Takamura R2 Gyuto 210mm

“Image links https://imgur.com/a/kFoTiUf Wanted to show off my haul....as my friends and family aren't that much into knives. I had gone into thinking of getting a smallish gyuto, a workhorse gyuto, a Nakiri, and a petite knife to round out my kitchen....anyways My friend and I stopped by Takada no Hamonon in Sakai last Wednesday and met Takada. He was super nice and showed us the sharpening process and his sharpening wheel and some of the chemicals to prevent rust. We got a T-shirt from him and some photos, and showed him the knife I made in Seki City (an experience to join master swordsmith masaya and his apprenticea to make a knife). He did not have any knives for sale that day, but showed four that would be done tomorrow. I think all Suiboku knives, with a gyuto and a santoku with a reika pattern. He said my friend and I could reserve one each and got the gyuto and santoku with the rekia pattern. Then we went to Baba Hamono on Takada's suggestion and I picked out a carbon Nakiri that looked pretty nice. The lady (mom?) was very talkative with us and we had told her we traveled from climbing to the top of mountain Fuji and our adventures in getting the Fuji wooden stick with all the stamps. We then stopped by Konosuke and met who I assume was the mom and daughters that ran the knife store. They had a few gyutos in their custom shelf and a petite knife that caught my eye to round my collection. I ended up getting a carbon 255mm gyuto, a SLD stainless 240mm gyuto, and a 120mm stainless hd2 petite knife. My friend picked up a 150mm hd2 petite knife. We stopped by the cutlery museum in Sakai...I was tempted by some Hado knives, and a 4k USD knife with a gold inlay....but knew I got what I wanted already. My friend hadn't bought much, but next day he went for it.... The next morning, we came back to Takada-san and he had the knives ready for us. He limited to one per person to avoid troubles in the past. He also mentioned he talked to Baba and knew we stopped by there yesterday. We also brought our Fuji wooden hiking sticks and he lent us a saw to cut it in half so it'd fit in the suitcase. We came away with the reika + Suiboku santoku and gyuto (210mm) carbon white 2. We stopped by Baba and picked up the 240mm stainless steel Cheetah pattern for a friend and got a bread knife. The lady from Baba was there as well and wanted to see our Fuji sticks and stamps on them, so we made went through some of the details of the hike. At Konosuke the mom and both daughts helped us into the store. It was really hot so they gave us some wipes and iced tea. There was another 240mm SLD sumiiro available and my friend picked it up. I saw a pretty gt225 ks-01 that had a beautiful pattern....got it on a whim So all in all...spent a bunch of money, got a bunch of knives, and some good memories visiting the hamonos. Knife test so far, the sumiiro is not as good as my laser Takamura sg2 gyuto when getting carrots. I might look to give ”