A couple of months ago I took a day trip up to the town of Banff. Banff is a picturesque town nestled in the heart of the Canadian Rockies. The mountains are stunning and if you enjoy “the great outdoors” there are an endless amount of things to see and do. I will write more stories about Banff in the future so stay tuned to MichaelMcKinlay.com Today however, I’d like to write about souvenir shopping in Banff.
Banff has a large number of souvenir shops and many of them cater to the thousands and thousands of Japanese tourists that visit each year. One shop that has always stood out from the crowd for me is the OK Gift Shop. The OK Gift Shop is owned by former Japanese celebrity, Kyosen Ohashi. I think he is now retired but I believe he still owns the shop, along with a few others in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Here’s his picture.
The store is basically your run of the mill gift shop, however I’ve always thought the name was hilarious. To me, the name of the store makes it sound like every product the store sells is relatively average… not bad, not good, it’s OK! By the way, even the OK Gift Shop website refers to Mr. Ohashi as Mr. OK. Don’t believe me? Check it out here! So next time you are in Banff, don’t get your loved one a souvenir that might be bad or good… get them something that’s OK! OK?
I just realized a couple of things… I think Mr. OK called his shop, the OK shop because those are his initials if you write his name last name first. The other thing I’d like to point out is for the benefit of my Japanese readers. The name OK gift shop is funny to English speakers because it’s like calling a store in Canada “futsu ya.” “Futsu” means average or ok in Japanese and “Ya” means shop. So to my Japanese readers, don’t you think it would be funny if I setup a store in Japan called “futsu ya?” Would you buy products from my store?
My name is Michael McKinlay and I live in Calgary, Alberta Canada. Although I was born here, I have lived in a few other places in Western Canada such as, Saskatoon, Regina, Medicine Hat, and Edmonton. I also spent time in Hong Kong and Japan. [
Nice Mike. I like these posts. They’re an insight into the unique life or Mr. McKinlay. It’s funny to see a Japanese owned shop there, and even funnier with that name!
Hey for all of my readers, I’ve added an extra paragraph to the bottom of the post! Hope you like it!
“don’t you think it would be funny if I setup a store in Japan called “futsu ya?†”
But your name isn’t Futsu McKinlay. Perhaps if you were called Sue Foot, it would work. It might work for this woman, though.
It might also work if you were selling Chicken Foot Soup.
Much like one of your posts, I do not like your comment. Please don’t delete my comment about your comment as this is my blog! Thank you.
By the way, I’m sorry if you don’t like my comment about your comment. 
I figured that this was an OK comment to make.