Ayame flowers in June

Hello and Welcome to Nipponcraft.com,

In this season in Japan, beautiful flowers of Ayame (Iris) bloom in June. This is one of the flowers I like best. The color of flowers is purple (I like purple flowers!) with the height of 40cm to 60cm, and they look like this:

Typical Japanese flower in June

Large botanical garden in Katori-city


On of the suitable place I recommend  for appreciating Ayame flowers is located at a park in Katori city, approximately 100km east of Tokyo. The park is called Suigo-Sahara botanical garden.
The reasons of my recommendation is that it is not so far from Tokyo and that the garden is large and full of Ayame flowers. And if you are lucky enough, you will have a chance to see Japanese traditional wedding ceremony held inside of the garden.
The park is located quite close to Kasumigaura-lake, the largest lake in Japan. For better understanding, it is not far from Narita International Airport.
To visit here, you can take trains (JR line) from Tokyo to get off Katori station and then take a city bus.  Actually driving a car is of easier access.

I found the park guide in English at:
http://www.katorishi.com/place/en-s_suisei.html
The original Japanese written guide is at:
http://www.city.katori.lg.jp/suisei-syokubutsuen/index.html

The garden is so large that you need about an hour to look around. There are many pavements going through flower gardens and you can enjoy the flowers .
The park used to be open until night but it now looks like closing at 18:00.

Ayame festival in Suigo-Sahara botanical garden

Katori-city is famous for preserving traditional scenery - the city is enthusiastic for preserving old houses, old bridges and old trees. This is also one of the reasons of my recommendation for visiting.

Traditional houses preserved

Another famous point of this city is that a man named Inou Tadataka once lived in this city. He was the first man to complete the accurate coastline map of Japan. He walked along the coast line and completed the map by spending 17 years.


Inou Tadataka (1745-1818 AD)


The official tour guide is located at http://www.katorishi.com/en/index.html in English . If you click the menus in the left side, you can see various scenes in this city. I am not sure if this city is accounted in Lonely Planet Guide of Japan but I would recommend you to visit here to feel old style of Japanese taste.

Thank you,
- Ken

Kappa-bashi street and Ameyoko-street in Tokyo

Hell and Welcome to Nipponcraft,

Today, I went to Kappa-bashi street, wholesale district of kitchenware and knives, just to look for a kettle. Today, lots of kitchenware sold in Japan are made in either China or Korea. They are cheap, but I feel a little of anxiety of quality against them, so I visited this wholesale district to get one at cheaper price. While wholesale is welcome, retail is still welcome at most of the shops.


Signboard indicating Kappa-bashi street

 The street is approximately one kilometer long and you can find hundreds of shops specializing in kitchenware at the both sides of street. Kappa-bashi street is located at north east side of Tokyo, near Ueno station terminal (one of the huge terminal stations). You can get there by taking Hibiya subway line and getting off at Iriya station. Then, you need to walk about 500m from the station.


Hundreds of wholesalers along the street

 While walking the street, you can find food sample wholesalers. In Japan, all the restaurants display food samples made of plastic to show how the menus look like. I hear many visitors from abroad gaze these sample at curiosity.

Sushi food sample sold at 1,000 Yen for a piece

Amazing! Dessert and fruit sample!

From Kappa-bashi street, I walked to the west to visit Ameyoko-streets. These streets are quite famous in Tokyo for looking for cheap things. In this area, shops look disorderly. Ameyoko-streets are more like Hong Kong or South East Asia. This area was used to be a black market just after the second world war, and now you can find lots of cloth shops, shoes shops, watch and jewelry shops.


Ameyoko-street at Ueno; shops, shops and shops!



Shops even under the train railway, disorder shops

While walking the street, you can find fish stores. Fishes are displayed outside! It's unique in Japan!



Raw fishes displayed outside!



Fish market, daily scene in Japan

 If you have a chance, please come and visit these areas and please enjoy the unique culture. 

Thank you,
- Ken
nipponcraft

Chusen-zome Tenugui

Tenugui at our shop is hand-dyed by Chusen-Zome technique. Chusen means to pour dyeing material onto cloth and Zome means to dye.

This tenugui factory is run by a family called Nakagawa-san and is located in Utsunomiya city approximately 100km north of Tokyo. The factory lasting for over 100 years is not so modern or neat, but the family is keeping the spirits of hand-dyeing tenugui.

