Design Festa Tokyo

One of the highlights of my Japan trip was returning to Design Festa, a huge weekend event in Tokyo for art, craft and design.

It’s crammed full of hundreds of stalls with local designer makers selling their wares and, being Japan, it’s all ultra kawaii. Here’s a look at my favourite makers that I couldn’t resist buying from. All stall photos are by the makers or Design Festa.

My favourite stall was Shiho Hanko who was selling these adorable spoons. How could anyone possibly resist? She also has a range of stamps, brooches, badges and more and you can follow her on Instagram.

Meeting Mochi Usagi (the mascot for Niigata) was a highlight of my last visit so I was pleased to see there was a merch stall. The creator also has a new set of mochi cats characters, which are super cute.

The language barrier was no issue at Gunya Nyanko where I spent a good 5 minutes giggling with the stall owner over her bendy cats. You can use them as cable ties, to keep your earbuds in control or just to wrap around a pen (or finger!) and they come in all different colours and breeds. Watch the cute video too!

I was happy to see lots of cute bunnies at Design Festa, especially those of Fuwa Apa (fluffy apartment!). I could have bought everything.

Since the arrival of the postman is the highlight of my day, I loved these postal worker animal characters. The artist is Neyu but I can’t find them online.

And finally, teeny tiny sculptures on the top of pins by R Gallery! These were so amazing to look at – I wish there were more photos online.

You can see what I bought over at Asking For Trouble and here’s part 2 with more cute makers.