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US Sources for Japanese Notebooks and Such


nofa

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I realize this is an old thread, but still useful...

 

If you live in the S.F. Bay area, there is a store called Ichi Ban Kan, located at Tanforan mall - near the San Francisco Airport.

 

They told me that the name translates to "many things", but its a Japanese dollar store - lots of cheap Japanese stuff - food, food containers, tools, candy, dishes, tea cups, tea, phone cases, beauty aids, and on and on and on....

 

And... a stationery aisle. Included are many items for desk top, cute erasers, pencils, pens (no fountain that I remember) and notebooks.

 

These are not the expensive Apica or or other name brands. There is usually a small selection of various sizes and styles, and the next time you go back they will all be different. My experience is that even cheap Japanese notebooks work well with a fountain pen.

 

I think it's a fun place to check out, and you can leave with a few things you won't find elsewhere, with only a small dent in your credit card.

 

 

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"Bad spelling, like bad grammar, is an offense against society."

- - Good Form Letter Writing, by Arthur Wentworth Eaton, B.A. (Harvard);  © 1890

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Daiso stores is a chain of Japanese $1.50 "dollar" store. Like Ichi Ban Kan noted in the post above, I find a great number of papers and notebooks there that are FP friendly.

 

Here is their online store: http://www.daisojapan.com/

 

Here is their store locator: http://www.daisoglobal.com/store/

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  • 2 weeks later...

I don't know if this will be helpful or not, but I just received an email from JetPens yesterday that they are carrying bound notepads/notebooks of Tomoe River paper. Pretty exciting stuff for me!

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Daiso stores is a chain of Japanese $1.50 "dollar" store. Like Ichi Ban Kan noted in the post above, I find a great number of papers and notebooks there that are FP friendly.

 

Here is their online store: http://www.daisojapan.com/

 

Here is their store locator: http://www.daisoglobal.com/store/

 

 

I visited the store for the first time today at Serramonte Mall (in Daly City, just south of San Francisco).

 

WOW! The place is huge. Lots and lots of Japanese "stuff" of every kind. Kitchen stuff, cosmetic stuff, household stuff, dishes, tools, food, and more and more..... Larger than a large supermarket.

 

And a large stationery section. Pens, pencils clips, folders, etc... Many notebooks of different kinds - quite a large selection.

 

And.... the pricing model is quite simple - $1.50. That's it. Except for a few items that are separately priced (a box of a dozen #2 Japanese pencils was $1.) I bought notebooks of different sizes and styles, all $1.50 each.

 

 

thanks for the pointer.

 

 

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...

"Bad spelling, like bad grammar, is an offense against society."

- - Good Form Letter Writing, by Arthur Wentworth Eaton, B.A. (Harvard);  © 1890

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For those of you who are in New Jersey/New York City, there is an amazing spot where I blew 60$ in the upon finding it in the last 10m of the store being open...

 

It is located in the bookstore (across the street from) associated with the Mitsuwa supermarket in North Jersey (595 River Road, Edgewater, NJ 07020). Go to the left back corner of the store and there is a stationary and pen shop. On their price stickers (because it has a separate checkout register) it is called "My Room USA Inc, Stationary and Gift". You can get almost anything you can get on jetpens. Campus notebooks, apica, lihit lab folders and binders....and really so much more than I can tell you about here. It is magical and I suggest you go there if you have the chance!

 

Also (semi unrelated because most of it isnt necessarily japanese): there is an office supply store in Princeton, NJ called Hinksons http://www.hinksons.com/ They carry a nice selection of pens and notebooks/stationary including Lamy pens, Clairefontaine & Rhodia notebooks, and a huge selection of planners.

 

Happy shopping!

I was just looking at this thread thinking I would go to the Mitsuwa shopping center to the book store there to look for notebooks. I love that bookstore, they have done special orders for me in the past. I look forward to getting paper that I can use with my fountain pens, since it dawned on me that the beloved Moleskins suck. Yes I am a newbie...

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  • 2 years later...

Oh my goodness, I am in deep trouble as now I have access to even more sources to feed this obsession. I say thank you. My bank account, not so much.

-gabaroo

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  • 5 months later...

I was in japan about a month ago and bought 3 dot grid Tomoe River notebooks from a company called sakaetp. I cant find them anywhere for purchase in the us, but they are amazing - perfect thickness (I find the seven seas a tad too thick for my liking) and nice cream color. I am glad I bought three when I was there but would love to buy more - anyone know where I could try?

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Since this thread is again alive, I thought I would add an additional source for Japanese stationery.

 

Muji stores sell a variety of household goods, even some packaged food. And stationery, including a variety of notebooks/journals. Similar to Daiso, somewhat higher quality and price - but still cheap.

 

Some Daiso items are made in Japan, some other places (mostly China). So paper is mostly FP ok.

At Muji I think just about everything was made in Japan, so more likely to be FP friendly.

 

I first was in the Muji store in London. There are only a few stores in the U.S, but recently was at the Stanford mall in Palo Alto, and found a Muji store there.

 

They also sell on-line, but I have no idea if this is a good deal for cheap notebooks.

<http://www.muji.com/us/>

 

.

...

"Bad spelling, like bad grammar, is an offense against society."

- - Good Form Letter Writing, by Arthur Wentworth Eaton, B.A. (Harvard);  © 1890

.

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  • 1 month later...

Since this thread is again alive, I thought I would add an additional source for Japanese stationery.

 

Muji stores sell a variety of household goods, even some packaged food. And stationery, including a variety of notebooks/journals. Similar to Daiso, somewhat higher quality and price - but still cheap.

