Japan 2014

The GF and are planing a trip to Mecca, ahem I mean Japan, in the spring of 2014. SO EXCITING!!!!

We are looking for recommendations for anything - places to go, things to see, people to meet, places & things to eat, etc. I have a few things on the list, but ATM the schedule is wide ope. Of course I'd like to visit some knife makers, shops, areas, etc but not sure where they are located or in relation to other areas.

We are thinking of mid-April to early May for about 14-16 days.

Any advice is warmly welcome. Thanks much in advance! mpp

First stop: http://www.kappabashi.or.jp/en/index.html. Then on to Sakai City!

I'm so jealous. My girlfriend is of Japanese descent, so we really want to go there for a 2 or 3 week holiday in the near future. At the moment we don't have the funds as she is still working on her masters and doesn't have a full time job.

Don't worry...Japan has been around a long time. It'll still be there when you're ready. I was trying to get up to Motegi circuit this weekend for the Moto GP, but that ain't gonna happen.

ecchef said:

Don't worry...Japan has been around a long time. It'll still be there when you're ready. I was trying to get up to Motegi circuit this weekend for the Moto GP, but that ain't gonna happen.

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I know, I love the country . My father in law is over in Japan atm on invite of the Japanese government. Pretty official visit, but so nice for him to finally see the country of his father.

Too bad you missed Motegi, did you visit Suzuka for the F1, or isn't that your cup of tea?

Thanks for the link to Kappa Bashi!

The general plan is to get to Tokyo and explore there for a a few days - up t a week, and then venture out of the city and see other areas. So many, many things to see and do there, it's hard to decide.

We are contemplating making reservations at Jiro's, but since the movie came out I've heard here and there that one can find better sushi at much more reasonable prices. Has anyone we know here actually been to Jiro's?

So... now the GF is freaking out about the radiation from Fukushima. Now she doesn't want to go to Japan.

I've been reading reports about radiation showing up in tuna off the west coast of the US. I've read about estimations that radiation will start to show up on western NA continent in about three years from the incident - which will be next year. It's also pretty easy to find reports on food contamination, but I really don't know how accurate, current, or relative they are.

According to what she's finding, there's still radiation leaking, but it's not being talked about openly.

http://rt.com/news/fukushima-tepco-cleanup-tunnels-221/

http://rt.com/news/fukushima-record-radiation-leak-616/

http://ecowatch.com/2013/10/09/fukushima-radiation-safe-to-eat-fish/

To anyone who lives in Japan, or who has traveled there in the last two years since, what do you know about the safety of visiting Japan? How much of a concern is there to exposure?

You'd probably get more radiation from sitting out in the sun.

It isn't a big deal if you're in Tokyo. The diesel exhaust in Okinawa will probably kill ya quicker.

Certainly nothing to worry about

I did Kappanbashi today as the GF arrives tomorrow. some stores were closed for a holiday alas.

The plastic food is amazing but not cheap, i am still pondering if I am a plastic hamburger, fruit or ice cream sundae kind of guy!

One thing I noticed was that many of these shops really like European branded stuff: I was astonished at how many shops sold Henkels or Debuyer or Le Creuset. There was even a store that sold only Henkels and Staub. Speaking of Henkels, was amusing seeing Kramer in a Japanese knife store but both they and the Miyabi line are cheaper in the US than in Japan! also was funny seeing Forchner knives for sale at a fancy japanese knife shop.

I had fun walking around but didn't buy all that much.

I thought the knife stores in Kappanbashi were OK but I think Kiya in Nihonbashi has much more interesting stuff - although I suspect it is much more expensive when they are selling the same things. You aren't going to find a Shig in Kappanbashi but you sometimes can at Kiya for example. Of the knife stores in Kappanabshi, I enjoyed Tsubaya's knife store the most, and they had a guy who spoke quite good English but I didn't see any Guytos there that really caught my eye - they like every other shop had their own Swedish Steel private line for example but do I really need one of those?

(I asked the guy who spoke English and he said they were 58-59 HRC. For medium price knives I think my Hattori FH eats all the comparably priced knives I saw in Kappanbashi and in the 400-800 range, which was as high as the Guytos seemed to go in non damascas, I'm willing to bet my Devin ITK in AEB-L rules them all..)

Of course, I'm not into single bevel knives so a lot of what they had for sale passed me by of course..

One thing did catch my eye and so I bought it at Tsubaya today was an amazing bread knife/slicer by Misono which was a real bargain, as it cost 8800 yen or about $85, it's a 360!

I think it could eat the famed Gude bread knife for lunch: it's bigger, insanely sharp, made out of a 57-58 HRC steel and not the X50CrMo15 of the Gude - and cost a fraction of the Gude's price.

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I'm going to be going crazy at CCK in Hong Kong in a week or so and will report!