Hi Everyone,
Summer is over in Japan finally. It is 23C in Tokyo now!
When I was a boy, August 15, Obon, was already in the fall, and I was not able to swim any longer. Coming from a rural town in Hiroshima, I used to swim in the river. These days it is so hot even in September !
In the river, I managed to catch Unagi once. I released him as I wasn’t interested in Unagi as food. I also caught ‘Ayu,’ very fast moving fish. Have you eaten Ayu ? I would recommend you to eat when you travel to Japan, with salt. One of my favorites.
As I wrote on instagram, I went to Gift Show and visited the Bisyodo counter. Adam and Ueda san. Actually, Bisyodo is formally Ueda Bisyodo. They have been providing hair to Kumano brush makers and recently begun to manufacture its own brand. My contact is Adam.
This is the first time to meet Adam. I had thought he was an Australian for some reasons. Well, his email in Japanese is impeccable or native, and I met many Australians who spoke Japanese very well. My biased image..
He is from New Jersey and a Polish descendant. As his grandfather moved to America from Poland in 1943, during the war , we talked about the history and Schindler’s List movie for a while. And Chicago as a city of many Polish Americans, and Milwaukee.
I have been interested in ethnic backgrounds. So I usually guessed from a last name and asked if I was right when I was working in Long Island, NY. There were four major ethnics there, I remember, working as my colleagues – Polish, Irish, Italian and Jewish Americans. It was so interesting)
So a Polish American works for a brush company in Osaka. He said the strongest language was Japanese. Isn’t it unique? My client asked me if he speaks Polish, I will check!
Actually, I heard Koyudo hired some Chinese students from Hiroshima University. I hope they enjoy working there) and they should do more. The Japan brush market is shrinking, but a big potential exists outside Japan.
Thank you for reading !
Toshiya
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