Sunday the 3rd of August

Well after a rather hot afternoon of playing petanque and being beer garden season we finished our last game of the day early to head off to Mitsukoshi dept store where they have a rooftop beer garden which is all you can drink & eat from 5.30pm until 9pm. It turned out to be too hot for Mitsukoshi to hold their beer garden outside and they were worried it might also rain as well. After confirming with the staff that we could smoke inside, we settled down on a large table close to the beer machine's & food. Minagawa san had some nice Cuban cigar's which we enjoyed throughout the afternoon and in between smoking our pipes we had a few more cigars ( Thanks Minagawa san ) . Minagawa san also had a new pipe tobacco called " Orange Dream " which was rather sweet but it was a rather nice smoke. Ken also had two of his fantastic new pipes to show us which he had just finished making, as usual his work was outstanding. After the beer garden closed around 9pm I departed & headed for home and the other's carried on to our regular spot at Robin Irish pub to partake in a few more beers & pipes.

Don Speden
Niigata City Pipe club

July the 6th meeting

Well after a hot day of petanque it was rather nice to relax at Robin Irish pub with a few pints and a relaxing pipe or two. There were only 3 of us there Ken, Minagawa san & I but we spent several hours chatting drinking and of course smoking. Ken now has an agent in the US which is called Smokers Haven who sells his pies which is fantastic news and he had one of his new pipes at Robin with him plus a new custom made black billard pie with an ivory band that Minagawa san had ordered which was very nice. Pictured above is a photo of kens new pipe that he had just made.

June the 1st meet

Well after a afternoon of Petanque & a dinner party Minagawa san & I headed to Robin for a pipe & pint. Upon arriving we found Ken sitting waiting for us and he proceeded to show us his latest pipes that he had made. One was a fantastic billiard shape with Ken's trademark colored stem plus this pipe had a nice ivory band as well, it was a custom order for a new member of our pipe club. The other pipe is kens first attempt at using some bamboo for a pipe stem extension and to make the bamboo look different he hand colored the bamboo using a Japanese laquer ware technique. As you can see from the above photo both pipes are fantastic.

May pipe club meeting

Well after some of us had had a hot day playing Petanque outside at Nishi ohata park there was nothing better than a pint or two and some fine tobacco. Ken had just finished a fantastic free hand cavalier pipe with a deer horn stem fitting and matching tamper. This pipe was a custom order for Ishikawa san one of our new members who was very pleased with his new pipe and started smoking it that evening. Ken's outstanding craftsmanship has to be seen to be believed and this new pipe was no exception as the overall design of the pipe is very unique and well balanced. We all enjoyed some of Ishiwaki san's vast array of pipe tobacco and as usual the hours past by very quickly. Our next pipe club meet will be on the 8th of June. Pictured above is Ken & Ishiwaki san enjoying their pipes and a close up of Ishiwaki sans new pipe.

Happy smoking
Don

April pipe club meeting

Well after a break of a month we had another pipe club gathering at Robin where 8 people showed up, which is the largest crowd we have had at pipe club for quite some time. Among the pipe smokers was our new member Ishikawa san and a couple of his friends. Ishikawa sans pipe collection seems to have grown with some nice new additions such a a new Peterson pipe and one of Kens hand made pipes. He also brought along some fantastic tobacco that we hadn't tried before such as " Devils Holiday " made by Dan pipes a fantastic aromatic tobacco. Minagawa san made the journey from Guma for Petanque in the afternoon and Pipe club in the evening and offered us all some fantastic Cuban cigars to try. So on behalf of everyone at Pipe club Minagawa san I'd like to say thank you for providing us with the chance to smoke some nice Cuban cigars. Also Minagawa san purchased my semi bent apple pipe I made some time ago so I'm glad it's gone to a good home. Also Ken had one of his new pipes he had just made which was a super fine free style blowfish shape it was very beautiful and lighter than my pipe tamper, to see more of ken's work please visit his home page at Kenpipes.com
Our next pipe club meeting will be 4th of May so if you're free please come along. Pictured above a few photos taken at Robin last night.

Cheers Don
Robin Pipe club

Feb Pipe club meeting

After a long break from Robin due to people being busy and bad weather a few of us met at Robin on the 3rd for a few pints and a smoke or two. Ken had recently ordered some fantastic Italian Briar wood and he brought along three new pipes which were made using his new stock of Briar. Pictured above are two of Ken's new pipes which were stunning , his original designs and craftsmanship are outstanding if you want to see more of his work check out his new up dated website at kenpipes.com

The other photo's on this posting show myself with Ishikawa san a new pipe smoker who joined our group for the 1st time on Sunday and Ken & I . The next pipe club gathering will be on the 2nd of March.

Ken Pipes new website

Hi Everybody

As we didn't have pipe club at Robin for Dec I thought I'd tell you about Ken's new website. He has just opened a new website at www.kenpipes.com/ and on his new site which is in Japanese & English you can see all the pipes he has for sale and fantastic photo's of his work. Pictured above is a photo taken of one of Ken's pipes that's currently for sale . If you have time please check out his website and see what he has for sale.

Don

Robin Pipe Club