Late last fall, I began planning my February trip to Japan to begin work on a revised/updated edition of The Monster Movie Fan's Guide To Japan and to assist Spanish producer Jonathan Belles on his documentary, Godzilla and Hiroshima: The Rise of the Kaiju Eiga.
At the time, I asked my roommate, Jessica if she would like anything special from Japan. She is a culinary student and I thought that getting some Japanese cutlery would be the perfect gift. She wanted a good chef's knife.
We checked websites of different cutlery stores in the Kappabashi-dori (known as Kitchen Town) area of Tokyo. Kappabashi-dori is situated in-between Ueno and Asakusa and is loaded with many stores and shops of kitchen equipment. After checking several cutlery stores, we liked the offerings by Kamaasa Shoten Co.,Ltd. the most.
We saw several chef's knives that looked promising, so I contacted Marina Menini at the store and she assisted with information and pricing on the knives we were interested in. We settled on a Gyuto Chef's Knife. I told Marina that I will be in Tokyo in early February and will stop in to get the knife.
I left Los Angeles for Tokyo on February 7 and arrived just before 4:00 PM on February 8. Unfortunately, a heavier-than-usual snowstorm also arrived in Japan on February 8 and I ended up stuck in a Keisei Line train car midway between Narita International Airport and Tokyo for about sixteen hours because of the snow (that would make for a whole separate article on its own).
To make a long story short, I finally arrived at my hotel in the Ueno section of Tokyo at 2:00 PM on February 9, which was 22 hours after landing at Narita International Airport. As a result, I had to juggle my vacation schedule a bit. I was planning to visit Yokosuka on February 9.
After checking into my hotel room, I decided to take a taxi over to Kamaasa's cutlery store in Kitchen Town to get the knife. I was lucky to get a good cab driver who knew his way around Kitchen Town and he took me right to the store. Fortunately, the store was still open when we arrived.
Inside the store, there was a crowd of about 25-30 people inside looking around. I asked a clerk if Marina Menini was in and he said yes and brought her over to me. I introduced myself and she knew immediately who I was and what I wanted. She went to retrieve the chef's knife we wanted. Jessica wanted it engraved with her initials on on side of the handle and a heart on the other side. As the knife's blade was rough, it would not be a good idea to do any engraving on it, so we decided to do the engraving on the handle.
Within minutes, Marina had the engraving done and it came out perfect. I then paid for the knife and she wrapped it up very nicely.
I brought the knife home after my trip and Jessica was very pleased with it. She liked the handle's feel and the light weight of the knife. Best yet, she loved how it made her cuts turn out. To say she loves the knife would be a major understatement!
I was very pleased at the customer service and selection of knives Kamaasa had. The staff were all very friendly and made me, as a customer, feel important enough to merit their fullest attention. I would recommend Kamaasa Shoten Co.,Ltd. to anyone who is looking for quality cutlery.
They also carry other kitchen products in a separate store across a driveway.
After leaving, I wandered around Kitchen Town for a while and saw several other cutlery stores, but they were either devoid of any customers or had maybe one person inside browsing. This told me that we went to the right place as Kamaasa was crowded inside.
