cow parade

coming out of one of tokyo's main stations we saw a brightly painted fibre glass cow standing on a street corner - we naturally thought that there must have been a branch of the swiss market cafe movenpick around as the ones in singapore have similar bovine statues adorning their entrances



but there was no movenpick to be seen - then as we turned the corner we saw another - this one in fishnets and suspenders - and then we stopped to read the sign underneath : "cow parade"




cow parade is the biggest public art event in the world and since it started in switzerland in 1998, has been hosted in london, paris, new york and three times in tokyo - the white fibre-glass bodies of the cows are used as canvases for local artists to paint images on - colourful, amusing and surreal, particularly as there are seventy- three of them placed around the marunouchi district - turn a corner and who knows what you will find next...



and after this, many of the cows are auctioned off for charity