Some outtakes from the Japan Times Licca chan story (see previous post).
If you are into Japanese character design, heinously cute stuff, and overloading on kawaii in general, the Tokyo Toy Show at Big Site will probably be up your street.
Like anything at Big Site, it is really overwhelming, it takes several hours just to see everything, and once you have, you are so exhausted you barely have the energy to make it home.
A tip -- you can ride the incredibly cool monorail (wait til it gets dark, and sit at the front). The views are sci-fi, and you get to see some of the best (or worst depending on your aesthetic sensibilities) modern architecture in Tokyo.
OR you can get a boat back to downtown Tokyo, which is also really fantastic. You can see the city slowly morph downtown, with its old school atmosphere, and you go past Tsukiji fish markets. You need to change at Hinode pier, but from there, try and get the Hotaluna boat (designed by manga artist Matsumoto Leiji)
Also went to the Koriyama Museum's Licca show, fabulous show with over 580 Liccas. You can easily see how fashion, beauty standards and society have changed in Japan over the years.
The exhibition also had a bunch of Licca collabs, such as Ariana Grande, Kumamon, Bear Brick, Denpagumi, Hello Kitty and so on.
