Rather by accident while I was browsing YAJ, I discovered that quite a bit of nice quality flatware appears on auction there. While it’s rather cost prohibitive to try buying a complete multi-place setting flatware from Japan (due to the shipping costs), if you’re interested in just a few specialized things, it can turn out rather well.
For my own flatware at home, I tend to favor DANSK, particularly their more celebrated Danish inspired designs. But none of what I’ve found through them and other brands offer really nice quality small spoons. Ones that are even smaller than your typical teaspoon. I won a small lot of small spoons from a YAJ listing. The auction price was ridiculously low. Shipping ended up being ¥520, nearly 50x the auction win price. Well worth it.
I really wasn’t interested in the forks. My main interest was the spoons. This size is excellent for adding small amounts of spice, condiment use, or doing small taste tests. Those 3 miniature spoons are pretty cool. Very well made. They’re typically used for salt cellars. Stamped 18-8 on the back, which is decent stainless.
Anyway, that group of 6 spoons are seriously nice quality. This auction should’ve really been starting at ¥1000. In fact it did… but it didn’t sell, so the seller opened it to starting at ¥1. The brand is one I’ve never heard of before. “Martian.” There’s even a goofy little Martian figure for their logo. Searching on Martian turns up quite a few auctions. There’s some nice stuff to be had, if you’re in the market for something like this.
