The young woman seated in front of McDonald's, her massive haunches spread wide underneath her, looks at first glance like a cautionary tale on the perils of fast food. It would have taken a McBreakfast, a McLunch and a McDinner every day from birth to get her this big -- all of them super-size, just as she is.
She looks too enormous to stand -- and, in fact, it takes a crane to lift her.
Yet in this country that -- like few others -- fetishizes the superskinny, admirers have gathered around this ample young woman. Some are taking photographs, others reach out to touch her. She's a monumental sculpture in bronze by Colombian artist Fernando Botero, and 19 others like her dot the open plaza of Yebisu Garden Place, Tokyo, in a four-month-long celebration of the artist's work.