goodbye old friend

We decided to give up Satoshi's old book shelf and buy (3) new ones. His book shelf which he bought and assembled when he first went to Hawaii in 1996 has held a LOT of books, folders and papers. (Here's where the shelves will be going, by the phone and by the dining area.)

In buying these new shelves, the rule was no overloading and to purge whatever was not needed. (Here's what they look like after being delivered.)

As I look around our apartment that we have been in for the past 5 years, I can see how much our "nimotsu" (stuff) has accumulated.

When we came over from Hawaii, we had 60 boxes of "stuff", then when we moved from the company housing into this place, we added another 20 boxes...Anyway, we've been working on purging and cleaning up the clutter.

So, thanks, dear friend, we really appreciated all that you did, especially when we had that earthquake the other year and you didn't topple over!
"Otsukaresama" (thanks for all of your hard work)

I also wanted to share with you a snack that I recently found here in Japan. These cookies are made by Beard Papa and an oil called Oillio (which is oil forward and backward).

Beard Papa is the maker of cream puffs, they opened their first store in New York about 2 years ago. When they came to Shirokiya (a Japanese retail and food store) in Hawaii, the line to buy these cream puffs were over 2 hours! I really like the ones in Japan, but were disappointed with the ones I tasted in Hawaii. Somehow the cream filling was kind of heavy and didn't have much taste.

These cookies weren't particularly different from other cookies that I have tasted here, oh well, it was nice to try them. Here are the links: Beard Papa USA & Beard Papa Japan.

Okinawa has gone into their rainy season (tsuyuhairi), so it is just a matter of time before we (Honshu--mainland Japan) do, too. The weather has been very overcast and kind of cold. And I am knocking on wood as I say this, at least it is not humid!

Have a great day, I am off to the dentist to have my 3-month cleaning...sigh...