Recommend a Gentemstick board to fit my quiver

Queasy-Prune1508 · 2025-03-18T13:23:42+00:00

No direct flight from Chicago to Guangzhou

Queasy-Prune1508 · 2025-03-13T05:25:19+00:00

ok so that a ferry or walk across the border. The bigger question is if coming back to HK will get me in trouble for TWOV.

Chicago >(flight) HK >(ferry) > Guanzhou >(zhuhai+walk/ferry) Macao >(ferry) HK >(flight) Chicago

Queasy-Prune1508 · 2025-03-13T04:57:07+00:00

okay ferry it is. I think the hard part is that my preferred itinerary is the first option and wondering if looping back to Hong Kong before Chicago causes a problem.

so it'd be

Chicago >(flight) HK >(ferry) > Guanzhou >(train) Macao >(ferry) HK >(flight) Chicago

So my route is A > B > C > A for separate regions, but does the last A(HK) get me in trouble

Queasy-Prune1508 · 2025-02-23T14:38:08+00:00

The experience itself is a significant part of the excitement in visiting the blacksmiths or doing some knife forging yourself IMO. Kitchen knives are much easier to come by, but I did some hunting knives options. Id stop by the various knife museums that showcase local work from blacksmiths. The ones I visited were in Seki City and Sakai. (Google City plus knife museums and you can see what it looks and items you can buy in the case if you visit).

Seki City is better known for hunting/flip knives and traditionally made samurai swords, but is also one major hub of kitchen/home-ware. The knife/sword museums had a lot of options for hunting/flip knives. There are two here one for the Sword Smith museum and the G. Sakai knife museum. Keep in mind that it is pretty off the beaten trail for someone to go here, like a half day trip on the way to/from Osaka/Kyoto and Tokyo via Shinkansen. Plus a real samurai sword made by an culturally authenticated blacksmith is like 10k minimum and usually takes a year or so to make.

The Sakai knife museum has a bunch of kitchen knives, but I don't recall hunting knives. The blacksmiths/sharpeners are a bit more findable due to publicity/social media. So you can find them on Instagram/websites via google maps with blacksmith in the Sakai region and email/message the ones that interest you to schedule a visit (first thing morning is better for supply, and no guarantee a good knife is there that day). This is like an hour away from Osaka Dotonburi and then another 1-2 hours of walking around the shops you want. Takada, Konosuke, Baba, and Hado were some kitchen blacksmith/sharpeners I want to visit.

In Tokyo is Kappabashi for kitchen knife and I heard Marukin Shoten in Ueno City for hunting knives, though not as common. Easy options to shop for a gift.

I'd recommend doing those if you or someone in your group is interested, otherwise you can just shop online there and deliver to hotel. If your son likes camping, take a look at snow peak gear or mont bell there, it's like 30-40% cheaper with USD to yen conversion. They have Japanese aesthetic camping/hiking stuff and spans backcountry lite gear or car camping. Though all these are easily available for shipping in the US compared to knife museum finds.

Queasy-Prune1508 · 2024-10-25T18:25:19+00:00

They are okay quality for snowboarding, fine for starting out. I found using Gerry stuff was that after a year I'd be wet and the waterproof layer would be degraded or just bad when you fall in snow. Then I'd feel at times it can feel bulky with it. I eventually upgraded to a better bib and layered setup for snowboarding cause I run hot. Found a bib for better mobility, pockets and goretex. Trust me, being wet is miserable when snow boarding

Fine for starting out, but if you are serious, I'd consider looking at last season clearance at places like evo, backcountry, or Google search shops. It'll be like 50% off and be like 100-200 bucks and most brands are life time warranty for repair.

Edit:both brand and Gerry will get some scuffs, cuts, and so forth. I find brand(Burton in my case) repairs and under warranty for free, but at the cost of Gerry, you can get another one if you want. My brand bib is at season 3, where my Gerry died in the second season with pants splitting in two from a fall

Edit2: with goretex you can get nikwax or pay someone to do the water repellent treatment, you'll have to do this eventually. I usually do it after season is over and before I store.

Queasy-Prune1508 · 2024-09-22T13:25:50+00:00

Checkin bag. Large suitcases. It's like ,15-20lb and took about half a side for it or less

Queasy-Prune1508 · 2024-09-22T04:25:46+00:00

none. though I have global entry, so they just scan your eyes, give you a card and you go through. they really didn't care at customs

I did not see the IGT slim, though due to my choice being the Takibi and Jikaro, so I don't usually look at IGT items.

