The Shizuoka Hobby Fair, with a display of an 18-meter-tall ‘‘life-size’’ statue of the Gundam robot from the popular animation series, surpassed one million visitors on Saturday. The tally exceeded the expectations of the organizer, the Shizuoka city government, who thought 900,000 people would visit the event during its eight-month period through next March.
Shizuoka Mayor Zenkichi Kojima welcomed a family of four from Iwata, Shizuoka Prefecture, who set the number over the one million mark at around 1:30 p.m. and gave them Gundam plastic models as commemorative gifts.