When I was young, and not so young, I loved to peruse The Book House . The volumes were my mother's when she was a child, and the nursery story volume was rebound several times. As part of that set is a book Little Pictures of Japan. I open it now, in honor of spring. It's a book of haiku. Hours Well Spent Months and days I've wasted Doing some useless thing - How few the hours that have been well spent, Viewing the flowers in spring! - Fujiwara no Okikaze (about 910 A.D.)