Yesterday I went down to Tokyo Big Sight with Mai, the talented J-List employee who keeps our site stocked with bento boxes and accessories and Sailor Moon products. We were there to attend the Tokyo Gift Show, a convention in which companies selling everything from fashion and clothing to plush toys to health products display their wares to retailers like us. With over 2000 sellers, there was a lot to see, and some of the most popular categories included extremely cute socks, items related to Mt. Fuji (since Japan is having a “Fuji-san boom” now) as well as products to help older Japanese like “pen-type” reading glasses. Japan is big on promoting its 地方 chiho, or various regions, and I was able to sample many interesting foods and wines from all corners of the country. There were also pavilions in which companies from different countries promoted their various products, including Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and New Zealand. The event was held at the same venue as the famous Comiket doujinshi direct sales event, but it was of course a very different crowd, with no cosplay babes to be seen anywhere.
The Tokyo Gift Show’s official logo is pretty cool.
