(This is a guest Post from Sam Alpert. Sam is a geologist, gamer, and general lover of all things with good, clean design. See more from Sam on Instagram @samalpert.)
I love Japan. I love the country, it’s gorgeous. I love the food, it’s incredible. I love the language, it’s fascinating. I love the culture, it’s epic. I love the queueing, I love the conbini, I love the transit, I love the art, I love the bureaucracy, and of course, I love the stationery. I don’t want to come across as someone who worships the place unconditionally (though you might be rolling your eyes at that statement with an intro like that). I know, it has many, deep-rooted issues. And no, you’re right, I haven’t lived there, I’ve only spent a total of about three weeks there so far, and mostly in major cities. I know that I have rose-tinted glasses, but I hope that I am a conscious enough person to still know what I like and Japan has it in spades. In a different world I’d live there but it wasn’t in the cards (though not for lack of trying, two of the PhD programs I applied to were there, but sadly the funding wasn’t).
So when I say I am so excited to tell you all about the trip I took to Tokyo in October, I want you to hear the passion. I want you to feel the energy behind every detail. I want to pull you in and get you as hyped up as I was stepping off the plane in Narita. For those of you who’ve been, I want to share that passion with you, and for those who are curious or already planning to go, I want to stoke the fire.
Oh, quick disclaimer, I’m not going to cover literally everything we did. Brad would kill me. So if you’re wondering, “but wait, what did you do for dinner on day X?” or “what was your favorite conbini fried chicken?” (Famichiki at FamilyMart, not close,) ask me elsewhere. I have to be concise … or, failing that as I always do, not too long-winded.
So where to start?
Well, it’s a stationery blog after all, so let’s just start there.
As luck would have it, my partner is equally into stationery, albeit different things. She loves stickers and I mean really LOVES them. She is less into fountain pens, but that’s great, it means we get to hype each other up about the things the other finds.
After a barely adequate 6 hours of sleep we both woke up on our first full day amped to go to our first store: Maruzen Ginza. It was incredible, I got to hold one of the highly unusual titanium Nakayas. Hot take: it was pretty meh. Too heavy, and the threads were scratchy. Honestly, Schon DSGN makes a cleaner machined pen.
Loaded up with our first haul of stickers, a planner, and some Maruzen brand Athena ink, we headed to the promised land, Itoya Ginza. This epic place has been well covered, but it lives up to the hype. Let me hit you with a couple pro tips that I don’t think a lot of people cover. First, skip the 11th floor unless you love looking at hydroponically grown lettuce through a glass window. Next, if you cross the ground floor from the main entrance and go out the “back” door there is an express elevator directly to your left that is very helpful for getting to upper floors and is much less busy than the severely overworked main elevator. Finally, the main store is called G.Itoya. Right out the back door slightly diagonally across the road is a smaller secondary store called K.Itoya. It’s a beautiful space that’s much less crowded and is where they showcase the in-house items, including gorgeous felt pencil cases and some seriously impressive maki-e work.
A little peek at just some of the small items I’m not even going to have time to mention where all of them came from individually. We could have literally filled an entire suitcase with just cute stickers, stamps, and washi tape.
I’d come on the trip thinking I wanted a Namiki, but after checking Maruzen the writing was on the wall, I wasn’t in love with them like I thought I’d be (and the selection was down, the aftereffects of overhype for them and the earthquake still wreaking havoc on distribution of lacquer pieces). In Itoya, the salesperson was so patient, she let me try so many pens, including a Namiki Emperor Urishi. But the pen I kept coming back to was a Sailor King of Pen ebonite Syokei limited edition. The factory custom Naginata medium fine nib was unlike anything I’d ever tried, but it was also about double what I’d come prepared to spend.
So I needed to think on it.
Fortunately, it was lunch time, and here is where I’ll take some liberty and say that I think everyone should try conveyor belt sushi from Sushiro. Yes, it’s cheap sushi, but it’s just so darn fun. I don’t care, I’d go again. I loved it. You get so much sushi for cheap. Did I have better sushi (more on that in a sec) elsewhere? Yes. But did I have more fun sushi? Nah. Watching my partner’s eyes light up as her sushi was diverted down the express lane to our table was worth every penny of the trip, and it was only day 1.
But you all know where this is going. That lunch only made the itch harder to ignore. So yes, back to Itoya we went, and this time I left the proud owner of a gorgeous new pen.
