Little sword

Even abroad, for Japanese people the Japanese way often prevails. At my office, two of the guys I worked with were here in the U.S. for two years, and now their time is up (much like how every year teachers are moved around between schools). So they have migrated back to Japan and two fresh replacements have arrived.

The new guys are pretty nice so far. One of them even brought me a gift.

It's a little sword stand that comes with two miniature weapons. The sword is easy enough to recognize, but I had to ask about what the other implement is. Apparently it's a jutte (or jitte; 十手), which were worn by police and samurai not only to keep order but as status symbols.

Don't think I'll be bopping any criminals with this one, but it's cool all the same. Very thoughtful.