Licensing

Collecting vs. Mottainai

I'm not sure if my sister remembered to put her set out this year. I'll have to ask her about it. She's two years younger than me and lives with her husband in Berkeley, CA.

She's actually more of a collector than I am. We come from a family of packrats. I guess it comes from both of my parents being from large families that didn't have a lot of money.

I hate to throw anything away, and tend to hold on to things I think I can use again or that holds any special significance or symbolism. There's definitely some functional capacity to everything. We grew up hearing the phrase "mottainai" a lot.

I think my sister follows in the hobbies of my mom and the uncle that grew up with us with their collections. They always collected types of things (stamps, coins, little souvenir dishes, golf balls, etc).