 

Some Daiso items are made in Japan, some other places (mostly China). So paper is mostly FP ok.

At Muji I think just about everything was made in Japan, so more likely to be FP friendly.

 

I first was in the Muji store in London. There are only a few stores in the U.S, but recently was at the Stanford mall in Palo Alto, and found a Muji store there.

 

They also sell on-line, but I have no idea if this is a good deal for cheap notebooks.

<http://www.muji.com/us/>

 

.

bad for my wallet because now I have both a Daiso and a Muji nearby. Daiso sells Koyuko campus notebooks gor 2 dollars.
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  • 2 weeks later...

I was in japan about a month ago and bought 3 dot grid Tomoe River notebooks from a company called sakaetp. I cant find them anywhere for purchase in the us, but they are amazing - perfect thickness (I find the seven seas a tad too thick for my liking) and nice cream color. I am glad I bought three when I was there but would love to buy more - anyone know where I could try?

 

I just got an email from Jet Pen touting newly stocked Tomoe River Notebooks, and I believe that these might be the same as you describe (the company name "Sakaetp" is in smaller print on the product description band). The paper is dot-grid, but the pages are white.

 

Unfortunately, they are pricey, especially compared to the Seven Seas: $49 each for 184 leaves versus $26 for 240 leaves. But if Jet Pens starts carrying them, maybe someone else will.

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I just got an email from Jet Pen touting newly stocked Tomoe River Notebooks, and I believe that these might be the same as you describe (the company name "Sakaetp" is in smaller print on the product description band). The paper is dot-grid, but the pages are white.

 

Unfortunately, they are pricey, especially compared to the Seven Seas: $49 each for 184 leaves versus $26 for 240 leaves. But if Jet Pens starts carrying them, maybe someone else will.

 

I got the same book (the cover paper band is identical) from Kinokuniya book store, in this case in Seattle. Tomoe River Paper "The Greatest Paper for Fountain Pen,", A5 size with dot grid, 368 pages (so 184 sheets.)

 

Price at bookstore was 37.50.

 

You can also find it on Amazon Japan for ¥ 2,700, or about $24.33. Shipping to the states might be interesting.

 

<https://www.amazon.co.jp/SAKAEtp-%E3%83%88%E3%83%A2%E3%82%A8%E3%83%AA%E3%83%90%E3%83%BCFP-A5%E3%83%8E%E3%83%BC%E3%83%88%E3%83%96%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF-%E5%85%A8%E9%9D%A25mm%E3%83%89%E3%83%83%E3%83%88%E7%BD%AB-TMR-A5NB-DW/dp/B079XXYWMZ?th=1>

 

 

.

...

"Bad spelling, like bad grammar, is an offense against society."

- - Good Form Letter Writing, by Arthur Wentworth Eaton, B.A. (Harvard);  © 1890

.

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In Daiso here last week and noted they had some B5 Campus notebooks. Not a brand I expected to find in Daiso.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've had good luck with Kinokuniya Books. Their website doesn't indicate that their stores have a significant amount of stationary. The prices are high, so beware. But you can find some things that are normally not available anywhere else.

 

https://usa.kinokuniya.com/stores-kinokuniya/

 

Edit - I see this mentioned elsewhere. Apologies, my first search did not find the mention. Anyway, I'm leaving for the link to all locations.

Edited by luxseeker
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  • 4 weeks later...

I am glad I bought three when I was there but would love to buy more - anyone know where I could try?

 

 

You could try ordering from Rakuten Global Market, if you're prepared to (pay for and) use a forwarding service.

 

There are some sellers on eBay.com.au offering those, too, so I imagine you can also find them on eBay.com.

I endeavour to be frank and truthful in what I write, show or otherwise present, when I relate my first-hand experiences that are not independently verifiable; and link to third-party content where I can, when I make a claim or refute a statement of fact in a thread. If there is something you can verify for yourself, I entreat you to do so, and judge for yourself what is right, correct, and valid. I may be wrong, and my position or say-so is no more authoritative and carries no more weight than anyone else's here.

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  • 2 years later...

Brick and Mortar store in central U.S,  which carry many Japanese stationery items, they ship worldwide.

 

https://shop.stlartsupply.com/collections/notebooks?custom_constraint=custom-filter+tag=made-in-japan

Is it fair for an intelligent and family oriented mammal to be separated from his/her family and spend his/her life starved in a concrete jail?

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  • 8 months later...

Wholeheartedly YES.

I've now tried them slightly, by adding page numbers to one of them - that's usually my ritual for checking a new notebook's paper. Very pleasant - no showthrough, no bleedthrough, no feathering... and very nice gliding of the pen. I used one of my Ranga Abhimanyus which have F flex nibs (sort of; I find the flexing takes quite some pressure).

I'm currently almost halfway through a Kokuyo softring notebook, and the paper feels very similar.

a fountain pen is physics in action... Proud member of the SuperPinks

fpn_1425200643__fpn_1425160066__super_pi

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On 1/24/2022 at 4:09 AM, mhguda said:

Wholeheartedly YES.

I've now tried them slightly, by adding page numbers to one of them - that's usually my ritual for checking a new notebook's paper. Very pleasant - no showthrough, no bleedthrough, no feathering... and very nice gliding of the pen. I used one of my Ranga Abhimanyus which have F flex nibs (sort of; I find the flexing takes quite some pressure).

I'm currently almost halfway through a Kokuyo softring notebook, and the paper feels very similar.

I am glad you like them so far!

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