Today I noticed something a little strange near my work – a life-sized statue of a cow.
‘A statue of a cow’
‘A closeup of the cow statue’
I saw another one close by, so I decided to have a closer look…
‘Another statue of a cow’
‘Milk Tank’
‘Tears overflow’
‘Spring of the life’
‘Unkind heart’
‘Happiness vending machine’
A few years ago I saw something similar in Tulsa (that time is was life-sized penguins), so I figured they were part of some sort of charity event. Sure enough, at the base of the statue was a metal plate with a number and information about the statue.
‘The plaque on a decorated statue of a cow’
The statues are part of the 2008 Tokyo Cow Parade (the site is in Japanese but there is an English description here).
‘A poster for the cow parade’
I found one other rather unusual cow statue during my lunch break:
‘Cow number 17’
In total there are a total of 73 statues scattered around Marunouchi, so I decided it would be interesting to try to find them all!
Cows found today: 30, 18, 17.
Total cows found to date: 3 of 73.
Note: there is a map (english version) showing the locations of all the cows. I’m not using the map, just seeing how many I can find. It’s more fun that way, really!
Update: The rest of the blog entries for the cow-hunt will be tagged with tokyo-cow-parade, and all the photos can be seen in my picasa gallery.