Williams Tanto Style Heiho.
935165
Excellent knife, carry it daily.  I have been a fan of the tanto style for many years, James Williams has done an excellent job in the design. Blade is exceptionally sharp, spring assist is functional, grips are attractive.  I would buy it again.
Highly recommended.
3945470
A New Kimono is not intended to be a dressing guide- there are a few pictures at the end that show you how to put on a yukata, but that is not its purpose. Instead it is a wonderful way to feel inspired to wear kimono and yukata. If there is somebody you know who is already interested in kimono or has worn a yukata before, this book is for them. The only other English language book that fills this same niche would Mokona's Okimono Kimono, but with its larger dimensions and more elegant coordinates, A New Kimono will appeal to more mature readers. Even my friend who has little interest in kitsuke enjoyed reading the essays and looking at the glossy photos. If none of this sounds appealing then this is not the book for you. But if you already own a copy of The Book of Kimono, I guarantee you'll enjoy this too.
4142438
A nice solid piece of equipment with a wide grip and very well balanced. In terms of design, less is more as the plain black color gives it a raw manly look, which inspires a feeling of power.

Okay, all kidding aside on the aesthetics, this is absolutely one of the best values I have come across so far for kettle bell equipment. I would seriously consider buying more of their kettle bells to expand my home gym.

The only negative comment I have relates to delivery, which was well more than a week overdue. For the price, you cannot beat this deal if you can delay the desire of self-gratification.
3732669
If you want a traditional Shogi board, look no further. The style of this set is simple, but covered in a Japanese air. Take note that the pieces have two different kinds of Japanese script engraved on them: one is on the top and the other is on the bottom. I am not knowledgeable enough to know what kinds, but I'd imagine that they are Hiragana and Katakana. The pieces are hand-carved, and it shows: the shape, though the same as a whole, varies in thicknesses at certain ends of different pieces. The lines on the board are flat, and the board itself is very smooth. There is a compartment that is cleverly hidden in the base to hold the pieces, and is held shut by magnets within the frame. Felt lines the bottom of the board to keep surfaces safe from being scratched, and the board itself is small enough to fit easily on a regular closet shelf. I recommend this set for any Shogi player or customer interested in a Japanese-style room; take my word as you see fit.
1561882
I've been collecting a number of the original Mobile Suit Gundam series of HGUC models. This one is a little cheaper looking than many of the others, but it's still a fun and easy build.
4632577
At a first glance, you might not consider the Thunderbolt line of HG kits to be part of the same line as the others due to its unique styled boxart- but down in the plastic runners this is a modern HGUC through and through!

Gundam Thunderbolt was a Gundam side story manga that featured some pretty radical redesigns of classic Gundam MS.  Its an interesting read, and, as mentioned before, has pretty rad mechanical designs in comparison to their "classic" counterparts.

The "Thunderbolt" GM is- as usual- the Federation's standard production suit and features an additional shield and a double barreled beam gun on its left arm.  The NASA spacesuit inspired backpack has "arms" to hold the shields, and have a decent range of movement, although you'll need to be pretty creative to make some of the poses featured in the manual.  As its primarily molded in a single thin piece, I try to be as delicate with it as possible- often finding how I'm going to pose it BEFORE I attach it.

The rest of the model is molded in the colors you see in the picture- white, yellow, dark grey, a greenish grey, a darker bluish grey, a unique brown for the joints, and lastly a clear green piece for the visor.  The part separation for the most part is pretty good, but the yellow markings on the skirt armor are actually stickers.  The sticker sheet is fairly large, but if you're willing to do some paintwork, most are unnecessary.  It also comes with a decal sheet with some "EFSF" seals, as well as some smaller decals for additional (and optional) detail.  A nice touch in my honest opinion.  Is poseability is fairly standard for modern kits, with a ball jointed neck, ball jointed elbows, ball jointed waist, hips that can move the legs 90 degrees forward and to the sides (but very limited backwards,) elbow and knee bends just shy of 180 degrees, and excellent ankle tilts.

