Day 2? : The thing what haunts your dreams

When Okamoto Taro made the Taiyou no Tou ( Tower of the Sun) for Expo 70 he probably didn't think some 40 years later it would be standing there alone without it's big ole expo in the middle of a park in Suita city. If he did think that then I fear him.... I fear him greatly

If you wanna read some factual stuff about it, you can go to wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_the_Sun

there, enjoy that if you want facts, but if you want to know how this thing CONTROLS THE MINDS of people... read on.

I first encountered the "Tou" as I call it 3 years back when my friend asked me to come along on a picnic at the Bampaku memorial park ( seriously Expo memorial park) where it lives. The thing scared the BEJEEBUS out of me when I saw it from the station. It is ENORMOUS, so much that I think the word enormous could possibly exist to describe this thing and for no other reason. Also it has 3 faces. I like to get people to argue which is the real face ( I vote the top golden one, though many go for the stomach face) It has this moon face on the front, a sun on the back and the golden face up top.

It's a 3-headed monster and I totally blame Evangelion for my fear of it. It looks like it might pop out the ground and ravage Osaka at any moment, but instead it calmly rests with it's arms out.

But how pray tell, you ask, does it control the minds of people? Well for 1 I know NO LESS than 3 people I work with who have NO LESS than 3 phone straps of the thing. They are " Okamoto Taro maniacs" so they say. And some of them even put stickers of it on their phone, and on their bags and keep mini models of it on their desks. I went into the travel agency and half the desks had mini ones sitting by the screen.

I too have succumbed to its power. After seeing it the first time, I was in fear... but it stayed in my mind. I found myself wanting to see it more and more. The second time I saw it I took this photo to capture how it makes me feel... and I bought a lapel pin of it I wear on my suit jacket to work... next time, I will get a phone strap too and maybe a mini one.

I know it is weird, but you know, I feel like I NEED TO.

And if you are thinking " hey wasn't that in 20th Century Boys?" yeah it was.







Mind Control indeed