Capcom Bar/Design Festa 2012, Odaiba

I've gotten a bit behind on the updates, time has flown.  We've been here for almost two months now, and (I know this is getting repetitive) things are getting easier.

A couple of weeks ago we went to a video game-themed restaurant in Shinjuku, the Capcom bar.  It was really entertaining.  The food, the music, and even the staff interactions were all themed around video game references.  Some dishes were linked to a video game scene, and so if someone was served a particular dish, you'd suddenly be in the middle of a dramatic piece of theatre where everyone had to jump in and interact.  The staff were great, and very patient with our language skills, and after a bit we were able to participate with the best of them.

Photos HERE.

The food was great, and even with the theatre element, we were out of pocket about how much you would be for a nice meal out in Australia.  One of the memorable moments was when we ordered the Takoyaki roulette set, which are octopus balls where one of them is loaded up with a HEAP of wasabi.  They arrived about a minute before the first bit of audience participation started.  We each had a takoyaki, and within half a second I realised that I had grabbed the wasabi ball on my first try.  I coughed and spluttered for a while, just as a waiter came over and explained how to interact as the theatre started.  I didn't interact too successfully, I was too busy trying to refresh myself with my cocktail (a tequila shot does NOT help).

A couple of days after this, on the weekend, we went to Odaiba for the bi-annual Design Festa.  Jason had gone in November the previous year while I was at the JALT conference and said that we HAD to go, and that I would love it.  He was completely right.

The Design Festa runs over two days and is held at Tokyo Big Sight exhibition building.  The stalls, performances and food took up most of the building; two storeys and about 5 large exhibition halls, excluding the outside area where the bands played and the smokers hung out.  We spent pretty much the whole day wandering around the various stalls, taking photos, buying stuff and digging the ambience of the place.

A lot of the stalls had handmade things, like vinyl toys, magnets, pins, knitted and crochet toys, paintings, jewellery, and the list goes on.  We each bought some t-shirts, and I managed to score some home-spun yarn that was so pretty it made me irrationally excited.  I also seem to like frogs, given that I bought two crochet frog things, one was a hand puppet that we've named Bernie, and the other is a pouch that I've put all of my cross stitch and crochet tools into.

There was a lot of stuff that we were interested in but couldn't warrant paying what it was priced at, but that's how these shows go.  We were exhausted by the end, but we felt thoroughly cultured and happy.  I'm pretty sure we'll go back in November, given how much we enjoyed it this time around.

PHOTOS AND VIDEO

I'll try to update again soon, work has been keeping me super busy and I kind of collapse on the couch when I get home.  Jason starts his new job on Friday, yay!  Next week the students have a changed schedule because some of them have mid-term exams, so hopefully I will feel a little less tired during the week this week.

Until next time!