Design Festa

Well, hello again.
I've just spent a wonderful day exploring the many delights of Design Festa which, as you can see from the link, is a huge exhibition of mostly youthful Japanese talent, showing us their latest creations. The groovy combo on the right was made by Miyu (my wife), who together with Chihiro and Saki-chan, form cou-rah-gae, their fashion company.
It was't a great day for them, as they didn't sell much, but it's another step toward greatness, I hope!
Walking around the huge Tokyo Big Sight , it was staggering how many people were there, both as exhibitors and spectators. Also, the atmosphere was very ralaxed and laid back, with people talking to absolute strangers and chilling out on a pleasant Sunday.
Joining me today were two relatively new friends, Guillaume and Jason, and Christine, and old friend.
As we munched through a delicious chicken curry lunch, Christine and I found ourselves agreeing on how wonderful it is to have one of those days, where you had no work, no pressing engagements and where you could while away the day writing, doing photos, watching a movie and reading. I had just such a day yesterday. For the first couple of hours of the day, I found myself feeling slightly agitated, and thinking there had to be something to do, or there was something I had forgotten to do. After realising there wasn't, I settled in to a glorious day of doing the things I love- reading, writing, watching a film and going for a walk. It felt so refreshing, and it made me ralize I hadn't done anything like it for years! Yes, you read that right - YEARS!
So anyway, back to the Festa. Although Christine had to dash off to meet friends, G, J and I wandered around the various stalls and chatted about this and that.
G is French and he's just arrived in Tokyo, working for a French mobile company.
J is American and has been in Japan for 5 years, teaching English.
Both are excellent company. Reflective and self deprecating, but knowing themselves and being confident in what they do.
I always feel lucky to meet people like them, and we're hopefully going to go clubbing together soon, probably to go see Deep Dish play at either Air or Ageha - two of my favorite clubs here in Tokyo.
Along for the ride should be Little John, who was supposed to turn-up today but got "side tracked" (something that he's been doing an awful lot of recently). I think he's been hanging out with Boo and Charlie a bit too much recently, and both of them tend to be a bit wild!