In the past, Mokuhankan has had lots of visiting salespeople, trying to get us to sign up for a small spot on printed maps, posters, pamphlets, et cetera, but with Asakusa being such a tourism hot spot, competition is fierce and prices have been absurdly high, so we've never been particularly interested in marketing that way.

However, a young man came earlier this year with an interesting proposition. Asakusa Station on the Ginza Line was planning to install a large touch-enabled screen with tourist information in multiple languages, and he wanted us to be a part of it. Not only that, but his price was substantially lower than anything the previous salespeople had ever presented to us, and this was for something more exciting than a pamphlet.

Up until now, the majority of our customers have been people who discovered us online, so they don't really care much about running into information about us in the train station. But with our upcoming move to the first floor of our building, and with the surging numbers of international tourists coming to Japan, we decided to take a chance.

The cool new screen introduces 30 different companies in a grid, presenting the information in five languages (Japanese, English, Korean, and Traditional and Simplified Chinese) alongside a digital map and paper maps. The companies' logos all get shuffled periodically so no one company is permanently placed higher than any others.

The map is interactive, and you can find out more about the other companies by touching their logos on the right or their names on the map. It's fun and easy to use, and we hope more visitors to the Asakusa neighborhood will enjoy it and find us a little more easily!