Today we awoke with a very strange smell in the living room, although all windows were closed. Apparently someone in our neighborhood was cooking something and the whole neighborhood could enjoy the smell. Normally we do not have something against Japanese cooking, but the smell of cooked greasy meat is not what you like to smell in the early morning on an empty stomach. Luckily the smell was gone after some time and we hoped this was an exception because of the weekend.

After breakfast we went to a store we read about on internet: IDC (International Design Center). It was near the Tokyo Dome who is very famous for the people who ever heard of conventions like Comiket. Of course the building is also used for other conventions. This time there was Design Festa. We had seen it in the papers but thought nothing of it until we saw some people dressed up. At first we encountered a pink Lolita and in the next train there was even a girl dressed in a sort of playing-card-costume. She clearly put some work in her costume. She wore a wig decorated with playing-cards and the dress had the same theme. She even found a matching bag and her face was painted with clover and checkers. It was a real shame I could not take a good picture of her, she got a call and was gone before we knew it. When arriving at the Kokusaitenjijo train station we had some difficulties finding the IDC, because it was somewere inside a building and was not clearly visible. Even the sign was hidden very well, until you are inside.

When we arrived we had no idea what to expect. We were greeted by 8 people, all dressed in nice suits. The woman at the desk asked if we had an appointment and what we were looking for. We did not have an appointment but that was clearly not a problem, she asked us to wait until our guide will arrive. Yes... you read this correct.. A GUIDE. We did not understand it at first but after we were on our way to the section for beds we saw that this place was HUGE! There were multiple floors and you clearly needed a guide to find the stuff you were looking for. Luckily the guide could talk English. We looked at many beds and there was so much to choose from it was very difficult. But we found what we were looking for and went to the next section: sofa's. We first looked at the leather section but soon discovered the Japanese taste was very different. We would call it furniture for old people. But of course they had so much more and soon we found what we were looking for. While looking for a couch we encountered something you would not expect. A man in the store was making a back-side of some exclusive chairs from the Akita prefecture. It was very funny to see him at work in the middle of the store. When we asked if it was okay to take a picture Dennis was allowed to do it himself! After we found a couch we took a quick look at dining tables, but soon we decided this was for another time. Chosing the bed and couch already took three hours and we forgot about lunch, so we were very tired and hungry. We went to a nearby pasta-restaurant and had some. After that we took the train and went to Ginza were we enjoyed the nice Christmas lights before we continued home.