Category: Stationery Shopping

2019 D.C. Pen Show!

~ notebookjoy ~ 5 Comments

Long time, no see! It’s been several months, but I’m finally back from the dead to blog once more. I always feel sad when I see people’s abandoned blogs floating in the vast internet but now that’s me! It takes SO MUCH work and dedication to keep a blog going, especially when social media is easier and gives instant validation. But blogs and reviews in particular are great for giving more information before purchasing expensive stationery. So, I’m back to my blog to give you quality reviews! Also I finally linked my own domain to the site, so links should redirect to notebookjoy.com instead of notebookjoy.wordpress.com hopefully!

If anybody is interested, the reason I’ve been away is that spring semester of college was really stressful. O_O Turns out I shouldn’t have had a campus job while taking five classes and trying to socialize and find internships. This summer I’m working more than I would prefer but at a much cooler job — at a used bookstore! I feel like I’m in an indie romcom movie sometimes, but with more annoying customers. I’m also learning to drive by myself without being terrified and cooking simple meals in preparation for my apartment next semester. So this summer has been productive even if I haven’t read or written too much. I also went to Portugal and found nice stationery there. Maybe I’ll post a quick review.

I also went to the D.C. Pen show, for my fourth year! Sadly I only went a few hours on Saturday but it was so much fun. I also RSVPed to join my local pen group for dinner! I focused on purchasing “unusual” inks, since I have most colors at this point. Interesting notebooks and leather products were also on my list. But I didn’t expect to come away with a Franklin-Christoph Pocket 66 pen with a gorgeous lava resin! Walking by the F-C table, this pen instantly grabbed me. Normally, I ordered expensive pens online after much research, but I gave in and bought it for $180 with a speciality SIG medium nib. It felt good having a job to give me extra money. 🙂

The pictures don’t do it justice! The Pocket 66 glows iridescent under a light source, lit up with swirls of yellow and orange and red. It is the perfect size posted for my small hands. I got it as an eyedropper, my first one. I’ll be very careful with it, so no bringing it to class in case it explodes.

 

I also bought several notebooks, Life Stationery Spiral, Life Stationery Vermillion, Life Stationery Recent Memo, and Kyopodo Notebook, all from Vanness Pens. The Vanness table is always so friendly and has a great selection. I liked the lady at the Sailor USA table too, she helped me pick out a Bungubox to buy, Clown Tears. Sadly, Brad from the Pen Addict wasn’t at the show this year so I didn’t get to say hi. Neither was Anderson Pens. As for inks, I bought Robert Oster Rose Gilt Tint, Bungubox Clown Tears, Kobe Arima Amber, Akkerman Sapgroen, Pilot Iroshizuko Tsutsuji, Krishna Brown Pink, PenBBS 137 Wisteria, Vinta Sirena and Sailor Yodakai. I also got a beautiful three pen leather case from Galen Leather! I love the smell and how supple the brown leather is! I wanted to buy the Galen Writing Box so badly but resisted the temptation.

 

Even better than the show was going out to dinner with the D.C. Metro Pen Crew, my local pen group. We all compared purchases and tried out each others pens. I’ve never felt so included in a hobby before. Everyone understands what I’m talking about for once! Even though I was the youngest there, I had an easy time making friends and talking about our shared passions. My advice for any convention goers is to meet up with people after the con, whether it’s online friends or a local group or people you meet in the hotel bar! Even better than buying stationery are the friends you make along the way.

For my few readers, thanks for still being there! I appreciate it.

Stationery Shopping: Jenni Bick Fine Custom Journals DC

~ notebookjoy ~ 3 Comments

I always am on the lookout for new places to buy quality notebooks and pens. D.C. doesn’t have as many stationery stores as NYC, but it does have the homegrown Jenni Bick. I visited it a year ago, and finally had the chance to go again with a friend. The store is located only a few minutes walk from the Dupont Circle metro, if you take the 19th Street exit. There is also a Krispy Kreme nearby, if you hunger for fresh donuts and paper. 🙂

The store is easy to see, with a giant selection of notebooks displayed proudly in the window. Once inside, a rainbow of Leuchtturm1917s greet you, stretching across the wall to your left! Even though I’m not the biggest fan of the 1917, this display makes me smile.

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I couldn’t capture the whole row in my picture!

You’ll find many types of notebooks here, both the usual Moleskines and Paper Blanks, to Japanese brands like Midori or Stalogy, to more obscure companies. The selection has only gotten larger since last year, to my delight. The Leuchtturms take up much of the front. There is a section for Nuuna notebooks, which I had never seen in person before! There is also a clearance table, a Moleskine display, some fountain pens behind clear glass and fountain pen ink from Lamy, Faber-Castell and J. Herbin. Jenni Bick also has a selection of store-made leather journals. They are beautiful but extremely expensive. If you need a memorable scrapbook or journal, this section is for you.

There also is some art supplies in the back! There is a table with notebooks for people to try out and write in. This is a great idea because often I am enthralled by a notebook’s cover but disappointed when the paper ends up being terrible.

The employees are so nice and helpful here! They are knowledgable about every type of paper. Honestly, I’d love to work at Jenni Bick so I could be around stationery all day. I was heading to the Phillips Collection afterwards, so I couldn’t buy anything too big or bulky. So I settled for a blue inkpad, a Stalogy365, a discounted Semikolon notebook and some elastic bands for my Traveller Notebook.

