#Wreninjapan

 Left to right: Bridget from Cowgirl Blues, Megumi from Philotrade and myself.

Giftex Tokyo, Japan. Situated in Hall 5 there was a tiny space filled with the incredible creativity of South African designers: Cowgirlblues, Ikaya Elite, Mors, Deep Settle Movement, A Love Supreme, Setta, Kwena Products, Leratolethato and Babatunde. One of my favourite parts of travelling abroad is getting to know the other  design companies and their creators. When one is “at home” and working one never takes the time out to chat about business challenges and get to know the people behind the brands. It was great to meet everybody!

Philotrade joined me on the stand assisting with business communication. The business culture and buying values in Japan are very different to that which I was used to and it was incredibly valuable to have Megumi there. Thank you.

A big thank you to Wesgro and Nadine for the incredible opportunity to introduce Wren and discover Japan.

During the trip I posted to Instagram and over the next few weeks I will feature more pictures from the trip. To follow click here.

I have never travelled East. Going to Japan was going to be a first so it made sense to take a few extra days to discover the city. Bridget joined me as we packed my Wren backpack and headed for the Nikko Mountains (top row) for some time out of the city in nature; Joined by Raihana and Jacobus on the red bus tour through the city (Tokyo is incomprehensibly large the only way to orientate myself was to get some height to to travel the main routes to get the feel of the various areas) (middle row); and my favourite day had to be my last day visiting the Fish Market and walking the streets of Yanaka filled with small shops and taking in the less busy areas of Tokyo. The more time I spent in Tokyo the more I began to like Japan and find my feet becuase it is very different to any other city or country I have ever visited!