Here’s a pretty thing, an Easter gift from my daughter-in-law. It looks like the paddle for a glove puppet’s canoe; in fact, it is a cooking spatula made in Japan by Mr. Tsuneo Kawamura out of hinoki wood. This particular hinoki tree (also known as the Japanese cypress) grows on the slopes of Mt. Fuji. The spatula has a marvelous fragrance, sweeter and not quite as resinous as cedar. I imagine, if I use it to stir rice simmering in the pan, it might impart a subtle sense of that coniferous aroma to the rice. But that would presumably diminish the spatula’s own rare scent. An old dilemma: there is always a price to pay for transient pleasures.