Yesterday I was at a wonderful medieval themed wedding party. Most of the guests came with some sort of medieval costume, song and location were appropriate, and everything was overall awesome.

I even got, as a gift, a very cool looking dagger.

And herein lies the problem. Bringing white weapons to Japan (even of the blunt, decorative type), seems to be a real hassle. Japan restricts the importation of “blades and swords”. The thing is. there is no objective definition of a “sword” in either the website for Japanese customs or Japanese immigration. There is a very vague definition of “blades longer than 15cm”. But what about ceramic blades? Blunt blades? Fake blades?

I tried sending an e-mail to Castle Tintagel, a shop that sells medieval paraphernalia in Tokyo — they probably had some experience with importing blades to share. The owner replied very quickly, and told me that if the blade is blunt, and of a non-metalic material, it could be okay, but a magnetic blade would probably just be lost. I tested my dagger and sure enough, magnetic.

I guess I’m out of luck. The customs website mention something about being able to acquire a permit for blades, but the details are very sparse. In the meanwhile, I guess my nice dagger will have to remain in Brazil :-(