Japan Hobby Show

Today I ventured into Tokyo for the hobby show. I think I should have taken my cue this morning, and just stayed home. When I got to our quiet, little train station, I was greeted by this:

This is not right. There are usually never more than a dozen people waiting for a train. This is the SECOND stop on the line and the train is already full! I let two trains go before venturing on and squeezing in. Needless to say, this was a definitely a sign for I didn't get to my destination until THREE hours later! This is a trip that should have taken no more than 90 minutes. Even on the express, we went no where. Got to hand it t0 the Japanese though, they are some of the most patient people. Not a single grumbling, no complaining. Everyone just stood in their place and waited. . . and waited. . . and waited. Note to self, don't try to go to Tokyo when the JR line isn't running. Not that I would have known this since I don't understand the Japanese messages.
At any rate, I got to the convention center at noon, The Tokyo Big Sight. Once I got on the monorail, it was a rather nice trip--at least we kept moving. The architecture out here is really cool, too bad it was raining.

The show was huge, three halls of exhibits covering all crafting aspects. There were a lot of knitting booths, sewing, decorative foods, some paper crafting. Ace Hardware was there, their Japanese division. Dremel, Brother, Wilton. As far as paper crafting, there were a few scrapping booths and a couple stamping. Tsukineko was there and I got some new ink pads, including the new Versamark Dazzle. Can't wait to see how it works. The samples they had were rather nice.

My Goods. I was very good.

In addition to the knitters, there were quite a few quilting booths and some clothes design. I saw this booth and was intrigued, but didn't understand. The "fabric" almost felt like a washed fabric softener. But, the dresses were pretty.

I had a good time and ran into some other Americans, including a fellow TAC demo. It would have been better to have gone with a friend though, especially one who spoke Japanese. I spent about two hours browsing around, but after the long train ride in and walking around, I was ready for some food. I also didn't want to wait too long to get back in case the trains were still out of whack. That wasn't a worry though, I made it home in about an hour.