Winner of the Grand Prize at the Craft Fair!

This Shinshu Handicraft Festival started in 2018 and we have participated every time since the first one.
This venue was built as part of the Nagano Olympics, so it's really spacious!
It's so large that you'll probably feel dizzy if you take a good look at all the exhibitors, and there are so many exhibitors!
This time, the event was held at a time when the coronavirus situation had calmed down a bit, and there were many exhibitors.

I think there were about 600 exhibitors.

There is a contest every time, and I am notified to enter, but to be honest I don't enter every time, lol, and sometimes I'm just asked, and I'm like, "Oh! Sorry, I'll enter haha."
It was the same this time, but when the staff member in charge of selection came and said "Please enter!", the atmosphere was different. "The products here are really amazing, aren't they? Do you enter them all the time?"
I was asked a lot of questions as if I wanted to see it (^○^)

Honestly, I was like, "Oh my... maybe? Maybe?"

At that time, I was thinking, maybe I could win? I was a little hopeful.

Despite all that, I completely forgot about it and enjoyed my time as I interacted with many customers.

As the two days drew to a close and the customers started to leave, I no longer had any thoughts of the contest in mind and started chatting with the people at the booth next to me (^○^)
Meanwhile, Harayama-kun

Harayama: "Hey! It's the grand prize!"

Tokunaga: Whaaaaat!?

just‥‥

Announcement: "Mr. Harayama of Gruber Leather, please come to the stage."
Tokunaga: "No, Harayama-san is being called."
Harayama: "No, no, go away!"
Tokunaga: "Me? Are we going to Harayama?"

We both panicked because we didn't know that we were going to be waiting on stage like that.

In the end, I ended up going to the award ceremony (^○^)

The award certificate will be clearly written in "Junichi Harayama" 😁
Well, I guess that means I'm an applicant (^○^)
That's a plus and makes for good material lol

And here are the products I submitted for this contest!

They highly evaluated the quality of our products and the activities of the Shinshu Deerskin Ethical Project.
Photo: Hi-DK-100 Drawstring shoulder bag made from Shinshu deer leather

Receiving such an amazing award makes us feel proud and excited to continue our activities!

Ethical consumption activities can be found everywhere, and by engaging in activities that catch the attention of as many people as possible, we hope to change someone's awareness in some way, and also that we ourselves will grow in our approach to ethical consumption.