natasha nakamura's diary

Monday

I went to Kappabashi to buy a kitchen knife. Japan makes the best knives in the world, drawing on the same skills used to make swords for the samurai.

I decided on a 12-inch-long beauty which a surgeon would be happy to work with. "Would you like your name on it?" asked the shopkeeper. 

"That would be nice," says I. "My name is Natasha Nakamura".

"I can easily inscribe the kanji for Nakamura, but as for your other name--Na Tah Sha?--I would have to use katakana, which with its tight curves are difficult to inscribe in steel, so I regret…"

"Just 'Nakamura' would be fine, thank you."

Such a beautiful knife.