Japanese vegetable knife - nakiri bocho

We've been wanting one of these ever since we had to say sayonara to our wedding gift Wustofs and hello to the Daiso knives we inherited here. As many have commented, we cook a lot. For the 1st time we have the same work schedule and can actually cook together every night.

Anyways, as a New Year's present to ourselves (we've never really done Christmas gifts), we decided to buy a Japanese knife. We did a tiny bit of research on the internet - just enough to know that we wanted a nakiri bocho. It's a Japanese vegetable knife, suitable for domestic use, sharpened on both sides, etc. Nakiri bocho means "knife for cutting greens".

So we went to Sennichimae Doguyasuji when we were in Osaka. It's a street full of kitchen supply stores. We got to see and pick up a good amount of knives and ask questions. Luckily there wasn't an overwhelming number of them. We kind of zeroed in on one store that had tons of knives and a really helpful woman who spoke some English. Here's what we came away with:

Isn't it pretty? We have no idea how to sharpen it ourselves or where we'd get it done here. However, we're just cutting vegetables with it anyways so it should stay sharp for a while. It was definitely helpful for cutting up all the vegetables for the oden (a Japanese winter stew) we made the other day based on this recipe. We took a lot of liberties though - no mushrooms, turnips or watercress and we added squash and lotus root. We're loving lotus root these days.

Ok, we know you're wondering how much we paid for it. It was almost 12,000 yen and then we bought a cedar cutting board for about 3,000 yen. It's about what we wanted to pay and less than what we were willing to pay so we were happy. Anyways, we'll use it every day we're in Japan and for many years to come.

We had a magical mail day yesterday. I've been wanting/looking for a 2011 planner and my dad sent one that has fun international factoids in the back. Thanks, dad! Also, our old roommate Jackie-O sent us a lovely card and her cd. Have you heard the Soundheads? Check them out!! We wish we could see 'em live in Mpls but we'll have to settle for the cd for now :) Thanks, doll!

Also, our couchsurfer Basque friends posted about their visit with us on their blog. So sweet of them.