Japanese Speakers - Can You Help Me Locate A Product From A Video Please?

[Plume145]

Hi guys, I'm trying to locate the tool shown on this short video, starting at 1:05 (the link takes you straight to the right time - if you need the stuff that comes before for context, you'd have to reload it - sorry about that, this was the only way I could think of to be specific about what I meant).

 

It's a tool used to make it easier to open out wire binding (like on notebooks). Can you please help me locate one of those, say on Rakuten or somewhere I can buy it from outside Japan? I think I have a tenso account somewhere, but I've never used it and I'm a bit intimidated by how complex it is! lol. But I could really use the tool; I'm often taking apart wire-bound notebooks and I'm sick of using wire-cutting pliers to do it, it takes ages and I have to watch for flying bits as well!

 

This is mostly directed at those who speak Japanese, but as it's a video there's a slight chance you might be able to help regardless, so if you have nothing better to do, I'd love to hear your take even if you speak no more Japanese than I do!

 

thanks in advance :-)

[my63]

I don't know why but I thought of audio speakers until I read your post.

Anyway the item in question looks like one of these hope it helps.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Safety-Knife-Film-Slitter-Strapping-Strap-Band-Carton-Box-Tape-Cutter-/181305094054

 

Michael

[gsalazar]

I don't speak Japanese but I am fairly decent at googling. In any case, the item you're referring to is the Lihit Ring Notebook Remover (product number N-1811). Rakuten has the item: http://item.rakuten.co.jp/dmc-studio/n-1811/

 

From what I can make out from the Lihit Product Catalogue, the item is specifically for its Twist Ring notebooks. It may not work for other wirebound notebooks unless they're similarly built to the Lihit models.

 

http://i.imgur.com/W7BMBsp.png

[migo984]

Can you please help me locate one of those, say on Rakuten or somewhere I can buy it from outside Japan? I think I have a tenso account somewhere, but I've never used it and I'm a bit intimidated by how complex it is! lol.

 

Hi

 

I too was put off from using Tenso - I couldn't even work out how to enter the address they gave me! And I didn't like all the ratification requirements - asking you to send in proof of identity etc

 

So for ex-Japan items that you can't order direct online, you might want to try the shopping/shipping service White Rabbit Express.( www.whiterabbitexpress.com). If you send them a link to whatever it is you want, from Rakuten or elsewhere, they purchase the item for you and ship it off. They charge a handling fee on top of the item's purchase price, plus you pay the actual shipping charge (you get options for which services - I chose EMS).

They send you a quote for the purchase + handling, and a separate quote for shipping, or they did in my case as it was a non-standard item. You just accept at each stage and pay up.

 

The best thing is that all the nice people there speak very good English ( & they do have some American's working for them I believe). They were super helpful and responded to my email queries really quickly. They accept Paypal so you have the usual Paypal protection.

 

NB My item hasn't actually arrived yet. It was despatched on 27th and is already sitting in customs in the UK. So I can't verify that I've actually got the correct item yet (LOL!) but at this stage in the transaction, I certainly wouldn't hesitate to use them again. Really excellent.

 

Good luck

 

Marie

 

(ps no affilitation etc)

[Plume145]

I don't know why but I thought of audio speakers until I read your post.

Anyway the item in question looks like one of these hope it helps.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Safety-Knife-Film-Slitter-Strapping-Strap-Band-Carton-Box-Tape-Cutter-/181305094054

 

Michael

Haha, I know what you mean now I re-read it. It's like those optical illusions, kinda - the ones where you look at it one way and it's one thing, then change the angle or look at it again and you see something else

 

Thanks for the suggestion! Since it looks like gsalazar found the exact item shown in the video, I think I'm going to try getting my hands on that first. But it's great to have a plan B if that doesn't work out, because yeah, this does look like a good replacement - just possibly a bit heavier and bulkier than the other item. I actually pictured something like that, the tools for opening packages, but I just couldn't seem to hit on the right keywords, whether in google or on ebay. So, thanks!

 

I don't speak Japanese but I am fairly decent at googling. In any case, the item you're referring to is the Lihit Ring Notebook Remover (product number N-1811). Rakuten has the item: http://item.rakuten.co.jp/dmc-studio/n-1811/

 

From what I can make out from the Lihit Product Catalogue, the item is specifically for its Twist Ring notebooks. It may not work for other wirebound notebooks unless they're similarly built to the Lihit models.

 

http://i.imgur.com/W7BMBsp.png

WOW! I am blown away. I thought I was pretty handy with google, and I've dug out a few doozies in my time (including a lot of stuff about the Lihit Lab notebooks, incidentally, because I've developed a mild obsession with them recently ). But I never got anywhere with this! Would you please let me know which steps/keywords you tried, if you can remember?

