Japanese Stationary or: How I sold my soul to cuteness.

Hope you all had a nice weekend..? I have to admit that I did absolutely nothing. But I needed that very very badly after this week. I least I wrote some blog posts beforehand and I may also work on the gift for my boyfriend (it will be a very late anniversary present.)

I know how interested most of you are in Japanese stationary goods and a lot of my readers demanded this post so here it is! I actually had this post scheduled some weeks before but I accidentally deleted the pictures I shot… *cries* Last week I did a huge shopping day because I had to get some gifts for some of my friends who have birthday soon (or yesterday, like one of my best friends Susann! Happy birthday again sweetie!) Of course I couldn’t resist all of these small goodies. You know how this works right? Of this pen is only 200Yen and this clear file is only 350Yen, that’s almost nothing… and in the end of the day you spend a crazy amount altogether, it’s so dangerous. This shopping center we have here in Tsukuba is even twice dangerous: First of all it’s very far away, so when you are there you have to buy all the stuff because you are not very likely to come again any time soon. Second, this shopping store has SO many stationary or character stores! I fear this will only get worse once I set foot in Korea… but well, you can never have enough stationary, right? Right?

Beware of massive flood of pictures after this link.

DATE / JOURNAL STICKERS

Japanese / Asian countries in general seem to be much more obsessed with keeping a cute journal. I once thought a journal was for remembering dates and all but boy was I wrong! I found these cute date stamps and couldn’t decide which one I needed more – pandas or unicorns? Why not both? I wish there were more unicorns though..  btw my journal kind of turned into a diary / recipe book / book for EVERYTHING. Its sacred and I would cry if I lose it.

PENS!

Hands down – Japanese ballpoint pens are the best. They write so much more better than the ones I can get in Germany. I don’t know why but I think it has something to do with aesthetics – Japan is a country being very concerned with aesthetic aspects of life (there are whole books on how to get beautiful handwriting or how to keep a sophisticated diary) which is why they have more variety and also better writing utensils. The design of these were too cute (purple & green – my favorite color combination.), love the charm it has on top and of course, these do write amazing. I think I’ll get some backups next time. These were cheap too, I think 200Yen? (1€?)

POST IT / PAGE MARKERS

I have ro read a lot for university so these come in very handy. Despite the usual multicolored post its you can get bunnies, pandas, alpacas, sweets, macarons, dogs, sakura, paper, plastic, monochrome, multicolored… I think you get it.

CLEAR FILES

Little Twin Stars with 4 pouches / Sentimental Circus with 4 pouches

20th anniversary limited Sailor Moon glitter clear file with 5 pouches / Purple Sentimental Circus clear file with 4 pouches

I did a huge mistake last time I lived in Japan – I didn’t buy any clear files at all. I was very sad when I was back in Germany that I somehow missed them. I did get a lot of clear files for free as promotion gift but of course they were not that pretty and they also had 4 pouches which is not as useful as the ones you can buy in stores. I did buy a clear file for every day in university – since they have multiple pouches I can use it for more than one class. Clear files really are not a thing in Germany. People use only binders but I like to have my papers more flexible so I can rearrange as I like. I did buy a lot of Sailor Moon merchandise that day but I will dedicate a separate post on that 🙂

PENCIL CASE / SUMIKKOGURASHI

When I arrived in Japan, the first thing that caught my eye were the cute design of Sumikkogurashi. It is a new series by Sanrio (Hello Kitty) and I just adore this series! It doesn’t only look cute but has a nice story behind it – every character has a particular background story. The penguin, which is my favorite, is green and has an identity crisis thinking he is a cucumber instead of a penguin.

SPONGE BAG

Okay, this is not really statonary, but still. I always carry around a little bag for things like medicine, a little comb, chewing gums, lip balm etc. especially when I am travelling. The bag I brought from Germany is a bit too small so I was searching for something new. I really love Little Twin Stars but their designs tend to be too childish for me with pastel purple and pink and glitter allover. This is a fresh more „mature“ design that I have never seen before so I had to get it. It has the perfect size (maybe about 18cm in width) and a black inner fabric which is great so it won’t get dirty anytime soon. It also has small pockets inside.

Are you a stationary addict like me too? Hope you enjoyed this post & wish everyone a happy week!

Lots of love,