A middle of the ‘process’ update.

Hello All,

First I’d very much like to say thank you to all of you who’ve passed along well wishes to myself and my family. We are all absolutely fine, aside from a brace of colds that won’t go away.

I’d also like to make it clear that there is no single person responsible for what happened with regards to the store when my mother passed away and the subsequent events that transpired. There are a several people who caused me no small amount of additional grief at a time I was utterly unable to cope with it, and as a result removed my ability to properly do what I should be doing. I’m quite sure some of them were unaware of any of this, but more than a few of them probably wouldn’t care if they did know (and that’s part of the problem as well).

Anyway, at the moment there are a lot of tools that have accumulated (many because of the above) that need to go. They’re all currently priced so that they’d normally be a bargain, but the longer they remain unsold the lower the price will go as I don’t want or need to drag them halfway around the world.

The store, as it currently exists, will close in the next few weeks. It will re-open (re-booted) in the future, however it will not list the same range of products it has in the past. Basically any mass produced tools will no longer be available, anything made to order (and sharpening stones) will still be available, however as we’ll no longer be in Japan the delivery will be different, as will how these items will be ordered.

At the moment, I am quite melancholy in my feelings. I’ve lived in Japan for the past 17 years, and am quite used to living here, warts and all. I’m going to miss more than a few things, and I worry about how the kids (all of us really) are going to adapt to a very different life. At the same time, there are a few things I am not going to miss at all. I still can’t shake the overall feeling of sadness though.

(Once it’s all over and done with, I do hope I’ll be able to get a decent night’s sleep. Something I’ve not really had for a year and change at the moment.)

And this blog will continue to exist, however I should be able to put more time into it being more detached from ‘this’ so I might be able to finally get some information out there I’ve wanted to get out but haven’t managed to so far.

For now, that’s about all I have. Writing up a “please don’t buy these” for a set of chisels on sale prompted me to write this here. I don’t know why.

(I’m kind of disappointed that I needed to write the “don’t buy” warning at all. One of the things I was asked specifically when I started all this was to try and dispel the mis-information out there and I wasn’t able to accomplish that for various reasons. Makes me quite sad, although I do hope the detachment from doing this every day, might allow me to slay some sacred cows that desperately need it. Might even be able to use some of the tools I’ve put aside for myself over time…)

Stu.