It comes with a beam rifle, double barreled beam gun, two shields, two additional "mounting" arms for the shields, and two sets of manipulators- closed fists and trigger finger hands for the weaponry. It also comes with "standard" shield mounts so that you can mount the shields on the forearms like "standard" GM and Gundam units. Unlike most HGUC Gundam esque units, it lacks beam sabers- but its understandable considering they were never used in the source manga.

Overall, I think its a really nice model- even without the stickers and additional decals.  Its a pretty unique design, and I had a blast building it.

Pros-
+ Standard HGUC Color separation
+ Excellent mobility and poseability
+ Plethora of weapon and accessory options
+ Additional marking decals for extra detail
+ Unique, if somewhat unorthodox design for a GM
+ Freaking awesome Boxart

Cons-
- Backpack sub-arms can be finicky, and are a bit fragile and awkward to work with
- No beam sabers or saber holding hands
- some decals can be a tad tricky to apply- notably the yellow skirt stickers
- some of the small yellow thrusters pop off pretty easy- I'd recommend gluing them in place.
3306657
In this collection, Boiano takes a traditional Japanese poetic form and fills the allotted syllables with English. Tanka are a form of Japanese poetry less well known in the West than haiku; they are also composed of groups of 5 and 7 syllables. In Japanese, of course, it is characters  words  which are counted, rather than the syllables, so performing within this restriction is particularly difficult in the syllables of English, which are a looser fit to meaning. Boiano uses many short words and carefully crafted natural rhythms to good effect. The classical tanka starts with an image and then, midway, shifts to the poets reaction to that image. This poet follows that tradition in many of these poems, though he is not bound by it.

Gaijin Diary is a book in two sections, with five tanka per page. The first section, Gaijin Diary, is mostly poems about living in Japan. The second section, Autumn Garden, contains more love poems, a traditional theme of tanka. A generous glossary is a useful end to the book.

Gai-jin are two frequent syllables among the five or seven in each line of the poems in the Gaijin Diary section. Gai meaning 'outside' and jin for 'person', i.e., foreigner. The poet not only offers observations of his time in Japan, but many tanka specifically tell about his experience as a foreigner. Many are modern in setting and wry.

A cop asks my friend

Why are you with this gaijin?

She ponders us both,

then smiles as if the question

had already been answered.

Others are more domestic, more traditional in spirit and theme.

No frogs sang this year

and my favorite tanuki

never came again.

How this neighborhood has changed,

beyond the reach of wild things.

Most of the Autumn Garden section is about the absence of a beloved, one of the common traditional subjects of tanka. Autumn was mentioned a few times in the Gaijin Diary section, but here forms a stronger theme. Many of the tanka could have been composed in any of the centuries since the form has been written in Japan.

Autumns chill breezes

haunt me with thoughts of endings

until one pale noon

a word or two on a card

takes the coldness from my heart.

We become familiar enough with the resonant elements of his life that when we encounter them again in the Autumn Garden section, their significance slips easily into the heart.

Vanished one by one

the things Id come to cherish,

landmarks of my life:

a neighbor, a dog, two trees,

a couple of friends, and you.

Tankas have been a popular form, and have often been published in collections of 100, but this book gives us 195. It ends with a number of poems about New Years, with the lovers still apart. The last page shifts form in the readers imagination.

[Review written by Nance Cunningham]
552207
The S.H. Monsterarts line is Bandai's best. The detail of the figures are amazing and they have a full range of articulation. This sculpt is different from the original Heisei sculpt. The difference is mainly in the points of articulation; this figure moves much easier than the original non burning figure and has greater range of articulation. This figure has incredible detail and is about the same size as the original Heisei Godzilla figure. The paint work is also great. This is a welcome addition to anyone's collection.
4149547
I love the simple style of this bowl and it has a very nice build quality. The bowl looks at home with both my English and Japanese tea set. The finger hole on the center allows for a good grip when lifting the lid and looks quite nice.
3350149
Im in love with Yoshihro brand ... Ive got many of their product, n still want to try more kind of knives.

love Yoshihiro
2285321
Let's just get it out on the table: Fisto is a semi-viking like warrior with a giant metal hand.  That being said, he is an incredibly awesome semi-viking like warrior with a giant metal hand.  Perhaps the greatest ever made!  I believe that Fisto is the greatest example of what a Masters of the Universe Classics figure can and should be: He respects both the vintage line and the 200x line, taking the best from both eras, allowing fans to choose how they display the figure. Here's my thoughts on why Fisto is "hands down" one of the best MOTUC figures yet!

