain spring water. The company that brought this mountain water to Roppongi Hills happened to sponsor this stall… pretty nifty marketing tactic.
Aina chose the most expensive one: the peach flavor with chunks of real peach in there. I guess it’s worth the money, because it was so good! The rest ordered the strawberry flavor, which was also excellent. Very refreshing and perfect for this scorching weather.
From the shaved ice, Aina got three coupons, which she used to turn a gachapon machine nearby three times. One of the three balls, actually turned out to be a winner – she got an erasable stamp as a prize. Yay!!!
For all the photos while we were in Tokyo, they are in Tokyo 2017 photo album. Other entries of this trip is at Japan 2017 Trip: Ballet Competitions.
