OPAS recently participated in a New Year’s event held at a Japanese shopping center in suburb of Portland. The Shogatsu Matsuri or New Year’s Festival was a three day event with several booths for selling hot food like oden and imagawayaki and things like good luck charms from a local Buddhist temple. At our booth … Read more
The following happened during the time I sold handmade jewelry as a street vendor in Geneva, Switzerland. I think I was around 21 or 22 at the time. One evening I went out around closing time to the area where the high class stores selling Rolex and Omega watches were lined up. From my bag … Read more
We continue with our entertaining series of blog posts written by our president and founder Toshiyasu Abe. Today, I’d like to share a story from my youth, when I was traveling the world. I was only 19 years old when I visited Europe for the first time. Just like my trip from Japan to the U.S., … Read more
OPAS’ founder and President, Toshiyasu Abe shares his story with us in this personal blogpost about his background and the story of how OPAS came about: I was born in Ehime Prefecture on Shikoku Island of Japan, and raised in the city of Osaka, the second largest in Japan. I had a fairly traditional upbringing … Read more
