Generally, I tend to agree w/this. I'm not selling any of my mechanical tools, but I don't see myself setting up a woodshop anytime soon in Japan, but I'm always wrenching on things. And if I do, Japanese toolshops are pretty awesome. The hand saws are particularly neat - you cut on the pull stroke instead of the push. After you get the hang of it, it is pretty amazing how straight you can cut with these. The hand planes are similar, cutting on the a pull stroke. And all that metalwork craftsmanship they used to put into sword blades now gets put into all sorts of nifty little tools, knives, etc. A fairly commonplace Japanese hardware or knife store can be a pretty magical place for a westerner. It bugs the heck out of my wife, I always want to drop into these places and just look around.