Bladesmiths
This guest column is by Tyler Schopen, a high school senior who spent three sweltering weeks in Osaka in the summer of 2023. Tyler became interested in knife-sharpening during the pandemic and decided to research about it during his visit to Osaka. I asked Tyler if I may share his observations on my blog because he has the same curiosity and passion to learn the history and crafts of Japan as I do.
Kanazawa
A few years ago, I became obsessed with the idea of “creating” my own heirloom tea set to pass down to our two grown daughters. With my love of tea and all things British, I set out determined to find a lovely English tea set to call my own. After scouring through half a dozen antique stores, what was it that I found? Was it bone china, Wedgewood or even Noritake?!
Origami
When August comes around, I am always reminded of what my father did once for my birthday when I was 7 or 8 years old. In my family, birthdays were not really big deals – especially mine, as my mother’s was on the 5th and mine was on the 7th. We would go out for a special dinner on the 6th and that was that.