The next day we went to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery for brunch while waiting for Travelers Factory Nakameguro to open. This place rocked, and I don’t even drink coffee. The apple tart was the best I’ve ever had, and I’m from Vermont, we know our way around an apple. Do yourself a favor and check this place out. Travelers was cool, very cramped though, at one point I had to step outside to get some fresh air. But it’s absolutely worth going to, especially with the aforementioned food option nearby.
I had to be careful taking pictures in Travelers as they asked me not to photograph any of their customers without permission. Fortunately, all the folks hanging out in this upstairs cafe were American, so I had no problem getting their assent.
So you know how I mentioned I love the food in Japan? Here’s something that I think is worth going out of your way to get: shaved ice (natively kakigori).
You can find this delicious stuff all over in cafes and family restaurants, but we chose to go to a specialty place called Azuki to Kōri and let me tell you it was 100% worth the price. This massive dessert which we shared and could still barely finish was flavored with red shiso leaf, giving it a slightly lemony, slightly herbaceous tartness that perfectly offset the chocolate mousse that was both on top and forming a center layer. Nestled throughout were little cubes of plum jelly that were like little packets of sunshine peeking through the leaves of trees in autumn. A reservation is generally required here as there’s only about 8 seats, but they’re not hard to make through their own website (something becoming more common in Japan that was a welcome change from my first visit).
Our next day was spent hustling from building to building in Akihabara to avoid what was arguably the most aesthetically pleasing misty rain I have ever had the pleasure of getting soaked by. If you have never been to stores like Don Quixote (colloquially referred to as Donki), Yodobashi, or Bic Camera, I strongly urge you to go explore. They’re like if you stacked a Best Buy, Toys R Us, Michaels, Staples, a liquor store, and a drug store, all on top of each other, then made the top floor a food court in some cases just for good measure. It’s wild. But don’t sleep on them. The food is cheap and always very reliable and there’s stationery galore and sometimes the “basic” stuff (here basic meaning basic for Japanese stationery, so still really awesome,) is even more plentiful and cheaper than at the big name places like Itoya. We ended up actually buying a second suitcase here to carry all our purchases. It was much cheaper than the equivalent ones in the US and I highly recommend the option if you don’t already have the appropriate luggage options.
Do you like grilled meats/veggies on a stick? I’m not sure who wouldn’t. While the vegetarian selections at Shimonya (Akihabara) are somewhat limited, I can say that this hole-in-the-wall place is about as local as it gets around there, is cash only, and does require you to order a drink, but if that’s all no problem for you, then I can’t say enough about the mouth wateringly delicious yakitori we had there. If you’re relatively new to yakitori please trust me and try the ‘kawa’ (chicken skin). It’s salty, buttery, and a little crispy and this place really does it justice.
Back to stationery. The next day we visited Maruzen Marunouchi where I picked up some local edition Maruzen x Sailor inks. They also had a much larger selection of high-end fountain pens than the one in Ginza, which was surprising to me given it was a smaller store. What we didn't expect to find here was yet another hidden food gem. On the same floor as the stationery, was the M&C Cafe. Here you can not only sit in comfort and watch the trains arriving and departing from Tokyo station from the massive glass wall by your table, but you can also try the delicious Hayashi rice, a cross between a slightly sweet Japanese-style curry and omurice, a dish where a slightly undercooked omelet is placed deliciously on top of steaming hot rice.
This was a set meal and came with a salad, royal milk tea, and the aforementioned main dish of Hayashi rice, said to have been made by the founder of Maruzen himself, Hayashi Ariki.
Something about watching the trains silently come and go while the mist comes down outside and sipping tea really just ticks all the boxes for me. I could have sat here for hours. Sadly, we had places to go.
The next day was a big one, as we’d be going to Kakimori and I had pulled out all the stops. We were both signed up to take their Inkstand workroom course and we had a blast designing our own inks. It’s really hard to capture a color that you only have in your head, but I was aiming for something like a storm clouds green/blue/gray. Like right before a major storm breaks. I didn’t quite get it perfect, but I’m still very happy with the outcome. My partner went for more of a “kitten toebeans purple” as she described it and I think she nailed it.
The staff was fantastic. The reservations through their website did require me to reach out as there was some bug that wouldn’t allow me to proceed with the name I had entered, but a simple email was all it took to sort things out and I believe that it was most likely the result of me trying to make the reservation on a mobile browser.
While you’re there make sure to take advantage of the build your own notebook options they have. Just like a cafeteria you get a tray and can pick out everything from the paper, to the cover, to the color and style of the bindings and closures. They have some really amazing covers done by local artists, leather covers, pretty much the works. I made one for myself, and one for our benevolent overlord Brad. For both I chose a mix of Conqueror laid paper and Neue gray paper then matched the rings and ties to the covers.
