TOKYO, 21 June 2003 — Football and marketing phenomenon — and loving father — David Beckham declared Japan “amazing” yesterday as he unveiled a huge chocolate statue of himself and visited an elementary school.
“This is the third time I’ve been here in Japan, it gets more amazing every time I visit this country,” Beckham told an invited audience of mainly young female fans in a televised appearance to promote a major chocolate manufacturer. “I think the first time amazed me, the second time astonished me and the third time, I just ... I’m just lost for words,” said the football superstar.
Hugely popular here for his image as a loving husband and father, Beckham, dressed in a crumpled v-neck white tee shirt with “goal” emblazoned on the chest, then unveiled his even sweeter alter ego — a larger-than-lifesize chocolate statue of himself. “It looks absolutely amazing, I’m sure it tastes absolutely delicious,” he said.
Later, Beckham visited Kyobashi City Elementary School to receive pupils’ paintings of him. He also briefly kicked a ball in the playground with six boys after being presented with a bunch of red flowers by Haruka Takasaki who greeted him in flawless English. “Thank you, this is an amazing welcome for me,” Beckham said after giving the lucky girl a kiss on the cheek to the squeals of hundreds of onlookers who blocked the street beyond the playground’s chainlink fence and crowded every overlooking balcony and window.
“To come and see the children is the fun part of the trip for me. As a father I love my two sons and it’s beautiful for me to come and see children like you and I thank you all so much for the wonderful drawings,” Beckham said. While arguably football’s most image-conscious star, Beckham held up one of the children’s pictures of him to the cameras and declared himself delighted with all the youngsters’ efforts.
“They’re all just absolutely amazing,” he said. The 325 children, lined up in the schoolyard and given flowers to wave at the England captain, showed remarkable composure as the massed Japanese media trained their cameras on them, including from two helicopters overhead, and Beckham’s female Japanese fans went wild — again. Dressed in red England shirts with Beckham and the number seven printed on the back, finance company workers Kimiko Uchida, 30, and Shihoka Kurosawa, 32, had raced to the school after seeing their idol at the chocolate promotion, for which they had spent about 15 hours queuing since Thursday evening.
Beckham’s popstar wife Victoria had her own program, attending the opening of a jewelry store in the swanky Aoyama shopping district, where she was presented with a diamond bracelet worth two million yen.
Beckham went on to record a series of television appearances, which dominated the afternoon schedules of the major networks.
