We've been over to Japan again this past fortnight visiting our son, who's been working in Tokyo for nearly eight years. We travelled around more this time - bullet train to Kyoto, hire car in Nikko, which I'll cover (loosely on a stove theme) in the Action Gallery when I've got around to uploading the photos. Meanwhile, something for the Stove Reference Gallery ... ... purchased just over the way from the world's busiest station, Shinjuku, Tokyo. Here's just a few of the lines serving one of the 36 platforms in the station ... ... and there's where I bought the Soto stove, Tokyu Hands 'Creative Life Store' Sixth floor, 'DIY Tools and materials' Tucked away on a shelf underneath a Biolite stove display Bagged and ready to go Stove was priced at 5480 Yen (nearly £35) and a nifty set of pliers cost another 2899 Yen (£18) The pliers are the sort you know you need when you see them Unboxing the stove Useful stuff sack I'd taken a stove with me (a Primus Express Spider) for forays into the hills and forests above Nikko so didn't buy a fuel cartridge for the Soto at Tokyu Hands (got a screw-fit one for the Primus though) ... ... the one fitted here was when we got back to England Bayonet fitting on the stove is equipped with a couple of O-rings to engage with the cartridge fuel outlet probe and the mounting for the probe too - doubly secure against fuel leakage and of excellent quality of manufacture MORE TO FOLLOW
Good Morning, John, Sounds like you had a wonderful trip, and your Soto stove looks the cat's pajamas for quality!! SB and I have long wanted to visit Japan, and hope to do so, one day. We have many friends/clients over there, and would love to visit them in their lovely homeland! Do you speak Japanese? How about your son? I'll bet he's at least picked up a fair vocabulary, and is probably fluent enough to do quite well! Thanks for sharing this stove, and part of your trip with us, and I look forward to seeing more, when you've time to share it!! Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Mark
Hi Doc It's just our son who's a fluent speaker in Japanese, less so in the written word, though he managed to tease out the essentials of the Soto stove instructions that the pictograms didn't convey Test firing the Soto, back in England. Piezo sparker works well When in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo, I took a look in the L-Breath outdoor pursuits shop (9 floors of goodies) Up on the seventh floor they'd got stoves and lanterns (Soto and Coleman stuff and a Primus Spider multifuel). I spotted a windshield for the Soto, not stocked in Tokyu Hands Handy to have a stove along. North of Nikko, not camping but staying in this Ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) Main street (not usually just packed chippings, road was being resurfaced while we were there) View out of our apartment balcony, river-side. The dining halls were a stroll over the rope bridge Some way downstream Upstream More perfect stove country, this time on a day trip from Tokyo to Enoshima island off Yokohama - half-hour train journey from Tokyo to Ōfuna near Yokohama, another half-hour from Ōfuna on the Shonan monorail to Enoshima shore-side, stroll across the bridge to the island Sun setting over the Pacific as we headed off to Yokohama for supper in Chinatown then back to Tokyo John
Hi, John, Japanese is not an easy language to learn, unless you are immersed in it, as is your son. Well done on his part! Lovely photos, my friend, as always!! The stove looks first cabin, and very well designed. I have two Soto stoves, and think both of them are outstandingly done, and they work wonderfully, as yours appears to do. I do like to see quality goods, and as soon many other companies are cutting back on quality, my hat is off to Soto for continuing to make top quality offerings!!! On your trip, did you enjoy lots of Japanese comestibles, or did you try to "eat Western", instead? I think that SB and I would do well eating foods that are normal for Japanese folks, as we've had the real deal over the years, and find it tasty and satisfying. Too bad most "Japanese" restaurants in the US are not really offering authentic Japanese fare. Thanks, again, for sharing your trip, John, and glad you and your Bride made it home safe and sound afterwards!! Take care, and God Bless! Every Good Wish, Mark
Hi again, Mark. As usual we went the 'real deal' on Japanese food, which is as you'll know is an extremely comprehensive menu of styles, regional variations and ingredients to work through! I'll cover more in my eventual write-up in the Action Gallery, but here's an ebiken (Japanese train station sourced bento box) we tucked into on the bullet train from Tokyo station to Utsonimaya, prior to hopping on the local train to Nikko Here's me and Mrs Presscall dressed for dinner at the ryokan pictured above A fire-pit separated us, with these delights cooking over a charcoal fire Our son's been flown down to Okinawa on holiday a few times and Okinawan cuisine's something of a favourite - with us too and the following were among the dishes we shared at a restaurant on Odaiba island, Tokyo Bay. Spam (seriously, thanks to the American presence on Okinawa) with Okinawan cucumber and other bits and pieces. Delicious A kind of chile con carne - spicy hot Drinks included, two Orion beers ... ... and a root beer (the American influence again) John
Incidentally, I gave the Soto a thorough workout HERE with some reassuring results in terms of performance. Oh yes, and it's a dead ringer for a 1948 Weedex butane stove ... John
WOW..you can see from the quality of that stove why the Gaz burners from China are $7 or so!! i like Asian food but i don't care for fish or spicy stuff so there is not much left on the menu. wonderful inn you stayed at,thats the way i would like to go.
Since completing that post, I've belatedly read Kaw550Red's post HERE about his canister-mounted Soto stove incorporating the same burner technology. Though I've been testing my stove with a butane-only fuel cartridge (no propane added) it's still given astonishing output, even when evaporative cooling of the cartridge would have made the burner output on other stoves reduce to a feeble level. Evidently when Soto call these 'regulator' stoves, it's not empty marketing rhetoric and they really do incorporate a regulator in the valve, avoiding the usual practice of having a tiny aperture in the gas jet do the regulating. Comparing the jet from this 'Speedi Stove' from the early 60's ... ... with that on the Soto, it's obvious that the latter has a much larger jet aperture - so a tiny jet orifice isn't necessary to regulate the fuel flow and consequently doesn't restrict the fuel when the vapour pressure is low (evaporative cooling and/or low ambient temperature, at which time the in-built regulator allows more gas through to the burner jet, which with its relatively large aperture doesn't throttle the fuel charge Consequently, the stove remains unaffected by evaporative cooling of the butane and by low ambient temperatures, so ten minutes of boiling a succession of kettles of water left the fuel cartridge distinctly chilled, but with an undiminished maximum heat output nevertheless
A very nice presentation, @presscall. I saw the 310 when I was in Japan. I was tempted, but resisted. Perhaps I ought not to have resisted! They also had two un-fired Borde stoves in the shop I went to. Boy, was I tempted by those! Really beautiful environs, although I'm not so sure I like the look of that rope bridge. Looks like a great time. I hope I can get back some time. HJ