Ben's Birthday

Ben’s birthday was this weekend. Ben and I both have this tendency to revert to our five year old selves when it’s our birthdays. I had the perfect plan to amuse of my handsome birthday boy; go look at a giant gundam!

For those of you that don’t know what a gundam is, it is a giant robot from anime. People usually control these robots by riding inside either their chest or head, and utilize them for battle.

Ben has loved gundam forever, when I first met him (at age 14) he was obsessed, and spent hours talking with other obsessies in the jibber jabber jargon specific to gundam. I learned early on that if I said anything remotely related to gundam Ben would light up, and explain everything he could to me about them for hours. Luckily for Ben, I retained none of what he taught me, so that he could reteach me when ever his nerd quota had not been reached for the day.

Ben is far less obsessed, gundam have become a thing of nostalgia. He will now reminisce about them like they were an old friend.

I armed myself with a few facts for the day to keep Ben’s excitement level high as we made the long journey to Odaiba.

Here are a few facts (mostly stolen from Wikipedia)

            The gundam in odaiba is a 1:1 replica of the gundam in the series Mobile Suit Gundam.

            It was built for the 30^th anniversary of the series

            The gundam has been visited by more than 5 million people.

            The gundam is 18 meters high

To be honest I have no interest in gundam, so I had very little interest in the statue other then the happiness of my husband. When Ben saw the Gundam, his face split into a smile, his eyes twinkled, and he did a tiny little hop. For a second the idea that he was an Adult Man was as remote an idea to him as penguins on the moon. He was a young boy again, and his bubbling joy was everything I had ever dreamed of.

Then I saw the gundam, the one I had no interest in, and I stopped dead in my tracks, and my jaw did its best impression of a yoyo. Holy cow it was amazing!

It was a gentle giant, watching out over the horizon, guarding us from any evils that might befall us. It was more than a robot, it cared for its people, and would not let any harm come to us. He was our friend ready to take on the battle we ourselves could not fight.

All thoughts that it was merely a statue left my mind. It was unbelievably cool. Every detail made the statue more real. There were stickers on each panel that read “WARNING ONLY QUALIFIED PERSONNEL ARE QUALIFIED TO SERVICE”. The jet boosters glow blue as if primed and ready for lift off, there are blinking lights across the body which pulse like a heartbeat. The eyes are really what sell it, they are bright and intent, and shine brightly even in daylight. The gundam is sensational, by far the coolest statue I have ever seen.

I think Ben would have been perfectly happy if I had left the day at that, but the Driver City Mall had some amazing looking pizza. So for dinner Ben had Pizza and wine. He got to be a child again for a day, and I was glad to be there. I am so glad he got to be so happy for a day.