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statues

This amazing Buddhist statue cafe in Japan could be a museum all by itself【Photos】

Coffee and culture on both on the order at unorthodox coffee house Kagari.

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Face to face with Ibaraki’s giant Daidarabotchi, not so bad after all and a bit of a looker

The 15-meter-tall miniature of the legendary yokai puts it in a whole new light.

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Japan’s Roofless Museum holds many man-made marvels from the Sphinx to the Parthenon

We travel into the depths of suburbia in search of Moai and ancient Pakistani Priest Kings.

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Foreign traveler’s heart broken as he learns his image of Akihabara is too good to be true

Even in the biggest otaku mecca in the world, there’s a limit to how big the anime salutes are.

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Enormous Buddhist Kannon statue in Sendai shocks visitors with otherworldly looming

It’s so massive that from certain angles it looks like Japan is under attack by a giant alien life-form.

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Crowdfunding for memorial statue for Japan’s otaku penguin shut down as zoo denies involvement

Facility where Grape-kun spent his days with his anime crush says it has no plans for a statue, hasn’t given permission for an installation.

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Tokyo’s new giant Gundam anime robot statue is complete, and it’s awesome【Photos】

We spend a day straining our necks and filling our anime-loving hearts to bursting staring up at the brand-new, full-size Unicorn Gundam statue.

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Giant Buddhist pagoda and Kannon statue in Fukuoka Prefecture look like a theme park

We’ve seen some big Kannon statues before, but this one takes the Zen cake.

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Tokyo’s new life-size Gundam giant robot statue to be completed, open to public next month

Tokyo will once again be able to boast a giant anime robot come September.

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Giant mecha spotted on Japanese highway by anime fan motorist【Video】

Patlabor’s Ingram is out on patrol.

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Tokyo’s giant Gundam statue dismantled in anime-like scene that’s warming the hearts of fans

The significance of the event is being felt by everyone, even the workers who stopped to pose with photos of the mecha’s gigantic detached body parts.

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Tokyo is getting a new giant Gundam robot statue this fall and it’ll be even bigger than the last

The original Gundam statue is no more, but dry your tears, anime fans, because a new mecha is on the way.

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Gigantic 81-foot Evangelion statue goes up in Shanghai

Recreation of anime’s Unit-01 sets very specific Guinness World Record.

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Japanese photographer stumbles into “forbidden forest,” finds village of creepy statues【Pics】

This is either the beginning to a really good Miyazaki film or a really bad Japanese horror film.

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Amazing $24,000 life-size anime figure is taller than the character’s voice actress 【Video】

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress is the latest anime series to get the 1:1-scale statue treatment.

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Japan’s new traffic cones come with built-in Jizō Bosatsu, the protective deity of travellers

There’s no better way to look after the roads than with built-in protection from one of Japan’s most revered deities.

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Why buy a new car when you could get this life-sized anime girl statue for the same price?

Full-scale To Love-Ru figure being offered to the public for the first time, but the slender character has a hefty price.

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Artist Mio Hashimoto shares her stunning wooden animal sculptures and methods in new how-to book

The visual arts are, for a writer like me, akin to magic. I see the finished product and the raw material and I basically have no idea how the artist got from point A to point B — even if I actually watched them work through the entire process! And when it comes to sculptures, all bets are off. You could tell me a wizard conjured the work whole with a wave of a wand, and I’d be hard-pressed to prove you wrong.

Fortunately, the incredibly talented Mio Hashimoto, woodcarver and artist, has written a how-to book explaining some of her methods and showing the detail of some of her adorable animal sculptures. Now, at least, I’ll know exactly how she achieved her results, even if I’ll never have a chance of replicating them myself. And for all you artists out there, aspiring or otherwise, this book will teach you how to make all the pets you’ll ever want!

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Afro Buddha, usually only displayed one day a year, gets rare extended viewing until mid-October

The Buddhist statues of Japan come in a wide variety of forms, representing the various manifestations and aspects of Buddhism and its many sects. Of all the iconic figures that can be found around the country, perhaps the grooviest are the statues of Amida with a giant afro!

Dubbed the “Afro Buddha,” this statue stored at Todaiji in Nara is also rarely available public viewing — it’s usually only on display for one day a year! But thanks to special circumstances, it is on display from now until October 18. If you’re looking for the funkiest Buddha in Japan, now’s your chance to see him!

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