 

It's great that you used the full name of the product too, because this let me find it on the english version of rakuten, which I AM able to navigate! So I'm good to go, thanks :-)

 

As to the caution (thanks for adding it btw, very kind of you): I think it would be okay for a range of notebooks beyond lihit ones, because they are a standard size and spacing - it's called a 3:1 pitch binding (ie 3 holes per 1 inch), and it's used a lot when binding smaller project (there's also 2:1 pitch - if you've seen craft binding machines, the kind marketed for home use by scrapbookers and so on, like Zutter's Bind-it-all or We R Memory Keeper's Cinch, those are 2:1).

 

That is what makes those twist ring notebooks by lihit so freaken' awesome - the hole pattern is an industry standard, and widely used. This gives you a ton of options for refills: you can get rid of the wire on an existing notebook and use that, and you can even punch your own, all you need is a fairly cheap wire binding machine (that you can also use to bind your used pages to archive them, unlike a simple paper punch). Compared to similar offerings like the Kokuyo Campus notebooks or all of the discbound notebook lines, it's so much simpler and not about locking you in with a bunch of proprietary tools and supplies. I actually can't believe these things are not getting more press!

 

Anyway, I need to stop now, because I am a total kool-aid drinking fangirl about these notebooks and I could bore your head off about them lol. Probably already have! sorry

 

Hi

 

I too was put off from using Tenso - I couldn't even work out how to enter the address they gave me! And I didn't like all the ratification requirements - asking you to send in proof of identity etc

 

So for ex-Japan items that you can't order direct online, you might want to try the shopping/shipping service White Rabbit Express.( www.whiterabbitexpress.com). If you send them a link to whatever it is you want, from Rakuten or elsewhere, they purchase the item for you and ship it off. They charge a handling fee on top of the item's purchase price, plus you pay the actual shipping charge (you get options for which services - I chose EMS).

They send you a quote for the purchase + handling, and a separate quote for shipping, or they did in my case as it was a non-standard item. You just accept at each stage and pay up.

 

The best thing is that all the nice people there speak very good English ( & they do have some American's working for them I believe). They were super helpful and responded to my email queries really quickly. They accept Paypal so you have the usual Paypal protection.

 

NB My item hasn't actually arrived yet. It was despatched on 27th and is already sitting in customs in the UK. So I can't verify that I've actually got the correct item yet (LOL!) but at this stage in the transaction, I certainly wouldn't hesitate to use them again. Really excellent.

 

Good luck

 

Marie

 

(ps no affilitation etc)

oh, good tip, thanks! I do okay as long as a site has and english version, even if it is just basic commands or a bad machine translation, because Japanese shops and brands are just great about providing lots and lots of photos, on plain backgrounds as well as staged, plus universal data like measurements in the form of spec sheets (korean ones too btw). So you can get all you need from the description that way, there are usually no words in Japanese either most of the time aside from category names and such. But some brands don't deliver outside of Japan at all, so it's great to know this!

 

and yeah, what's with the ID process?! I actually did this a while back because I'd lost my password, and I thought they only did this in those cases, to prevent fraud from malicious users getting into people's account and altering or using their saved data. I didn't know they did it with new accounts! It's odd because I'm pretty sure I didn't have to do all this back when I first signed up. Haven't used it yet though! It's a bit of a headache, and I can't find my password AGAIN. (I swear I'm not a flake lol, but I have something like 200 accounts to keep track of).

[gsalazar]

It's fun to sleuth on Google, no? This one was fairly straightforward because they mentioned the manufacturer. When I saw the video and read that it was a Lihit product demo, I just googled for "Lihit Labs Co" to go to their main page. They have an official website that has a decent English translator. Anyway, once there, I just went right into their product catalogues:

http://www15.j-server.com/LUCLIHIT/ns/tl.cgi/http%3a//www.lihit-lab.com/?SLANG=ja&TLANG=en&XMODE=0&XCHARSET=utf-8&XJSID=0

 

Notice that they have two: one is their general catalogue containing their staple products and the other has the newest products they have. Since they mentioned the item being a trial product, I assumed it would be in the latter. The catalogue is essentially a scan so navigating is a little tedious with zooming in and such, but that's how I found the product number as I flipped through the pages.

 

Then I just googled "Lihit N-1811" and filtered for shops like Rakuten.

 

Since you seem to be a fan of the Lihit system, I think browsing through their catalogues may net you some more interesting finds. If you find any other gems for the rest of us, do share!

 

 

I also recommend whiterabbit. I've used it before and it's a good alternative if you do not have friends in Japan or cheaper ways of importing these hard-to-find products.

