adidas’ “Sky Comic Project” is the project to cheer up Samurai Blue (Japan’s National Soccer Team) toward 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa.
The supporters paint and write messages on rough sketches of huge cartoons in green areas!
The photos of the huge cartoons are taken from the skies!
And then, the photos are uploaded on
the special site (www.adidas.co.jp/JFA).
The place I visited this time was Toko Gakuen in Kawasaki-city, Kanagawa prefecture.

The school where Shunsuke Nakamura graduated.
Guess how big the cartoons are…
As big as 25-meter pool!!
Standing on the ground I took the picture…

It’s so huge that Samurai Blue members flying to South Africa can recognize it even from the airplane.
I went up to the catwalk to take the whole picture.

The light blue areas will be painted in blue.
After 30 minutes…
Almost done.
I went down the stairs to join.
Scary…

I successfully got down to the ground somehow.
I found Shimizu of Creative Team painting in silence.

He was seriously painting in a posture of crouch start.
Behind him, Tanaka of Creative Team was painting furiously.

Don’t hurt your back…
He was trying to flatten the paint to dry it quickly.
Let me help you!
While I was absorbed in painting I found Nisawadaira of Creative Team squatting down in front of me.

He was in the middle of the painted picture, painting like an expert.
The blue painting completed.
I can feel Shunsuke Nakamura’s fighting spirit in his eyes.
Next, write messages to the players.

Children,

Girls

and Shunsuke’s juniors.
Lots of enthusiastic messages.
Here is the message that touched my heart.
↓

The combination of Hiragana and Katakana.
The ball bigger than the goal.
Probably, the message was written from Shunsuke’s point of view.
I can imagine a scene he makes a shot on goal by his left foot.
There are only 25 days left till FIFA World Cup South Africa!
And there are only 10 days left till the members of Samurai Blue leave for South Africa!
On the departure date (Wednesday, May 26), all the “Sky Comic” cartoons will be displayed for the members to see from the skies right above Haneda Airport.

In addition, the painted huge cartoons with messages will be uploaded sequentially on
the website (http://adidas-skycomic.jp/).
Please check it out!
(Oda)