I was bored of all the ties I keep seeing at the local stores so I thought I'd try to find something unique. When I watched Arakawa Under The Bridge I thought to myself, "I want that tie!"

Sure enough, I found the Ichinomiya Family Heirloom Tie by Cospa at the AmiAmi store although it wasn't back in stock until December.

For 4725 Yen, I was expecting the tie to arrive in a nice box but wasn't really expecting it to arrive in such a big box!

But... This is what the real packaging is like.

Not exactly what I was expecting although I suppose common ties don't come in boxes either.

I was expecting a nice small box with the Anime characters engraved on them or at least on a little leaflet with silly little things written about the Ichinomiya Family ways ^^;

If cosplayers didn't make their own costumes and bought everything from Cospa, they would probably be spending a fortune on items like these.

他人に借りをつくべからず, tanin ni kari wo tsuku bekarazu- "Owe No Favours!"... It's actually written more formally than that. Fansubs have it as "One shall not be indebted to others" which is probably as formal as it gets.

Personally I like to think of it as "Owe No Favours!" because it sounds shorter and cooler though.

Obviously it can't happen in real life because you want to find your ideal career or run a business, a lot of networking with others has to take place and you'll be helping each other out.

100% polyester and I think it's in the style of a skinny tie.

I usually wear the full-sized tie to the office so I'm not sure if they all have this little band on the back keep the tail neatly together.

It's not quite as smooth looking as in the Cospa photos although I presume they either didn't use a macro lens or lowered the clarity when they processed the RAW photo.

Well, I'll be wearing this to the office! No one knows what it means anyway and I'm sure they won't mind.

The AmiAmi Online Store and UK Customs

AmiAmi's overseas service isn't too bad. You put in an order and then once they confirm your order is in stock, you pay them via Paypal. Be sure to check your country's customs though. In the UK, any commercial goods over the value of £18 ends up being charged extra unless you're lucky and the people at the mailing service aren't doing their job right. Or you can convince them to mark it as a gift in which case, the limit would be £40 before you're charged.

In my case, they managed to pick it out so this will probably be the most expensive tie I'll ever pay for. Still, it's good to know it's unique and you probably won't be able to get it again unlike the common ties.