The Tokyo Dome Tableware Festival is a big deal. Vendors from all over Japan gather here to display and sell their products. If there is something used in the kitchen or in the dinning room it will be here. The Festival was cancelled for the last 3 years because of concerns about COVID. Luckily for us the Festival is back this year: January 27th - February 5, 2023.
We arrived at a train station just on the edge of the Tokyo Dome complex. As we crossed the street in front of us on the right is the Dome complex city hall, and on the left is a Dome Hotel. The complex is really quite big.
A ticket to enter cost 2500 yen. We were very fortunate to have received free tickets from two of the vendors.
After passing through security we headed to the coin lockers to stow our backpacks and winter coats. The temperature in the Dome is quite warm and the last thing you want to do is wear or carry a coat. Also, it's not a good idea to wear a backpack. It gets crowded at the vendor booths and a backpack could get in the way and possibly bump into some chinaware and knock it over (very bad!).
Working our way down to the vendor booths. The dome is huge. They play baseball games here and there are Rock Concerts too! We saw Paul McCartney perform here quite a few years ago.
This place is so big they give you a map to show you where each vendor is located. We're looking for a vendor named Keisho and another named Kakusho. They're our favorites and they are the ones that gave us our free tickets.
After wandering around trying to read the map we finally found the Keisho booth. Emi is checking out their products.
Everything they make is beautiful and expensive too!
Their shop is in a small village of Mikawachi on Kyushu island. Mikawachi ware is famous for it's pure white porcelin and blue color patterns.
Here's Emi posing with the Keisho couple. They are so talented and friendly.
Next up, we move to the Kakusho booth.
The Kakusho ceramics are also from Mikawachi and also expensive!
Very beautiful stuff!
Mr. Kakusho standing back in the corner of his booth.
A sake serving set.
Emi posing with Mr. Kakusho. He's also a talented and friendly man.
After buying a few things from Keisho and Kakusho, we walked around and visited as many booths as we could handle.
It takes a lot of energy to visit all the booths.
Everything is beautiful. Many things are very affordable. You can shop until you drop.
We finally dropped! It was almost noon and we went to the seating area for eating and drinking. We ate sandwiches we made at home that morning. Box lunches can also be purchased in the Dome. This is the view from where we sat to eat.
After we finished our lunch we took one look back before we picked up our things from the coin locker and headed home.
Thanks for stopping by!
Mike
Bonus shots!
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