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Otaru Showroom
On November 20, 2022, we opened our fifth Otaru Showroom on the fourth floor of the Kyowa Hama Building facing the Otaru Canal, the cornerstone of the development of the port city of Otaru.
It is a place where customers can purchase carefully selected cooking utensils, tableware, folk crafts from all over Japan, and other products sold at Shokunin.com on the spot. There are about 120 items on display.
The Kyowa Hama Building was constructed in 1933 as the office building of Shimatani Shosen, a spin-off company of Shimatani Kisen, one of the shipping companies that contributed to the development of Japan in the modern era. Later, it merged with Mitsui Senpaku Kaisha (now Mitsui O.S.K. Lines), a Mitsui conglomerate, and became Otaru's first tenant building, the Mitsui Senpaku Building, which housed the offices of many shipping companies, and on the third floor was Yamashita Kisen, whose branch manager was Shintaro and Yujiro Ishihara's father. The four-story reinforced concrete building has a symmetrical design and is designated as a historical building by Otaru City, with its highly decorative architectural style from the early Showa era, as seen in the entrance area decorated with granite and the arched windows on the fourth floor.
Otaru prospered as the center of Hokkaido's economy, opening shipping routes to Europe, the U.S., and Sakhalin as an international trading port. Ironai Boulevard, the main street of Otaru, was known as the "Wall Street of the North," and is lined with retro stone buildings such as the former Otaru Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Otaru branch of the former Mitsui Bank, and the Otaru branch of the former Hokkaido Takushoku Bank where the writer Takiji Kobayashi worked. The Otaru Canal and historical buildings bequeathed by those who once pioneered the era and dreamed of pioneering the future continue to mark their respective histories as symbols of Otaru's urban development as the city celebrates its 100th anniversary as a city in 2022.
Spring, when the snow melts, summer, with its abundance of greenery, autumn, with its reddish ivy, and winter, with its snow and lights. The Otaru Canal reflects Otaru's four seasons on the surface of the water and has passed through time along with the city. The window of the Otaru Showroom offers a view of the changing seasons. Please stop by when you stroll around Otaru.
Shokunin.com Otaru Showroom was introduced on the radio program "Attractive Hokkaido." Here
Podcast (from 4:37 min.)
*Please bring your passport to get a tax-free service.
Location: 402, Kyowa Hama Building, 1-2-18 Shikouchi, Otaru-shi, Hokkaido, 047-0031, JAPAN Google Maps (Please go up to the 4th floor from the door marked "OFFICE" on the right side of the entrance. Photo Video)
Business Hours:
11:00-17:00 every Saturday and Sunday (closed on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and the year-end and New Year holidays)
Access: 10-minute walk from Otaru Station exit, 18-minute walk from Minami Otaru Station exit
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