Read the local paper for any length of time and you're bound to come across something called the Firearm and Sword Law, often in reference to a pistol-packing member of the underworld. The law dates to a 1876 regulation forbidding everyone except police and military personnel from wearing a sword, and a section of the 1946 Potsdam Declaration designed to stem the sudden post-war increase in crime syndicates. Owning a sword is not impossible, but requires a stringent registration process. Even more demanding is learning to make the weapon-cum-object, as Pierre Nadeau, soon to complete an apprenticeship in sword-smithing, explains in this issue.
Though the heat is still likely to be scalding in September, a welcome breeze or two may also blow through the area. It is on one of these days that readers are encouraged to take advantage of Bill Lawrenz's hiking course through southern Ashiya and Nishinomiya, and Trevor Mogg's planespotting site in Itami. Colored leaves shouldn't be too far off.