Edited January 30, 2014 by gsalazar

[migo984]

 

Hi

 

I too was put off from using Tenso - I couldn't even work out how to enter the address they gave me! And I didn't like all the ratification requirements - asking you to send in proof of identity etc

 

So for ex-Japan items that you can't order direct online, you might want to try the shopping/shipping service White Rabbit Express.( www.whiterabbitexpress.com). If you send them a link to whatever it is you want, from Rakuten or elsewhere, they purchase the item for you and ship it off. They charge a handling fee on top of the item's purchase price, plus you pay the actual shipping charge (you get options for which services - I chose EMS).

They send you a quote for the purchase + handling, and a separate quote for shipping, or they did in my case as it was a non-standard item. You just accept at each stage and pay up.

 

The best thing is that all the nice people there speak very good English ( & they do have some American's working for them I believe). They were super helpful and responded to my email queries really quickly. They accept Paypal so you have the usual Paypal protection.

 

NB My item hasn't actually arrived yet. It was despatched on 27th and is already sitting in customs in the UK. So I can't verify that I've actually got the correct item yet (LOL!) but at this stage in the transaction, I certainly wouldn't hesitate to use them again. Really excellent.

 

Good luck

 

Marie

 

(ps no affilitation etc)

 

Post scriptum:

I have now taken delivery of the item shipped to me by White Rabbit Express. Everything was received exactly to order. From placing request online, to accepting purchasing quote & then shipping quote from White Rabbit was 2 days. From confirmation of posting 1 day later, to arrival here in UK was 5 days. In my book that's excellent service and I highly recommend them as an alternative to Tenso as a shipping service.

Edited February 2, 2014 by migo984

[Plume145]

It's fun to sleuth on Google, no? This one was fairly straightforward because they mentioned the manufacturer. When I saw the video and read that it was a Lihit product demo, I just googled for "Lihit Labs Co" to go to their main page. They have an official website that has a decent English translator. Anyway, once there, I just went right into their product catalogues:

http://www15.j-server.com/LUCLIHIT/ns/tl.cgi/http%3a//www.lihit-lab.com/?SLANG=ja&TLANG=en&XMODE=0&XCHARSET=utf-8&XJSID=0

 

Notice that they have two: one is their general catalogue containing their staple products and the other has the newest products they have. Since they mentioned the item being a trial product, I assumed it would be in the latter. The catalogue is essentially a scan so navigating is a little tedious with zooming in and such, but that's how I found the product number as I flipped through the pages.

 

Then I just googled "Lihit N-1811" and filtered for shops like Rakuten.

 

Since you seem to be a fan of the Lihit system, I think browsing through their catalogues may net you some more interesting finds. If you find any other gems for the rest of us, do share!

 

 

I also recommend whiterabbit. I've used it before and it's a good alternative if you do not have friends in Japan or cheaper ways of importing these hard-to-find products.

See, this is why you need another perspective: I'd found the website (that's actually how I got to the video in the first place) and I'd even noticed the catalogs, but it never occurred to me to go through them because these things always make my fans go crazy so over time I have developed a conditioned aversion to them. And it never occurred to me to look for a product number at all; I just got stuck thinking in terms of finding a way to describe it, like with keywords, which of course was doomed to failure because of the language barrier. So thanks! A fine bit of internet sleuthing indeed :-)

 

Yeah, I'm a big fan of the Lihit Lab Twist Rings line! Do you like these too? I keep coming up with new ideas for how they could be used or customized, they are incredibly versatile!

 

You said to let you know about any other finds, so if I may I think I'll do a little shameless self-promoting: several months ago, waaay back before I saw the video (actually, before it had been posted) I got the idea that you could use other notebooks to refill the Lihit lab ones, and posted a tutorial about how to do it right here on FPN. It got zero replies lol, so I don't know that it's a gem, exactly, but here goes

 

 

 

Post scriptum:

I have now taken delivery of the item shipped to me by White Rabbit Express. Everything was received exactly to order. From placing request online, to accepting purchasing quote & then shipping quote from White Rabbit was 2 days. From confirmation of posting 1 day later, to arrival here in Japan was 5 days. In my book that's excellent service and I highly recommend them as an alternative to Tenso as a shipping service.

thanks for the update! It does sound like a great service :-)

[Plume145]

Hey guys, just wanted to give you an update (and a thank-you!) because I got this!! Wheeeee! And it's awesome. Double-wheeeee! I actually like it so much I posted about it here, if you're curious about it!

 

As for other cool things in the catalog, actually there were a lot of really cool things and it IS a nice catalog, so if you're the type to read stationery/office supply catalogs for fun, I thoroughly recommend this one! I didn't get anything else though, because a lot of the products were cases, pouches, organizers, and stuff like that, and I have more of those than I need - should have a clear out actually!

 

However, I did stumble across a tiny Kokuyo Campus notebook in the same store, and I couldn't resist! I'm not sorry too *mutinous look* because it is a total cutie