Excentric Japanese tastes... take 3; the Design Festa again

Ah yes, this is now take three for us at the bi-annual Tokyo Design Fest. Just a reminder from previous blogs, this is a HUGE craft fair targeted towards what is eccentric and unique in Japan. It is like any Christmas craft fair you go to... only on steroids, with wackier, stranger, more unique and just plain more of anything that you may have experienced. To add to the experience there are 100,000 people who drop by each day! Every year we are amazed by the novelty and the eccentric offerings so here are some of our discoveries this year:

So lets start our journey by the main entrance performances to set the tone:

Here is the "Draft Beer" song and dance; yes each one of those hats is a "glass of draft beer"!

Ah yes, the "Chicken dance" perhaps because this is the year of the chicken... and are these chickens? 

Products ranged from the HUGE paintings being painted in front of our eyes:

Beautiful sand portraits being created as we watched:

(the model is standing in front of the booth)

To the tiny... pencils in a jar; and yes they write!

The tiny characters bundled up for winter carved out of wood:

Made as fridge magnets...

From the seemingly edible:

Pancake and strawberry eclair plastic pins for your hair...

Actual bread loaves wired for lighting....

And dry pasta presented in a glass case as an art piece.

There was the religious (Mother Mary out of pink wax with gold stars to melt down):

The religious/morbid with caskets for dolls:

And skeletal dolls that fit in the caskets:

Then of course there was the full on morbid and strange:

Every year there is a whole series of stalls selling things you never knew you needed for your bathroom starting with a unique and special sticker... of a toilet;

Special toilet paper roll characters featured on hand-bags and t-shirts:

A toilet paper "porch" (more likely a pouch????)

And last but definitely not least, the perfect toilet paper roll cover which features a unique toilet paper character... ah yes; I bet YOU don't have one of these!

This is just a small sampling of the huge range of things at this Festa. 

To finish off I also want to celebrate the creative people at this event who add that extra touch of character... and hopefully are the ones buying these things!

Once again, greetings from Design Festa number 3 for us, here in Tokyo!