If you’re in Dupont Circle, I recommend stopping by. There are other great stores and museums nearby. Second Story Books is a treasure for anyone who loves used books for cheap!

Stationery Shopping: Traveler’s Factory, Muji, and Other Stores

~ notebookjoy ~ 5 Comments

Note: This is part of a series. Read my other posts here, here, and here. 🙂

I’m sad to say that I’m back home now. Japan was a wonderful experience and two weeks  didn’t feel like enough time. Unfortunately, we didn’t go to Osaka so I didn’t see Nagasawa. 😦 I did check out the Traveler’s Factory and Muji in Narita airport though.

I was excited to see this Muji-to-go after seeing all the great stationery stocked in convinence stores. But the selection was small and not very exciting.

However, The Traveler’s Factory sold Traveler’s Notebooks and its accessories. For those who don’t know, TN’s are leather covers that can hold small notebooks, or “inserts”. This allows you to carry around several notebooks in a portable package. I bought inserts with special covers exclusive to this store. I also bought vintage-style Pan Am stickers. My dad bought a brass bullet pencil and ballpoint. He was actually interested by the shop! My plan to convert my family is working. 😉

I also bought some stationery from convenience stores. The most common ones were Family Mart and 7/11. Yes, the latter is apparently very popular in Japan. These small stores actually have good selections of name-brand stationery like Kokuyo and Muji. Some 7/11’s had their own branded notebooks too! The items here were cheap yet high-quality.

I’m still surprised that such nice stationery is widely available and cheap. I’m used to the terrible paper sold in U.S. stores. I spotted nice pens used for signing stuff a few times. I guess Tombow pencils and Uni Sign pens are the equivalents of Ticonderoga’s and Sharpies in Japan!

Found at the Edo-Tokyo Museum
Found at the Meiji Shrine

I hope you enjoyed my blog series! I’ll try to post more reviews but college is starting up for me and I need time to settle in. For those who are interested, here are some non-stationery related pictures of my vacation:

Stationery Shopping: Itoya, Tag, Loft

~ notebookjoy ~ 2 Comments

Note: Read my other posts about stationery shops here and here.

So I went to Itoya Ginza and its related shop, K. Itoya, during my last day in Tokyo. Itoya is in the center of the Ginza shopping district, surrounded by luxury stores. Just look for the giant red paper clip jutting out from the building!

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Itoya presented the stationery beautifully. It must have taken a long time to arrange all the stationery so perfectly. There were endless rows of letter paper, washi tape and pens. There were 12 floors, so a lot to choose from! Not all the floors catered to stationery lovers. I spotted travel and home good sections. There’s also a nice restaurant!

Gorgeous cards!
Wax seals and stamps
Expensive glass dip pens

But most of it didn’t really speak to me. The items was either too expensive or not my style. The service was also quite slow. Compared to Sekeido, Itoya was too upscale and curated for me. The notebook selection was lackluster in the main store. There wasn’t enough variety and everything was full price. I liked the K. Itoya better. It was less sterile, and had a good notebook section. There were also cute school supplies. My favorite part was the table devoted to astronomy-themed stationery!

A notebook making section. I was going to order one, but nobody was at the counter
Love Kokuyo Soft Rings
Life paper is great
Astronomy themed supplies

I did buy a Pilot Custom Heritage 91 in Yama Budo color, a pen I’ve coveted since the beginning of my pen obsession. And I grabbed Pilot Iroshizuko Momiji for 1500 yen!

I had a much better time when I went to Kyoto. There I visited Loft and Tag Stationery. They were two very different stores. Loft was a Target-style store, with many different floors devoted to fashion, travel, home goods, gifts, etc. Tag Stationery was a smaller, specialized shop.

Loft was in a busy part of Kyoto, near my hotel. It had several floors, but it wasn’t all devoted to stationery. The third floor had all the journals, pens, art supplies and planners. There was a rainbow of notebooks in even more colors and types then I’d seen before! This had the best notebook section out of all the stores I visited so far. The Copic marker aisle was small and not as good as Tools. The fountain pen and ink counter was also small. But there were Loft exclusive Pilot Kakunos with magenta, pink or purple pen bodies. I got the purple pen. 🙂 There was even  a cute Traveler’s Notebook set up. I even convinced my mom and sister to visit Loft. They both enjoyed it! My sister even bought a Traveler’s Notebook in passport size and some inserts to go with it. So proud of her. 😀

In comparison, Tag Stationery was a small niche store. Apparently that’s where the Tag inks came from. It was in a bustling shopping area. A small temple was next to it. I loved that about Kyoto, finding little shrines and temples everywhere!

I already had Kyo-no-oto Adzuki-iro but I bought Kyo-iro No. 2 Ohara’s Morning Snow and Kyo-no-oto Hisoku. Besides, the store-made inks, I also purchased a pinkish red Sailor demonstrator. There was an exclusive pink Pilot Prera but I didn’t get it. Tag also had a wonderful collection of letter writing paper and envelopes. I bought a nice set with flower patterns printed into the surface. I was surprised by the array of notebooks for young children. It seemed like the type of notebooks you’d buy for kindergarten. It had an unusual ruling, a large grid made up of four squares. They had pop culture references on the cover like Disney and Peanuts and Moomin. I always like finding new rulings!

Although, I didn’t enjoy Itoya as much, the other two stores more than made up for it! Next, I’ll post about the Traveler’s Factory store in Narita airport and other assorted places where I got my stationery.