A few streets west of Asakusa’s famous temples, there is a shopping district where professional chefs, restaurant owners and curious travellers browse shelves of Japanese knives, handmade ceramics, copper pans and astonishingly realistic plastic food. This is Kappabashi, Tokyo’s famous Kitchen Town. Unlike the shopping streets of Shibuya or Ginza, Kappabashi is not primarily about … Read more
You don’t need to travel very far in Tokyo to buy a Japanese kitchen knife. You do need to decide what kind of buying experience you want. That’s the part most guides miss. If you simply search “Japanese knife shop Tokyo,” you’ll find dozens of stores, many selling what appear to be broadly similar santoku … Read more
Buying a Japanese knife in Kappabashi sounds simple until you actually arrive. There are knives everywhere. Whole walls of them. Santoku, gyuto, bunka, petty knives, carbon steel, stainless steel, Damascus finishes, traditional single-bevel blades, handmade handles and prices that can move from perfectly reasonable to mildly alarming within the space of a few metres. The … Read more
Kappabashi doesn’t have a shortage of knife shops. Walk north from Asakusa and you’ll pass windows filled with gyuto, santoku, deba and yanagiba, some from businesses that have been selling kitchen tools for generations. For anyone who has arrived in Tokyo determined to take home a Japanese knife, the choice can become overwhelming surprisingly quickly. … Read more
Tokyo can make buying a watch dangerously easy. Walk through Ginza and you can move from Grand Seiko to Rolex and several of the world’s major Swiss brands without leaving a few city blocks. Take the train west to Nakano and the experience changes completely. Instead of polished single-brand boutiques, you’re standing in front of … Read more