Kimberly T’s Reviews > Sweet Bean Paste > Status Update

“Sentaro, your life is meaningful too. The time you suffered behind bars, your finding dorayaki - I believe it all has a purpose. All experience adds up to a life lived as only you could. I feel sure the day will come when you can say: this is my life.”

“I realized that no matter how much we lost, or however badly we were treated, the fact is we are still human. All we can do is keep on going with our lives, even if we lose limbs, because this is not a fatal illness. In the list of darkness and a struggle we had no hope of winning, I held onto this one thing - the fact of our humanity - and I was proud of it.”

No way out but through

“When you can say with certainty that you have found your style of dorayaki, that will be the start of a new day for you. I firmly believe this. Please have the courage to go your own way. I know that you can do it.”

Life lesson!

“And what about that prickly hedge ferociously shutting out the world? … He supposed it was an entirely different emotion from the sense of defeat he used to feel when he was behind bars. He’d been in the wrong - these people were innocent. There was a limit to his confinement - but when they entered the law ordained they would be there for the rest of their lives.”

Sentaro and Tokue both being behind bars..

“But for some reason sensation in the tongue is the last to be affected. Can you imagine what it’s like for someone who can’t see or feel, to taste something sweet?”

It turns out.. we’re all people and there’s always a life behind each person

“Simply saying that, medically speaking, there was nothing to worry about, would not undo the damage done to Tokue’s fingers by the disease. And her fingers were what people saw.”

The social aspect of disease is truly eternal

“I never got to be a teacher, but now I can enjoy a fraction of what it might’ve been like. Thank you for giving me the chance to meet those girls.”

“Get on with you. I’m the one being helped.”

Fun, they’re warming up to each other!

“Young people shouldn’t talk about fate.”

Tokue and Sentaro have regrets! Who doesn’t!

“This was the wall Sentaro ran up against. He didn’t think it was possible for a 76 year old woman who sat down at the drop of a hat to work any harder than she already was.”

Time to Apply yourself my dude! I get it though, the resignation of not changing anything about your life because it’s really just a lot of effort.

“Dorayaki weren’t much as conversation partners.”

Sentaro feels washed up and like a loser. Same dude