Showcasing Hokkaido's charms @ Japan Food Town

In recent years, there's been a significant increase in promotional events from Japan especially those organised by and featuring specific prefectures. During these events and exhibitions, the local companies come to Singapore to showcase their products and services which usually comprise of food & drinks, technological products, handicrafts and art works. It's a good thing that there are coordinated efforts now to promote these places and their specialties for the purpose of doing business and boosting tourism although the scale and content of these events tend to vary across a wide spectrum.

Currently, there is an event at Japan Food Town (Wisma Atria) featuring Hokkaido which is a place that's probably very familiar to most Singaporeans. At the event square, the crafts and cosmetics fair consists of a number of booths featuring such products from the prefecture. This fair will run until 8 March.

From what I observed, the brands and products featured are those which I've not seen before at other events such as travel fairs so it should be fairly interesting for most people. On the other hand, as the event space is very small, the variety of items exhibited is somewhat limited. In addition, it doesn't look like there is a lot of publicity for this event so unless you happen to be dining at Japan Food Town, chances are you might not even walk to the event space to look at what's on offer. In my case, I swung by after my meal and left in about 5 minutes or so as I was rushing elsewhere. If I had more time, I would have stuck around to talk to the exhibitors to find out more about the products. As such, my observations below were largely based on what I saw and what I gathered from the brochures given to me.

One common grouse about Japan's products is the high price tag which is understandable to a certain extent due to import costs and of course, exchange rate fluctuations. Much as we all know that their products are of a certain quality, we can't deny that the price tags do intimidate consumers especially those who may not understand the value of the products fully or cannot reconcile the price with their assessment of the item's value. This is like a chicken-and-egg issue where if there is a larger quantity circulating in the market, costs may be driven down but Japanese products tend to be in limited quantities here so there won't be significant cost savings. Ultimately, this cements the impression that Japanese products are good but pricey.

Besides the fair, there are also dishes using Hokkaido's products from the restaurants at Japan Food Town so you can give these a try while you are dining there. I had the Hokkaido deep fried potatoes at Rang Mang Shokudo which tasted good as expected but I didn't quite like the taste and smell of the cod roe sauce that was poured onto the potatoes. The dishes featured in the poster will be offered by the restaurants until 8 March which is the same date as the end of the fair. As such, if you are keen to check this out, you probably need to arrange a visit this weekend or anytime soon. There is a promotional campaign where you can take a photo with one of the photo boards there and upload to your social media account. Upon doing so, you will be given a free gift by the exhibitors.

Here are some of the items showcased at the fair which you may want to check out on your own:

Here are some art and craft works from the Ainu people said to be indigenious people of Japan and Russia. According to the brochure I got at the fair, the town of Nibutani in the Hidaka area (Hokkaido prefecture) has a number of Ainu households, some Ainu-owned craft shops and two Ainu museums i.e. Nibutani Ainu Cultural Museum and Historical Museum of Saru River so this is a place for visitors to interact with the Ainu people. The items featured here include the Nibutani Ita which are wooden trays with spiral Moreunoka patterns and Ramuramunoka fish-scaled patterns and Nibutani Attus which are textiles made from tree barks. These two categories of works were designated as Traditional Craft Industries by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on 8 March 2013.

For those who like ornaments and items made of wood, this corner features trays, wine bottle holder, photo frames, clocks and even a handphone holder with rather simple designs and clean lines. Although these products have a feel somewhat similar to Muji (no frills and a simple design) and I must admit that they look rather nice, the prices are pretty steep in my opinion so it may be that you have to find out more from the exhibitors why exactly these products are priced at these levels. On a related note, most of the items I saw had a tag saying GST included but you may want to ask about the price again just in case what's displayed does not include GST.

This brand Sucremor offers a range of skin care products using beet sugar from Hokkaido. Apparently, the inspiration of their name came from the French word sucre which means sugar. The founder of the brand got the idea from a colleague when she was working in New York about using sugar for moisturising purposes and it turned out that this brought about an improvement in her daughter's eczema condition. From the company's brochure, it was said that the company compared and analysed about 200 types of different sugar before deciding on the sugar made from Hokkaido-grown beets for its moisturising and anti-bacterial properties. There are five aromas to choose from i.e. citrus, lavender, rosemary, hakka (Japanese mint) and vanilla. For babies, you can get the organic sugaring massage scrub which is supposedly gentle enough for their delicate skin. I'll probably go back before the fair ends just to know more about the product and get one to see if it's as good as it claims.

For those who like Japanese traditional artwork and dyed products, you would probably be interested in what Mizuno Somekojo has to offer. This dye-printing factory from Asahikawa, Hokkaido, has been in business since 1907 and specialises in dye printing of various products such as noren (the curtain used outside Japanese restaurants), clothes for the Yosakoi festival, flags and curtains. Even if you are not visiting Hokkaido anytime, you can head to their shop Some no Anbo in Asakusa, Tokyo, for their products which should be quite accessible. Although I find their designs and products very attractive, I was deliberating for a long time whether to buy anything because I struggled to think of a place at home where I can hang it up! Perhaps I should just go back for a second look and get the snowy scene item which I saw yesterday?

One booth which I found quite interesting was Date Yasai which introduced the vegetables grown in Date City, Hokkaido known for its warm coastal climate and volcanic soil. In its brochure, there is an extensive list of vegetables from the city with the names in English and Japanese. This should come in particularly useful to those who are learning Japanese or those who want to know the names of the vegetables in case they want to buy them in Japan. There is also a calendar indicating the harvesting periods for each type of vegetable so depending on when you visit the city, you are aware when is the best season to eat what vegetable. Perhaps the only thing which was lacking was that the booth was too small and there were no "real" vegetables showcased there. When it comes to promoting foodstuff, seeing and being able to taste it would be essential in helping to build awareness and demand from the customers. If there is a future opportunity for the vegetables to be showcased in Singapore, having some food samples would definitely attract more attention and interest. It was also not apparent if the vegetables from Date can be bought here so I suppose that they are here to build awareness for a start.

And last but not least, here is the main stage where you can take pictures with the photo board and upload to social media so as to earn the free gift.

On the whole, I think the fair is well-intended to inform the public about what Hokkaido has to offer. However, due to the nature of the location and limited event space, it is a bit lacking because it feels like you are just getting a small sample of what each of the brands have to offer. In future, they can probably do more to get a place with more human traffic which will allow them to bring in more vendors with a wider variety of products and services. Considering that you have to go all the way up to the 4th floor to get to Japan Food Town and walk inside to the event square, having a place where passer-bys can be attracted easily might be something to consider next time.