With Great Power Comes Great Marketing

There are only two names you need to know in Japan* right now: Spiderman and Avril Lavigne. Seriously, every corner you turn is a poster of one of them, and nearly every shop is blaring out a pop-rocking beat from the Sk8er Boi herself. Hachiko, the famous crossroads in Shibuya was hectic as usual, but with a web dominating the buildings, and the screens showing adverts for both the new album and the movie.


On top of that, Spiderman 3 is released here before anywhere else in the world, as well as having the premiere in Tokyo a few weeks back. Not quite sure why but maybe something to do with the Sony Corporation being based here.

Anyway, it was a baking hot day today and we went down to Odaiba, my favourite place . Incidentally, it's Golden Week - a week-long bank holiday - and, in Odaiba, Hawaii festival. We saw some performances near the Venice shopping mall, including some hula dancing and music, and then went to the beach.

Afterwards, we checked out the cinema to see if there was much hype for the release tomorrow, and it was insane. There were Spiderman related events everywhere, including a game where you shot arrows from an upside-down gun attached to your wrist (kinda worked). I hit Venom so I was web-slingingly pleased. We also went on the treasure-hunt set-up which took us around Odaiba, to the Fuji-TV building (with the ball hovering in the middle) and past a live performance by an up and coming nine-piece band plus DJ, Pistol Valve - a nintet? nuntet? At the goal, we were awarded stickers, and then had burgers while watching the sun go down past the Statue of Liberty, Rainbow Bridge and Tokyo Tower:


As for Avril, she's in Tokyo promoting her album. She was on their live music programme this week, and wasn't half bad. She even learnt a few Japanese words to say to the fans, bless her.

*and I'm assuming the rest of the world.