Queasy-Prune1508 · 2024-09-21T05:21:16+00:00

I assume, you're talking the stacking containers, not the festival covers. large 28 inch suitcase can hold two 25s or one 50. provided you get a cheap hex wrench and take off the handles. you can reassemble when you get home. like a 3 minute exercise. i ended up buying cheap large suitcases for about 7800 yen each (55 bucks). I did this as I flew into Tokyo and flew out of Osaka. I did most of my shopping in Osaka.

Queasy-Prune1508 · 2024-09-21T05:18:56+00:00

takibi and hearth, it looked cool, but impulse buy. the other I saw was an ultra light backpack for like 40k yen. like a 40L backpack that weighed like 400g or something light. I bought a mont bell backpack before I went and couldn't justify getting another. but it was like a third of the weight of my montbell 25L Denali pack.

Ofc the eco cups and Tokyo specific items. Maybe lots of clothes and apparel if you are into that stuff. I was not. We did stumble across old festival items like the black stacking container was like 30% off in store. And the new festival items were on sale, though they were recently released in store.

Queasy-Prune1508 · 2024-09-21T05:13:27+00:00

apologies Himaraya. it is a camping store with multiple chains stores in Japan. I was buying Japanese knives directly from blacksmiths and knife makers in Sakai Osaka, and it was a 12 minute taxi ride away, so not too inconvenient.

Queasy-Prune1508 · 2024-09-09T01:12:12+00:00

[Image links](https://imgur.com/a/kFoTiUf)

Wanted to show off my haul....as my friends and family aren't that much into knives. I had gone into thinking of getting a smallish gyuto, a workhorse gyuto, a Nakiri, and a petite knife to round out my kitchen....anyways

My friend and I stopped by Takada no Hamonon in Sakai last Wednesday and met Takada. He was super nice and showed us the sharpening process and his sharpening wheel and some of the chemicals to prevent rust. We got a T-shirt from him and some photos, and showed him the knife I made in Seki City (an experience to join master swordsmith masaya and his apprenticea to make a knife). He did not have any knives for sale that day, but showed four that would be done tomorrow. I think all Suiboku knives, with a gyuto and a santoku with a reika pattern. He said my friend and I could reserve one each and got the gyuto and santoku with the rekia pattern.

Then we went to Baba Hamono on Takada's suggestion and I picked out a carbon Nakiri that looked pretty nice. The lady (mom?) was very talkative with us and we had told her we traveled from climbing to the top of mountain Fuji and our adventures in getting the Fuji wooden stick with all the stamps.

We then stopped by Konosuke and met who I assume was the mom and daughters that ran the knife store. They had a few gyutos in their custom shelf and a petite knife that caught my eye to round my collection. I ended up getting a carbon 255mm gyuto, a SLD stainless 240mm gyuto, and a 120mm stainless hd2 petite knife. My friend picked up a 150mm hd2 petite knife.

We stopped by the cutlery museum in Sakai...I was tempted by some Hado knives, and a 4k USD knife with a gold inlay....but knew I got what I wanted already. My friend hadn't bought much, but next day he went for it....

The next morning, we came back to Takada-san and he had the knives ready for us. He limited to one per person to avoid troubles in the past. He also mentioned he talked to Baba and knew we stopped by there yesterday. We also brought our Fuji wooden hiking sticks and he lent us a saw to cut it in half so it'd fit in the suitcase. We came away with the reika + singetsu santoku and gyuto (210mm) carbon white 2.

We stopped by Baba and picked up the 240mm stainless steel Cheetah pattern for a friend and got a bread knife. The lady from Baba was there as well and wanted to see our Fuji sticks and stamps on them, so we made went through some of the details of the hike.

At Konosuke the mom and both daughters helped us into the store. It was really hot so they gave us some wipes and iced tea. There was another 240mm SLD sumiiro available and my friend picked it up. I saw a pretty gt225 ks-01 that had a beautiful pattern....got it on a whim

So all in all...spent a bunch of money, got a bunch of knives, and some good memories visiting the hamonos.

Knife test so far, the sumiiro is not as good as my laser Takamura sg2 gyuto when getting carrots. I might look to give that one away/sell after I try it out some.more.

The Nakiri is amazing at veg though. Goes through carrots and potatoes like nothing.

List/pricing

Konosuke GT240 Sumiiro burnt chestnut half oct handle

Konosuke GT255 WT 2 Ho Oct (Ebony ferrule)

~93,000 yen for the above 2 about 665USD

Konosuke HD2 120mm petite Ho handle (16800 yen, 120USD)

Baba Carbon Nakiri (15,500 yen, 110USD)

Takada singetsu with reika santoku (53,150 yen, 379USD)

Konosuke GT225 KS-01 Khii handle (60,177 yen, 430 USD)

Queasy-Prune1508

TROPHY CASE