Shared workspace to shared street space no.71
Very rural to aggressively urban with trains in between.
This is 3Bits & Change, an email about building a service and retail business. This one was written to the sounds of the city outside the hotel windows.
Good day,
We had a chance to visit Takefu Knife village in Echizen. It was +2 hours from Osaka by train and then over 3 hours to Tokyo. We made the first leg of the journey during the morning commute.
Commuting
Cook eggs in various forms and stick them in sandwiches. Viola, breakfast for those that want it while commuting - and that’s not many. There is a nascent breakfast culture at best. Apparently most have a little something at home before commuting and then eat again at lunch. Little coffees, energy drinks and sake are available in vending machines nearly everywhere. Just don’t drink them in public and certainly not on the train. :)
We snagged reserved seats. I likely don’t have the skills, yet, but I was only able to get the big camera to crisply shoot the inside of the train and the dirty window. :)
The lake and mtns portion of the ride was full of gradient blues. Oh, so lovely. Apparently the portion of a knife blade that transitions in color when materials are mushed together is called by the same name they have for these gradients. I’ll need to look it up and remember it.
My travel bros were troopers. 5 hours round trip on a train for 2 hours at a knife shop sounds like a waste to most. Not these fine gentlemen! Thanks for coming guys!
Knife Village
Built, and added on to, by a group of craftspersons weathering fluxuations in the industry together, the knife village is a co-working space and sales group for some ~13 artisans working there today. Their history as a collective dates to the 70’s.
There is a museum that leads to the workshop, a store with an additional workshop and what I can guess is a handle making building to the west.
The spring hammers on the right. Cutters are below the walk way. There are grinders down the middle with a big sandblaster too. And then down the left side are the sharpening wheels.
Note the presence of powered belts in a Japanese knife makers workshop. This is the second I’d been in in as many days. I’ve had manufactures representatives tell me cold that powered equipment are not used in Japanese workshops. When pressed they said they don’t used powered equipment in the sharpening process - and certainly not belts. Meh.
The retail area.
When making diner, by hand, you can select tools that were made by hand too. It’s an option. I grown to believe it’s a good one.
Below you’ll find some of the knives from Takefu on the way to the shop. Two have been called for. Which do you like?
Shibuya
Three trains and over three hours later I walked up on the Shibuya scramble crossing.
An American dropped his coffee on the ground as the bullet train was decelerating from 200 mph into Tokyo. It seemed to be over 1/2 full and it spread quickly toward the front of the car. Apparently you can drink coffee on a bullet train. They bring a stand around.
Anyway, there were loud sounds of disgust that spread among us. Very promptly, three attendants and a security guard (they have many enormous patches on their uniforms) arrived to clean it up and to set things back to order. Whew. It’s all such a fascinating contrast to things in America. And so is street life in Tokyo.
There is order in Japan, even when an estimated 3000 people are crossing the road together all at once. Folks, largely, don’t bump into you. If they do, they apologize. You walk on the left. You can j-walk. Infact, they mark the intersections with walking lines diagonally where appropriate. There are no trash cans and yet there is no trash on the ground. And it’s orderly.
Change
That’s good for now. In the next issue we’ll go shopping for kitchen goods and knives in Tokyo.
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