So, here is how that happened. I had just
bought my first SR (a Ralf Aust) and I needed
a strop. I saw that Kanoyama strops were
made in Japan, guessed the kanji and
Googled it. An address popped up in an area
of Tokyo far from the glass towers of midtown.
(No webpage, just an address in the White Pages).
There were no close-by train stations, so I was on foot
(using Google maps to navigate). I got within a
hundred meters but had no luck. There were quite
a few dead-end streets. I was walking around
for about 45 minutes by this time. I was hot, tired
and about to give up when I spotted an old wooden door
with カノヤマ written in magic marker on a piece of
posterboard. I pressed the doorbell. The
speaker next to the door crackled. A gravelly voice
asked who I was. In my most polite Japanese,
I said "I am looking to buy a strop." A few minutes
went by, the door opened and I was face-to-face with Mr. Naomi.
He invited me upstairs and showed me several grades of strops.
That is how we met. I went back two or three more times.
After the first visit, I met his daughter/daughter-in-law
who served me green tea and some cookies. Later,
I asked to see the workshop. When they invited
in the back, I asked if I could shoot some video, which I
shot on my iPhone along with a bunch of stills.
What lies behind this door? No tiger. No lady. But a very nice Japanese man and some awesome strops...
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