Positives:
* The quality control on this guy seems perfect. Good articulation, solid ankles, and no fun features like exploding hips or rotting appendages.  Fisto is excellent all around.

*There is lots of versatility in how Fisto can be displayed.  If you like the vinatge look, you'll be happy because Fisto's armor and purple sword (the same mold as Tri-Klops' weapon) perfectly recreate the vintage look.  If you like the 200x design best, you can give Fisto a very cool belt (adorned with great details like a book, a flask, and a pouch), a head with his circlet, and his massive "buster" sword with a cool fist design on the hilt.  Or you can make a combination of the two looks.  I love when Mattel lets us choose how we want out figure to be displayed! If you wanted to, you could even give the massive sword to your 200x Fisto, as the accessory was originally cut from that figure.

*Fisto's accessories are all fantastic. His fist (some seem to be removable, mine is not) is very well sculpted and imposing. His purple sword has a gorgeous metallic paint job on the blade. His "buster" sword has a neat little fist on the end and stores on a sheathe on Fisto's armor.

Negatives:
*Fisto's armor is removable, but underneath his torso is two different colors: the lower torso is silver without sculpted musculature while the upper torso is muscular and flesh colored.  My understanding is that this was designed so that if Fisto were posed in such a way that his lower abdomen were showing, it would still look like armor rather than reveal his stomach. Still, it limits display options for Fisto by preventing him from wearing interchangeable armor pieces from other characters.

*I don't mind this, but some folks do not like the sheathe on Fisto's back. It sticks out a bit and you can see Fisto's skin underneath (it is too high up to expose the silver painted lower abdomen).

Conclusion:
*I will say it again: To me, Fisto is the perfect example of what Masters of the Universe Classics needs to be: A line that celebrates the best elements of a character, regardless of which era they originated.  Fisto accomplishes this beautifully!

Why I rated this toy 5 stars on educational value:  Fisto provides an excellent springboard for you to introduce your child to Marcus Sergius, a Roman general fitted with a prosthetic metal hand so that he could hold a shield during battle. For further reading, see Natural History by Pliny.
3862528
Great traditional unit. Its like a transformer! Lots of pieces and a solid platform. You can use different kinds of fules and its very adapable....

Good to Go
1283780
Perhaps in a nod to the acclaim which his first version had garnered back in the '70s, Keola Beamer chooses to open this album with the traditional mele Waipi`o Paka`alana. The effect is to make it instantly apparent that not only will this cd bypass any hint of frivolity, but will surely run a path straight into profoundest sacred darkness. Po. The liner notes give a slightly more gentle version of the Waipi`o Paka`alana mana`o, but the music invokes the full sense of mystic tragedy incumbent upon this mele. Carlos Nakai`s flute steps deftly between blues and a traditional sound, Keola's guitar is weighted with a visionary depth. No, this cd will be no lightweight.

The deepest and darkest track may be E Manono, a traditional mele that concerns the last moments of chiefess Manono, Keola's kupuna (ancestor). The liner notes describe well how she led the battle of Kuamo`o after her husband was killed. Not mentioned is how she died. Manono was shot at point blank with a musket. In the face. By her brother. Kou aloha, kou aloha. Malama kou aloha. Mahalo a mau loa e Manono.

The guitar-flute duets engaged in by Beamer and Nakai, in Ka Mano for an excellent example, reveal more than their respective musical mastery. Two disparate musical traditions are not heard. Not only are they not competing, they are not even trying to complement each other. They are playing inside of each others' heads.

And then there is the flute-flute duet. Followers of Keola Beamer's work will know of his affinity for and virtuosity with the `ohe hano ihu, the Hawaiian nose flute. The `ohe shows up often in his music, and one has to believe that this was a catalyst, if not a root cause, for the pairing of Beamer and Nakai. So it was inevitable that this cd should feature a track such as Lapule. The call and response thing seems to be very natural for the `ohe, any time you get a couple of nose flautists together this seems to happen. The result can be an aural intimacy of spirits, so closely entwined and reacting as to make the Westernized mind a little uncomfortable. Lapule blesses us with just this.

