Japan Brickfest

We’ve been busy living it seems. Between Lori starting a new (several) jobs, Zachary being in 3rd grade and getting a lot of homework, and my work staying busy, we haven’t seemed to have had a lot of time to explore like they way we were doing before. One of the things Lori and I made a priority when we planning moving here was that work was going to be secondary, and a necessity to pay the bills, and the most important thing was adventures.

I noticed it most when looking at our shared calendar (you share a calendar with your spouse, right??!) And my days off somehow became full of stuff I didn’t really want to do. I realized it’s easy to get jaded, do your scheduled days at work, then just come home to rest (“Goro Goro” as my coworkers call it, which is apparently a rock, rolling).

Lori seemed to have sensed it too, and thankfully snapped us out if it by finding a coffee shop a few stops away that was having a clothing donation drive for kids. I have to admit it wasn’t high on my list of things to do on my day off, but let’s just say I was convinced.

We get to this place, and it was the most English I’ve heard spoken in a while when not at work. On the menu is Poutine, and Pear Gorgonzola sandwiches, etc.. We meet one of the owners and he’s really friendly (and turns out he’s Canadian so go figure).

After a really nice chat and meeting some new friends, he tells us about Brickfest in Kobe, a fan-run LEGO extravaganza for one weekend only. So we made a plan to go. Lori had to work so its was just the boys.

So, the boys and I hop on the train to Kobe, specifically Rokko Island in Kobe. After a transfer to the train that takes us to the island, the kids were lucky to get front row seats on the automated monorail. Thankfully for all on board, no controls were present and in reach of Jack.

Turns out this place is being held at the Canadian Academy, in Kobe, so I’m immediately beginning to suspect the politeness and ulterior motives of our former coffee house hosts.  A nice trip across the water to Rokko Island – making note of that water park that I’m not sure why isn’t in use already.

We get in, and start to see the scale of what’s there, 3 gymnasiums full of some of the most amazing LEGO builds I’ve ever seen.

From here on this post will get image heavy, I took a few hundred pics, and you’re gonna have to sit through every single one of em (Actually I’ll post some of the best ones here, but at the end will be a link to the whole album).

There were only a few kits built from retail sets, the vast majority were all custom-built creations. If I had dreams of quitting my job and becoming a master builder, this show has effectively smashed that in to the rocks.

There were plenty of ships and boats:

Airplanes:

Cars (And a few famous motorcycles)

This intricate steam punk…  stuff?

Quite a bit of trains, and these were pretty incredible.  There was one that has movable tracks, all remote controlled, and amazingly detailed

Sadly though, no robots!  Oh, my mistake – there were several thousand of them.  All shapes, all sizes, and all custom made creations by some extremely talented people

These were all amazing and inspiring, but one display instantly made me an 8 year old kid again – The classic Lego Space sets – I had several of them and always fight the urge to get on eBay and reacquaint myself with them.

Everything was so amazing at this show, if you enjoy Lego, check it out next time.

See you on the next adventure!