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In Japan's oldest prose narrative the tale is told of a poor old childless woodcutter who spies an unusually luminous bamboo stalk one day. Cutting it open he finds a small baby girl inside about the size of his thumb. He takes her home and cares for her with his wife tending to her every need also. Each day as he goes out to cut wood and bamboo, every cut he makes reveals a small nugget of gold. Before long the poor old woodcutter is a very wealthy man, but as the tiny baby grows into a full sized beautiful adult he tries to hide her from the world. Over time though, people passing through catch a glimpse of this rare beauty and her fame spreads to the point that the woodcutter and his wife can no longer keep this beautiful woman hidden from the world outside....and so the tale begins. Nakaya surely needs no introduction here. It is often considered to be the gold among a sea of worthless bamboo - at least, that is the impression I had. Rarely are Nakaya's sold on the second hand market. You see a lot of Montegrappa's, Omas', Montblanc's and all those other 'high end' pens for sale in what seems like a steady flow. Nakaya's - not so much. I took this as an indicator that people who bought them tended to hold on to them; a good sign perhaps. I mulled over it for a long time before committing to buy. In fact, I mulled over it for so long that the double dorsal fin version I was looking at went out of production only to appear in production again about a month or so before I got my pen. Grrrr. Let's get down to specifics. All dimensions for this pen including prices and other specifics can be found on Nakaya's website or on nibs.com, so I won't repeat them all here. This is the Long Cigar (large version) with a soft fine nib (the call is flexible). It is in the Heki-Tanemuri finish; a kind of slightly opaque chestnut brown with a lime green underlay. The size is beautiful, the girth is perfect, the urushi lacquer is a work of art. It is a beautiful thing to look at with the seam of the cap meeting in the middle of the pen. There was a concern expressed a little while ago (perhaps a year ago) that the lime green of the HT finish was a little more faded and dull than when it first appeared. I can assure you that this is not the case here. The lime green is vivid and pleasing and works surprisingly well with the brown. The urushi over ebonite makes the pen warm to the touch and has a pleasant silky feeling. I thought the pen would be very light, but it isn't, and the balance isn't perfect either. I think this is down to the metal insert at the feed and grip which houses the converter. The converter is a standard type; nothing special at all. The pen does post securely, although many will tell you that this will damage the finish over time. I'd like to see evidence of this because I thought that once urushi cured it was an incredibly robust finish. The finish will wear over time though, loosing much of it's sheen and revealing some more of the green underneath, so perhaps posting may create a distinct green ring. When posted the pen is ridiculously long, but owing to the lightness of the cap, doesn't pose any concerns about balance. I love the look of this pen. The urushi in this colour has a natural appearance that just sums up that Japanese aesthetic regarding nature. It matches my expectation of Japanese craftsmanship of finding intense beauty in small things; although this isn't exactly a small pen! It has a simplicity and depth at the same time, which to me is very appealing. The threads are satisfyingly stable and secure and like the step they are not sharp or irritating. It's not a perfect finish and does have blemishes and slightly more opaque spots and bits where there seem to be more green. I like that aspect of it, but if you are the sort of person that likes a pristine and uniform design and finish to your pen, this will likely do strange things to your sanity. Did you hear the massive 'but' coming? But....... Many reviews will tell you that the nib is smooth. Many will tell you the flexible nib is a semi-flex and there are even youtube videos that demonstrate this. Many will tell you that Nakaya's run finer that Western nibs. I'm afraid I am about to dispute all of that. Initially my purchase was of a fine flexible nib. The term 'flexible' seems to be used in the most creative sense. Frankly I cannot get this nib to show any significant (or otherwise) expression at all. I've seen the youtube video and I honestly don't know how they get the nib to do that. I knew the nib wasn't a flexible nib and I read enough to know it might get close to a semi-flex, but in reality, my experience (with two nibs as I will explain later) was that it had no expressiveness at all - at least, not to the human eye. The nib has a sensation of a little bounce and does feel pleasant in this regard when writing. It doesn't feel like it's a firm nib and certainly not a nail. But as far as flexibility and expressiveness go; there is nothing, nothing at all. Nakaya nibs can be tailored to fit your needs. I have a tendency to prefer gushers because I write with a very light hand. The request went in for a fine nib (in the hope of an extra fine) with a very heavy flow. When I got the pen I was shocked to find that I didn't have an extra-fine (as was my expectation) but I received what appeared to be a very, very fine needlepoint. I instantly hated it the moment it touched paper. Out of a collection of just under a hundred pens (many of them truly junk) the Nakaya nib soared effortlessly to the top of the most unpleasant. It made a lot of noise on the paper. Even on Clairfontaine and Rhodia, the nib caught, staggered and juddered over the page. It felt unusually scratchy and I thought there must be something wrong with this because I literally could not write with it, yet this was a specially tailored nib. I persisted. And persisted. Eventually I had to admit defeat; I just didn't like it. Thankfully, Nakaya offer a nib exchange. Off it went again to be swapped out for a medium nib. I managed to do this with only a few days left before the opportunity ran out. The pen came back with medium flexible nib fitted, tailored to be extra smooth and with a heavy flow. It must be noted the pen is not a gusher and it disappointed me in this department. But the real disappointment was in discovering that the even the medium nib has this hugely unpleasant feedback. The size up eliminated some of the scratchiness, staggering and juddering on the page but it is still very noisy on the page and it isn't particularly easy to write with it with a light hand. It still wants to grip the paper in a very peculiar way to the extent that it can have quite a negative effect on your handwriting. The medium nib also turned out to be a medium - as in a western medium. The step up from the fine nib to the medium seemed to my eye to be huge! It still has no flexibility or expressiveness to speak of and in all honesty, what I thought would turn out to be one of my best nibs has turned out to easily be one of the worst. It's a slightly painful lesson. I have a pen with a medium nib that I can use a little easier than when it had a fine nib, but it's hard to shake the enormous sense of disappointment about it. I used to question people who said, it is all about the nib. Now I completely understand. The mis-match between its beauty and its nib is simply too great for me to be able to bridge. My advice; if you are thinking of buying a Nakaya do everything in your power to test drive at least two before you buy. My geographical location meant I couldn't do that and I paid for it.