This is mine, the cover is done by Teppei Soutoume. Brad’s (not pictured) is by Taku Bannai. There were “matching” back covers, but I chose to mix and match it up a little so chose a beautiful dark green leather for myself, and a gorgeous lime green for Brad’s.
But what would stationery be without the food to fuel it. And since you’re at Kakimori can I recommend the fantastic sushi restaurant, 豊鮨, which is conveniently is right nextdoor. For ¥1100 the lunch combo comes with 10 pieces of nigiri sushi, a roll, and miso soup. The beer was super cold, and the husband/wife duo who own the store were incredibly welcoming.
Cash only, as with many small shops, but worth being prepared for.
Oh and if you’re wondering how to tell what places are good in Japan, let me give you yet another hint. Tabelog is where the majority of locals review restaurants. I find the easiest thing to do is to look a place up on Google Maps, copy the name in Japanese, then paste it into the Japanese side of Tabelog, then let Google translate the resulting page for you. Note that scores on Tabelog are weighted so that a 5 is literally impossible to hit. Anything above a 3 is going to be great food. Anything above a 3.5 is going to be some of the best food you’ve had. Above a 4 is almost too fancy for me.
Our next couple days were almost entirely stationery-free. We went on a day trip to Yokohama (highly recommend) the walk around the waterfront is gorgeous, and there’s some amazing food there as well. Personal recommendation: Honmarutei Yokohama Motomachi. The shio ramen with dandelion greens and chashu had the perfect balance of salty, bitter, and fatty, which was somehow still incredibly refreshing despite the end of summer heat.
I got the bowl with extra chashu which was honestly too much! Look how thick cut those slices are. I’ve never seen slices that generous. I’m not a ramen die-hard, but the noodles were the perfect chewy and the broth was light and flavorful. Would recommend.
With the end of the trip in sight I’d just like to take a second on my soapbox to share two of my other favorite places to eat in Japan. First off is one you’ve likely heard about already: the convenience stores, referred to collectively as ‘conbini’. For me this means 7 Eleven, Family Mart, or Lawson. There are others, but these are the big 3. In each store you can find cheap, freshly made (delivered 3 times a day) meals, drinks, and basically any kind of snack you can imagine. The cost:quality ratio on conbini food is literally off the chart. Sure, you can get “better” food elsewhere, but when we’re talking ¥120 for a huge piece of delicious fried chicken or a freshly made tuna and mayo onigiri (rice ball) the value just literally can not be beaten.
Some guides will mention conbini, I want to emphasize it here, they are incredible. I go through literal withdrawal upon returning to the states without their quick, cheap, delicious options. One note: many conbini have a couple seats in the front to eat your food while you’re there. If you do decide to leave with your food, please do not eat and walk on the streets. It’s considered rude. And definitely do not eat while on the subway (but long-distance trains like the bullet train are ok). If you leave the conbini, also note that you’ll likely be carrying your garbage with you most of the day, as there’s very few public garbage cans in Japan. So if I can, I prefer to just eat at the conbini (or on a nearby ledge outside) so I can toss my trash right there.
Any meal can be a conbini meal. A new-to-me option this time around was the black tea baumkuchen, a type of pastry, at 7 Eleven. This made the perfect light breakfast with some tea on our way out the door.
The second place is way more controversial, but what’s a Sam article without a little bit of a hot take. I think CoCo Ichibanya (a Japanese curry chain) is actually GOATed. Yes, it’s not the highest quality food. But it’s literally better for the cost than even the fanciest katsu curry I’ve had in NYC. The fact that you can order on an iPad at your seat, in English, pay with card, the food is fast, delicious, oh man, yeah. You just gotta go in knowing it’s essentially the same as fast food, but like, orders of magnitude better. I know you can get higher quality curry from lots of places, but again, this is about comfort and ease of access as much as it is about how delicious the curry is.
My go-to order is the hand-made katsu curry with cheese, egg, and sausages. Yes, it’s a metric buttload of food. Yes, every bite is delicious.
In our last days of wandering we checked out the Mega Donki which, turns out, has some pretty sweet stationery including adorable Pokemon flakes! Seriously, don’t sleep on the department stores.
I hope you enjoyed this exuberant recap of my trip to Japan. If you have questions about traveling to Japan, the stationery I got, the food we ate, or really anything I missed, please drop a comment here or hit me up on Instagram and I’ll do my best to answer.
