Visiting Tokyo? Add a knife store to the snack run

If your Tokyo plan is mostly convenience stores and snack aisles, we understand. If you also cook, add one stop where you can try a Japanese knife before you buy it.

ZAKU Knives is a kitchen knife brand from ICHIGO Inc., the Tokyo company behind TokyoTreat. We run three Japanese knife stores in Tokyo, in Kappabashi, Asakusa and Harajuku, and a fourth in Nishiki, Kyoto. You’ll know them by their yellow fronts.

Kappabashi, Tokyo’s kitchenware street, is lined with long-established knife shops, and our main store sits among them. On our walls, knives from old knife towns such as Sakai hang next to work by young smiths from Takefu in Fukui. Young smiths make knives in small batches, so their pieces arrive a few at a time.

Every store has a cutting board and a pile of daikon radish for test cutting. Start by comparing two all-purpose knives:

• Santoku: an all-round knife with a flat edge, and a common first Japanese knife.
• Gyuto: the Japanese chef’s knife, a little longer, for most jobs from onions to slicing meat.

Slice some daikon with each before you choose. Our guide explains what a santoku knife is good at if you’d like to read up first. If you mostly cook vegetables, ask to try a nakiri too, a square blade made for them.

Staff speak several languages and explain the differences in your price range. Once you’ve chosen, the store can laser engrave your knife, and eligible overseas visitors shop tax-free. Staff also show you how to wash, dry and store your new knife, and how to pack it for the flight home.

The stores are easy to fit into a trip. Kappabashi and Asakusa are both in Taito City, so one afternoon can cover both. Harajuku is in Shibuya City, and the Kyoto store sits by Nishiki Market.

No trip on the calendar? The knives are also sold online and ship from Japan worldwide.