Japan Sword Co., Ltd.
Yesterday I took the subway to Toranomon and walked three blocks to Japan Sword. Jen had seen an advertisement for this company in a Tokyo English language newspaper. The store might also be considered a museum, since there are many blades on display (yari, tachi, katana, shoto and tanto) dating back to the 16th century. There's also several complete suits of armour, helmets, menpo, and various original sword fittings. There were old blades going for upwards of $90,000.00. A blade by a recently deceased smith was listed at $78,000.00.
I had a good conversation with Hyato Sekine, one of the store clerks, who spoke English. His service and patience was outstanding.
I bought Brian a modern iron tsuba (sword guard) in a nice presentation box made of wood.
This morning Jen didn't have to go to work until later, so we went down together first thing to look around again. They also sell cutlery (meat carving sets, table settings, etc.). While we were there a Western mom and her kids were visiting at the same time. A Japanese woman with them had the proprietor show the family around the various exhibits.
What Japan Sword's advertising doesn't mention is that they have some modern-manufactured, sharpened steel blades useful for iaido. These swords are available for sale ONLY to overseas customers. They're illegal for native Japanese to own - they're not folded and forged in the tradintional manner.
Yeah, I bought a katana.
My new sword is just over 900g in weight, so it is a decent weight for continuous drawing and sheathing. No bo-hi, so my hasuji will have to be perfect. The koshirae I chose are fairly subdued - a square-ish iron tsuba (it won't roll around when I perform to-rei), the saya is black with a roughened surface, and simple fuchi, menuki and kashira. Nice, tight wrap on the silk cord around the hilt. Frankly, I prefer the non-flashy look.
I don't have to worry about getting it out of the country: they'll courier it to our residence back home. Various info (my passport number, etc.) was required to satisfy Canada Customs.
Sigh. I'm spineless.
What sealed the deal was the fact that the tsuka is long enough to fit my meaty hands.
[Edited to add:] After visitng Japan Sword Co. Ltd., Jen and I wandered around a bit. The sword store is in the middle of a business district. No tourists other than those we saw in the store. Nearby is an open-to-the-air men's tailor shop. They sold made to measure suits. On display were scores of bolts of cloth, and a couple of examples of the finished product. It was only around $200 for a suit made out of beautiful, lightweight material. Jen suggested that if the turnaround time was short enough, maybe we should get me a suit. However, no one there spoke English, and our Japanese was not up to the task.
Jen reads Katakana, and can recognize a few words in Hiragana. She also is armed with several business-friendly phrases. I'm pretty much limited to the odd martial arts command, and stock things like "Good morning," "Good evening," "Thank you," "Sorry" (very useful, that one),and "Yes."
We ended up having lunch at Shin yu yen, a Chinese food restaurant. We walked in and were ushered to a table. Our server apologized for any delay, because they weren't open yet. We had come in about 5 minutes before opening. We shared shrimp in a chili pepper and tomato sauce, and ginger chicken with light breading and real ginger. Yum.
There must be a template for Chinese restarants. The decor was just like we'd find in Winnipeg. The lunchtime office crowd filled up the place in a hurry - obviously a popular spot.