A few years ago I was in Los Angeles for work. A group of us coworkers and some spouses went to the Japanese area of Los Angeles for dinner. Just let me say right now that I cannot use chopsticks. Cannot. I have tried many times over the years. I have been coached on the proper technique by actual Japanese people. I have honestly given it my best effort but to no avail. I simply can't get it.

So of course, everyone wanted to eat sushi and drink all sorts of saki. I was nervous. The people in my group were so cosmopolitan (as opposed to us country bumpkins from Houston.) They knew proper chopstick usage and were quite knowledgeable about saki brands.

We ordered our food. I made an effort to use the chopsticks. I drank the saki. Finally someone rescued me from my dilemma. They announced to the entire table that the traditional way to eat sushi was with your fingers. So that is exactly what I did. And to this day, I hope they were right because that is how I continue to eat my sushi.

But the really good part of this story is that I discovered a wonderful store in the Japanese shopping center that sold the most amazing erasers. I kid you not. Erasers. I bought my daughter a few packs. And so her eraser collection was born. And here is what her Japanese eraser collection looks like today (with a few other eraser thrown in from other parts of the globe):

Yes, that is her manual typewriter in the background. She found that at a garage sale several years ago for $3 and I ordered some ribbons for it that cost considerably more than $3. She loves to use that typewriter!