This snapshot shows an old lady at the factory pouring dyeing material onto tenugui.
We drove a car to the factory to take photos.

This is another snapshot of an old man preparing for dyeing cloth.












All tenugui is hand-dyed and produced one-by-one. The design of tenugui has a stock from ancient Ukiyo-e pictures to contemporary style. The tenugui has a variety of usage such as home decor, head towel, hotel towel,  handkerchief, dust cover and more. What is good about tenugui is that it so thin that it dries very quickly.

Ukiyo-e design tenugui

Thank you,
- Ken
http://www.nipponcraft.com/

Roketsu-Zome (batik)

Hello and Welcome to NipponCraft.com,

Noren curtains at our shop are dyed by the technique called Roketsu-Zome (meaning batik). This Noren craftsman has been keeping Roketsu-Zome sprits since 1963 when he opened up his own Noren studio.  He is one of the few craftsmen who hold this technique in Japan.

The Roketsu-Zome is a wax resist textile dyeing technique and needs over 20 steps before completion. The craftsman and his apprentice (son) produce the Noren curtains one by one, by going through all the steps. They are proud of the technique and producing excellent goods. The beauty of cracks of batik is excellent.

They allowed me to take photos inside the dyeing factory in Kyoto. Actually the factory is not very large and does not look so clean, but I felt lots of traditional spirits for producing excellent products. These factories are fading away in Japan and are replaced by modern ones, but what we need to keep in mind is that we cannot get it back when it is faded away.



Kanbayashi-san keeping Roketsu-Zome spirits

  Thank you,
- Ken
http://www.nipponcraft.com/

Slide show updated

Hello and Welcome to nipponcraft.com,

We have updated the slide show on the top page of our website to match the spring to early summer season. These pictures are taken at Kyoto, Nara, Osaka and Yamanashi. Please enjoy the virtual tour.

From the slide show, I introduce the tour cart today. In the past, these types of carts were prevalent in Japan and many people used as transportation within a city. However, these carts are utilized only as tourism nowadays.

This tour cart (driven by a young man) is called  "Jinriki-sha".  This cart will take you around Kyoto with the charge of 2,000 yen per 10 minutes (approximately 1km ) per person.

When you have a ride, it looks like this phot from the passenger seat.







You can find these tour carts at various places in Kyoto and they are waiting for you just like taxi. This company has a branches in Kamakura and Asakusa (Tokyo).

Thank you,
- Ken
http://www.nipponcraft.com/

May 5th Boys Day

Hello and Welcome to nipponcraft.com,

Let me introduce Boys' Day.
Today is Boys' Day in Japan and a holiday for wishing boys' healthy growth and promotion in future.
The families who have sons celebrate this day by displaying such dolls (armor) as shown in the photo at home.

Armor for wishing Boys Day

Besides displaying a doll, it is Japan's custom to eat rice cakes called Kashiwa-mochi (柏餅) on Boys Day. This rice cake bean jam inside is wrapped by oak's leaf. The oak leaves will not fall down until new ones come out, so it has been considered as a symbol of family's continuing prosperity.

Kashiwa-mochi rice cakes, typically 1,5 USD or 1,0 Euro per piece

Outside of home, it is Japan's old custom to display cotton-made or nylon-made carps on Boys Day, because carps are the symbol of strength and promotion in society.

Photo taken at Yamanashi Prefecture

Thank you,
- Ken, President
http://www.nipponcraft.com/

Flying Carps

Hello and Welcome to Nipponcraft.com,

May 5th is Boys' Day in Japan, wishing boys' promotion in  future. As Boys' Day is drawing near, families who have boys and communities are setting up "flying carps" (Koinobori) as a celebration and custom. Carps  are the symbol of strength and promotion in Japan. In this season, you can see lots of carps decoration outside of houses.


I took the above photo in Hokuto-city in Yamanashi prefecture, 100 miles west of Tokyo. Officially, it is announced that the city set up 450 carps bundled in wires for Boys' Day celebration. These carps are made of nylon. They look as if swimming in the sky as winds blow.

How to get there: Drive through Chuo-do highway from Tokyo and get off the highway at Sudama interchange. Drive along route 141 up north about 20 minutes to find Mimani-Kiyosato drivers' station. This is where I took the photos.

Thank you,
- Ken, President
http://www.nipponcraft.com/