Although I've occasionally thought about picking up a straight, I've been pretty happy with my safety razors and haven't gone too far in planning to get something else. That all changed today with an impulse buy of a Japanese straight.
I was visiting friends in Niigata City, north of Tokyo. Although my friend isn't interested in wetshaving, he shares my mania over other things so he and his wife surprised me today with a trip to Sanjo. Sanjo is the center of a lot of production for bladed objects in Japan, from cutlery to nail clippers to scissors. In fact, he said that he knew a place that carried some high speed nail clippers and he wanted to buy them. Actually, he had asked a friend of his who's a barber if he knew where I could get a Japanese razor. His friend checked around and found a distributor of different kids of bladed products in Sanjo who caters to the trade--restaurants, barbers, gardeners, etc. It turned out that he had one razor left in his inventory.
The shop is normally closed on Sunday, but the owner and his wife were nice enough to come by and open it up for us. When they brought out the clippers that my friend wanted to see, they also laid out the wooden box with the Japanese straight in it. Before I knew it, my walled was in my hand, my money was in theirs, and the razor went home with me.
Here are some quick photos I took when I got back to Tokyo tonight. They aren't very clear, but I was in a rush:
As you Japanese razor aficionados know, the wrapping identifies this as an Iwasaki razor made in Sanjo. On the lid of the box, it says that it's a Japanese razor (using the word "Yamato" for Japan) and it's signed and stamped by Iwasaki.
It doesn't show up very well here, but if you were sitting here with me, you'd see that those blurred spots are the characters for "Iwasaki" etched into the blade.
Anyway, I guess that I have a straight razor now. I'm not going to give it a run until I get home in another month or so. Any advice on what else I should pick up to go with this guy while I'm in Japan?
I was visiting friends in Niigata City, north of Tokyo. Although my friend isn't interested in wetshaving, he shares my mania over other things so he and his wife surprised me today with a trip to Sanjo. Sanjo is the center of a lot of production for bladed objects in Japan, from cutlery to nail clippers to scissors. In fact, he said that he knew a place that carried some high speed nail clippers and he wanted to buy them. Actually, he had asked a friend of his who's a barber if he knew where I could get a Japanese razor. His friend checked around and found a distributor of different kids of bladed products in Sanjo who caters to the trade--restaurants, barbers, gardeners, etc. It turned out that he had one razor left in his inventory.
The shop is normally closed on Sunday, but the owner and his wife were nice enough to come by and open it up for us. When they brought out the clippers that my friend wanted to see, they also laid out the wooden box with the Japanese straight in it. Before I knew it, my walled was in my hand, my money was in theirs, and the razor went home with me.
Here are some quick photos I took when I got back to Tokyo tonight. They aren't very clear, but I was in a rush:
As you Japanese razor aficionados know, the wrapping identifies this as an Iwasaki razor made in Sanjo. On the lid of the box, it says that it's a Japanese razor (using the word "Yamato" for Japan) and it's signed and stamped by Iwasaki.
It doesn't show up very well here, but if you were sitting here with me, you'd see that those blurred spots are the characters for "Iwasaki" etched into the blade.
Anyway, I guess that I have a straight razor now. I'm not going to give it a run until I get home in another month or so. Any advice on what else I should pick up to go with this guy while I'm in Japan?
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Brace for shock. 
