Maid in Japan

Today we headed to the Tokyo Convention Centre for the 2008 Tokyo International Art Fair. We were lucky enough to be sent free tickets by the organisers which we greatly appreciated. The art fair showcased artists mainly from Japan but also a handful from America, Canada and India. The highlight for me was a chrome hammerhead shark about 80cm in length decorated with sponsor ads like a Formula 1 car. PChii's highlight was a display of ceramic lotus blossoms and leaves in a large 2m x 2m glass case. The artist told us the glass was thick and invited her to walk around on it. We saw many forms of art, however the majority was drawn/painted. We enjoyed the variety of works but there were some that were just plain disturbing. It took around 3 hours to make our way through the entire exhibition.

It was a Saturday and we had heard that the weekends are the best times to see the cosplayers in the streets of Harajuku and Akihabara. So we caught a train to Akihabara... where we spent the next 6 hours in search of cosplayers. We failed miserably. However we did visit a maid cafe for lunch which was very cute and very enjoyable.. up till the point where a group of business men sat at a table behind us and all lit up cigarettes. The cafe was small and enclosed and the smoke was awful. I would have to say that is the worst thing about Japan. So many people still smoke and places that have no smoking sections are not even worth it as they are usually just 2m away from the smoking section. Maybe one day smoking will be illegal and the world will be a better place for it.