New York Japan Event on August 21st

Hello and Welcome to Nipponcraft.com,

I would  like to announce that Nipponcraft.com will participate in JAPAN BLOCK FAIR which will be held on August 21st (Sun.) on Madison Ave. (between 43rd and 44th street), NY, USA.

This is an one day street event where you can meet lots of Japanese unique culture, performance and foods and lots more. The official site is JBF.

We will showcase our products there and we will be giving campaign to those people who could register E-newsletter on our website.

We will bring in Noren-curtains, Tenugui cloth, Furoshiki wrapping cloth, Sensu folding fans, Tairyo-bata flag and much more directly from Japan. They are genuine traditional handmade products and may be hard to find these brands in USA.

Please visit our booth and have a look at our products.

We are looking forward to seeing New York people!

Hohzuki (winter cherry) bazaar season

In July, there are several Hohzuki (winter cherry) bazaars in Tokyo.
Hohzuki pot is sold like this:

Each pot is 2,500JPY

 wind ring bell sold separately

Most of the Hohzuki bazaars take places at shrines or temples and the biggest bazaar in Tokyo is the one at Sensoji temple at Asakusa. This year's bazaar was held on July 9th and 10th. There were about 120 Hohzuki shops and every shop sold a pot at 2,500 JPY for each. So, many same shops!

Some shop sold a bag of five pieces fruits at 500 JPY like this:

Traditionally, visiting the Sensoji temple on July 10th is believed to be lucky for many years and it is worth visiting and praying for 46,000 times.  Since many people gather to the temple on July 10th, I think many Hohzuki dealers got together for selling pots because the Hohzuki whose fruit is becoming big in July was used to be medical herb. This custom of selling Hohuzki became the tradition.

Vermilion red pieces but should be still green in July in nature

Buy the way, the tenugui cloth sold at our shop has the Hohzuki design:

Thank you!

Ikesu

Hello and Welcome to Nipponcraft.com,

It is getting very hot in Tokyo and the temperature is well over 30 degrees Celsius. Also it's very humid!
In this hot summer, I found globefishes swimming in a water tank in Shibuya, one of the largest shopping center in Tokyo.

This is not an aquarium.
As you see in the photo below, this water tank belongs to a restaurant that serves sake and fish dishes.

Yes, we eat globefishes in Japan! And they are relatively expensive.
The globefish has a poison and only the trained and certified chef is allowed to cook the fish.
The restaurant keeps these globefishes alive in the water tank and the chef takes one of them for cooking according to customer order.

The custom of keeping fishes alive in water tanks until cooked is quite common in Japan. This kind of water tank is called "Ikesu" (生簀) .

If you have a chance to visit Japan, please enjoy very fresh fishes preserved in Ikesu.

Thank you,
 - Ken