Posted by Him on Mar 14, 2009 in
Japan When Bonnie Cashin began making bags in 1941, it would have taken a very brave woman to predict that just over half a century later, it would be a company with an operating revenue of 2.6 billion dollars a year with shops all over North America and quite a few in fashion capitals around the world.
Her later additions – shoes, eyeglasses and pens – to the collection that took on the Coach name in the early 1960s really fueled that expansion and today, in addition to the London and Paris run-of-the-mill brand markets, the former one-man-show is now doing well in Japan; a nation the US was in that actually at war with in the year the company was essentially founded.
Coach products are particularly popular in Japan with established women in their late twenties and thirties, perhaps as a result of the bags being designed with numerous pockets on the exterior of the main bag space – a norm Coach really introduced to the market – ideal for the modern woman about town.
Today the store is represented in a number of the nation’s finest department stores as well as in its own (all) Coach store in Ginza – on Harumi Dori near the Sony Showroom.
Be prepared to pay a little more than you would elsewhere for Coach bags, purses and other accessories, but do so in the knowledge that your purchases are of the highest quality and will last and last and last.
COACH - Harumi Dori
Tags: COACH, Ginza, Shopping
Posted by Him on Mar 14, 2009 in
Japan Ginza is many things but one perception of the Japanese capital’s most exclusive shopping area persists above all others – the over the top prices found in every Ginza nook and cranny.
Interested dining? Impossibly expensive! Want to do a bit of shopping? Not a problem – if you have direct access to a bank vault!
These and a hundred more examples exist in regards to going out and enjoying yourself in Ginza, and whilst many top of the range locations exist in terms of eating, shopping and / or being entertained, Ginza, with a little effort, is just as affordable as any other area in Tokyo or Japan.
For eats, head off the main streets that cross at Wako and Mitsukoshi. Ginza is a grid system of streets meaning that no-one should be too lost at any point in time, and, with the see and be seen mentality that so pervades pushing prices up on those main streets, it is in the back street that some very affordable options can be discovered – especially at lunchtime when set menus go for as little as 500 yen per person. Indeed, the two places pictured – behind COACH on Harumi Dori are relatively unknown but far from the exorbitant prices found just a few metres away – the perfect pit-stop.
Shopping is another hugely popular pastime in Ginza and the big names on the main streets really do dominate in terms of guide books and the likes (as do the prices they charge) but again, head behind the main strip and have a wander around the smaller stores in the 4-chome area. Many are older, family run, and more about quality of service than inflated prices and many a good deal can be had. All you have to do is look.
Time and effort WILL pay off in Ginza – so get there, get off the main drag and enjoy.
Ginza's Back Alleys
Tags: COACH, Ginza, mitsukoshi, Wako
Posted by Him on Mar 9, 2009 in
Japan Asano Naganori is a name most – Japanese included would fail to recognise when first hearing it.
Throw in a few hints about him being a former daimyo from the Ako Region in western Honshu though, and the clouds will start to clear as Asano will be remembered as the lord whose death in 1701 led to one of the most famous stories of loyalty and revenge in the Middle Ages.
On April 21st that year, in what is often referred to as the Ako Incident, Asano, to put it incredibly simple lost his temper, drew his weapon – a forbidden act when in the service of the Shogun at the Edo Castle that was later to become the Imperial Palace – and injured the main most seen as baiting him – a lord by the name of Kira.
Within hours Asano Naganori had taken his own life; ordered to do so by the ruling Shogun Tsunayoshi.
His final words – recorded in his death poem of:
“kaze sasofu,
hana yori mo naho
ware wa mata
haru no nagori o
ika ni toyasen”
can translate as
“More than the cherry blossoms,
inviting a wind to blow them away,
I am wondering what to do,
with the remaining springtime.”
Asano was later buried in the graveyard of Sengaku-ji Temple in Shinagawa – the site of his statue (pictured).
His retainers became masterless samurai and the rest as they say – is history - their avenging of the death of their leader achieved by killing Kira on December 15, 1702.
Asano's statue at Sengaku-ji
Tags: Ako, Asano Naganori, Cherry Blossom, samurai, Sengaku-ji
