Visiting Japan

[rmhinden]

I will be in Japan starting next week for two weeks.  Kyoto and Tokyo.

Any suggestions for tool stores to visit?  Maybe get a set of chisels?  Other suggestions?

BTW, I found this site:  Places to buy Woodworking Tools in Japan

Bob

 

[woodbutcherbower]

Be sure to make airline staff aware that you have chisels or anything else sharp. It's very likely that they will insist that they keep them until you land. I once came close to getting arrested at Bangkok airport because the security scan showed that I'd got a kukri (a type of short Gurkha machete) in my suitcase. I'd bought is as a souvenir in Thailand because of its exquisite hand-tooled leather scabbard. I still have it.

 

[Packard]

The only thing I can tell you about visiting Japan is what my sister told after her many visits to that country:  Nothing at all.

You would think that she would come home with anecdotes and stories.  Instead she apparently delivered her lectures, ate dinner and slept in the hotel.  I found that very interesting.  Visit a foreign country nearly 7,000 miles away and there is nothing interesting to tell when she got home.

 

[Michael Kellough]

I will be in Japan starting next week for two weeks.  Kyoto and Tokyo.

Any suggestions for tool stores to visit?  Maybe get a set of chisels?  Other suggestions?

BTW, I found this site:  Places to buy Woodworking Tools in Japan

Bob

The list at your link is fantastic! Wish I’d had that.

The only place to on the list I’ve been to is Hands at Shibuya. It was still Tokyo Hands when I visited. The Shibuya location is supposed to be the most comprehensive but there is a store in Kyoto if you don’t have time in the capital.

 

[onocoffee]

I've been to Japan a lot - Tokyo mostly. But the last time I was there was before I really got into woodworking. And since my business is coffee, I spend a lot of my time there either visiting coffee spots or hanging out with friends.

But, as Michael said, Tokyu Hands is a great place to visit. It's essentially a home goods store with all sorts of interesting stuff. They do have a tool section and that's where I've gotten all of my metric tape measures. It's really great and there are a couple of locations across Tokyo, making it a bit convenient from wherever you are staying. I've recently been shopping at the Ginza location but mainly because I've been staying in the Ginza/Shimbashi area lately.

I do like a place called Kanaya Brush in Asakusa. This is a shop that specializes in brushes. Hand made brushes. Boars brushes. Brushes of all kinds. Brushes you must have that you didn't know you needed until this very moment. Their boars bristle toothbrush is one of my favorites.

If you like kitchen tools and knives, there's another place in Asakusa called Kappabashi Dori (street) that is lined with all sorts of kitchen tools, servicewear and the like. It's my heaven.

The website you shared looks to have some great recommendations. And if you search on YouTube there's some videos from people who go to tool shops there - evidently, the Japanese have a measuring system that predates the western metric and imperial systems. And there are still craftspeople today who will utilize this measuring system over the rest. Fascinating.

And if you search under used power tools japan, there's some massive-looking shop that has all kinds of power tools, used power tools, tools of all sorts. Can't remember the name at the moment but I want to go there next visit.

 

[rst]

I’ve watched various You tube vids of people in Japan visiting tool stores and craftspeople. One of the best is the New Zealand Kiwi carpenter that posts regularly, sorry, I can’t remember the name

 

[bertv]

I’ve watched various You tube vids of people in Japan visiting tool stores and craftspeople. One of the best is the New Zealand Kiwi carpenter that posts regularly, sorry, I can’t remember the name

Scott Brown Carpentry.

 

[rmhinden]

Back from Japan.  I visited Inoue Hamono  合名会社井上刃物 twice.  It was relatively close to where I was staying.

It was very nice, they were very helpful, the person I dealt with (owners son, I think) spoke excellent english. 

I ended up getting four bench chisels, three mortice chisels, chamfer plane, head for a hammer, and a tool to set the rings on the chisels. 

[attachimg=1][attachimg=2]

I spent way too much money, but they are very nice.  Don't ask

Now I need to make a handle for the hammer, set the rings on the chisels, and sharpen the chisels and plane blade.  More than just buying tools, I get a few nice projects.

Bob

 

[onocoffee]

Looks like some great finds. At least the exchange rate is in your favor. There was a time when it was simple math of $100 per 10,000yen!

 

[rmhinden]

Yea, is now about 150 YEN to USD.  Plus I brought my passport and didn't have to pay the tax.

Bob

 

[Michael Kellough]

Looks like some great finds. At least the exchange rate is in your favor. There was a time when it was simple math of $100 per 10,000yen!

I was there then!

1972, celebrated my 20th birthday with a beer and Kobe beef dinner at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. I thought it was cool that I could buy a beer there since I was still too young to buy a beer in the States. I chose a Kirin beer because the can looked interesting.

Thanks to my father being employed by Pan Am (they had a US military contract to make portable missile launchers and my Dad’s resume included helping to design the Saturn V launch pad) I was able to fly round trip from Orlando, Florida to Tokyo for $115. Pan Am also offered a tour package which I got the itinerary for but chose not to buy. I did sync up with the group a couple times over the next two weeks but mostly went to all the stops on my own.

At my end of the economy the fact that $1 bought ¥100 was what led me there to buy my first photography kit, a Nikkormat FTN and several Nikkor lenses. Started using the camera right away and at the end of the first roll of film I broke the film advance crank arm. It was the first 35mm camera I’d used and the instruction manual was in Japanese. Luckily I was in Osaka so I took the camera to the Nikon office and the next day went back to pick-up the repaired camera and get some much needed personal instructions.

I thought I should get a camera as an aid for fine art painting. I’d just decided to enter the BFA program at FSU. The only woodworking I had done by then was whittling. Ended up with a both BFA and MFA and never took a painting class but while working on the MFA was accepted in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program which took me to NYC for good.

Ten years after that first trip I was saving money to return to Japan with my girlfriend when I found out the boarded up house I walked past to get to the Staten Island Ferry every day could be bought for $10,000. In 29 days I owned that wreck of a house and decided to learn woodworking and everything else it took to gut and restore it. At the financial rate a fine art worker bee could afford it took decades but I did get back to Japan four more times while helping Walter De Maria with his sculpture projects.

And that’s the brief history me.

 

[RonMiller]

Fascinating, Michael. Thanks for sharing.