Throughout this disk, Moanalani Beamer articulates a number of traditional instruments, including the rarely-heard `ukeke and oeoe. The kahiko backdrop couldn't be stronger. Layer upon this the chant styles that Keola and Carlos lay down, and you might think that Keola's signature (forgive me) new-age/folk flavor of slack key or the bluesier notes of Carlos' flute might raise a hint of discord. You might think that, until you heard it. Count yourself lucky to be alive now when you can experience this cd.
969028
This flute is a chinese xiao. The mouthpiece is very different from a shakuhachi. It is more like a regular flute with a south american quena mouthpiece, and although it is played somewhat like a shakuhachi in that it is endblown, it lacks the characteristic sound of the shakuhachi, and notes cannot be bent in the same way a shakuhachi can as the previous reviewer noted. These will sound more like a regular flute which is no bad thing if that's what you are looking for in the first place.
3293983
Wing Tsun (WT) has been referred to as  a "Martial Arts system" and not a "style."This is because its forms are used only in training and its moves are not choreographed.  Although there is not a standardized series of strikes/blocks and techniques the Siu Nim Tau (Little-Idea) teaches you all of the first form of the system.

Enough said, this book is a well illustrated step by step instruction of the first form in the WT system.  It's divided into three sections with a total of 183 movements.  The 183 movements are broken down in front and side views of the movement to learn the correct form.  A definite plus is including the Chinese name for the movements along with English descriptions for new students.  As a new student there is nothing like being told to go from Tan-sau to Jum-sau then change to Gwat-sau!  This book will clearly walk you through all those steps.

After teaching the Siu Nim Tau 183 movements the remaining pages are used to show applications for these movements.  . In WT there is no short cut once the movements of the SNT form have been learned and they must be practiced seriously.  This book is great for beginning students and if studied it will impress your Sifu on you SNT form and how fast you picked it up.
2786838
A great design with some heft so it won't move around.
3233199
Thom Harinck. Godfather of Muay Thai Kickboxing in the West by Julio Punch

This book informs us in a most stimulating and informative manner about the martial arts phenomenon Thom Harinck and the many champions he has trained. It portrays a man with a passion for the martial arts and all that is related to them. That passion has led to the development of a highly specific style Chakuriki (for Duch readers Ontleende kracht). This style has been shaped by Harinck through taking elements from diverse martial arts - including judo, karate, boxing, savate and not least Muay Thai - and combining them. The discipline, the tough training methods and the mutual respect are further typical of the Chakuriki style. Thanks to the charismatic personality of Harinck the Chakuriki style has led former students to adopt it as a lifestyle which has allowed them to distinguish themselves in society.

The now 71 years old Harinck has undoubtedly earned his spurs in Muay Thai kickboxing. The effectiveness of his training methods has resulted in a large number of champions, both male and female, whom he has trained in his forty-year career as coach and mentor. The book`s author has done his background research well which has resulted in rich portraits of the fighters and matches. This leads to a varied insight into the personalities of those who practice Muay Thai and other styles of kickboxing. Some are modest and withdrawn youngsters but who are transformed in the ring into real gladiators while some can end up in a criminal environment. Most turn out well  in some cases aided by Harinck and his positive influence over his young disciples  but others have been less successful in finding a wholesome career, to put it mildly. The dividing line between taking the criminal path or enjoying a successful career in sport or business can be narrow and this is a recognizable picture for police forces in many western countries. That it is why it is important to learn in depth about this subculture in order to be alert to any signals of degeneration within it (writing as a former police officer with knowledge of this issue).

What in any case is perfectly clear is that Thom Harinck as the founding father of the martial arts in the Netherlands has had a colourful life during which he`s experienced diverse personal dramas. He is an interesting individual who has meant a great deal in the world of kickboxing in the Netherlands and elsewhere. What we now see during matches on the various commercial television channels, for example, would not have been possible without his dedicated involvement in the sport. This book by Julio Punch provides an insightful history of the rise of the martial arts in the West which is full of rich portraits of matches and fighters and which strongly conveys that next to physical prowess a sound mental attitude is crucial as a bedrock for a healthily balanced life.