The Pen Addict 594/transcript
| The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript | |
|---|---|
| Episode: | 594 |
| Title: | My Bank Account Is Sick |
| Release Date: | December 13th, 2023 |
| Hosts: | Brad Dowdy |
| Guests: | Arielle Fragassi |
| Additional Information | |
| Official page: | Episode 594 |
| Audio File: | Audio Episode 594 |
| Podcast page: | The Pen Addict 594 |
| Length: | 8282 min <br />1.367 h <br /> minutes |
| Previous Transcript | Next Transcript |
From RelayFM, this is the Pen Addict Podcast, episode number 594. Today's show is brought to you by Wild Grain, Squarespace, and Pen Chalet. My name is Brad Dowdy, and this week I'm joined by Ariel Fregasi, aka Toasty Treat. How are you doing, Ariel? I'm doing awesome. Thank you.
Thank you for being here. So as we spoke about before and since I've known you for a while, I will be calling you Toasty literally the entire show, but I just wanted to get that out there and see how bad I could mispronounce your name because I'm really good at that.
So Toasty is much more up my alley, so I hope that's okay. It's a lot easier. Easier to spell, easier to say. It just rolls off the tongue.
So I think we're going to have a lot of pronunciation opportunities tonight, mostly from you because... And I apologize ahead of time for like butchering anything. Like I will try to do it correctly, but... Yep, all pronunciations are accepted here, so you're in a safe space for bad pronunciations because we're going to talk about your trip to Japan that you just recently returned from less than two weeks ago.
So I guess I'm going to kick this off because also as we spoke about before the show, there's no way I'm going to be able to cover everything to quiz you. Like if I sat... Like if you and I like went out to dinner to like talk about this, it would be hours and hours and hours worth of conversation.
So I think we're going to try to hit some of the main points and then we will definitely have our own diversions because that's how you and I operate. But I want to start off with why. Why did you make this trip? What was the planning and the idea behind this trip?
And when did it all start to come together that, hey, I'm going to Japan. Let me figure this out. So this is actually our third trip to Japan. So we're not new to it, but I feel like every time we've gone, there's always been something like new to discover.
And so the first two times we went to Japan, we went during the cherry blossoms, which is, it's beautiful. I love the spring. The cherry blossoms are just like such a unique, uniquely Japan thing. And Japan just goes all out for cherry blossoms.
It's incredible. But this time around, we wanted to go in fall because we've heard that fall is also just such a beautiful time to visit Japan because of all the fall foliage. I mentioned to you before the podcast, I live in Houston. Texas does get some fall foliage, but it's not as vibrant.
It's not as extreme as Japan. And Japan is just very unique in the way that they celebrate everything. They are so good at celebrating the changing of the seasons. And so we just really wanted to experience that season in Japan and get to see all the maple and the ginkgo and things like that.
And so originally when we planned the trip, I wanted to go to the Tokyo International Pen Show, Tips. And so there's two events that happen stationery-wise in Japan in the fall, like at the end of the year. And one is Tips. And one is Bungujoshi, which is this gigantic stationery event.
It's honestly just overwhelmingly huge. Like from everyone that I've talked to that has gone to it, it's just like nothing you've ever been to. So when we kind of sat down and we were looking at dates, we decided, I decided, because my husband was like, I don't care.
He's like, I'm going to Japan. I don't care if you're what we center it around. And so we decided that Bungujoshi is something that is more unique to Japan than Tips. Like Tips, it sounds amazing, but we have pen shows.
Like as good as, even if it's the best pen show in the world, which I don't know if it is, but we have really good pen shows in the U.S. Whereas we don't have anything like Bungujoshi here in the U.S. So the problem was, was when we booked the flights, we didn't know when Bungujoshi was going to be.
And we couldn't wait. Like we kept trying to wait for the announcement, but we were waiting too long to, like at some point the flights were just going to get too expensive. Things were going to start selling out and stuff like that. So we made a prediction based off of previous Bungujoshi dates.
And then we also planned it a little bit around our friend Tokyo Station Pens, his wedding, because he said, well, if you come during these dates, that's also during my wedding. And, you know, I would like you to come. You invited us. So we planned it around what we predicted the Bungujoshi dates would be and the wedding.
And then after we booked everything about a month later, they announced the Bungujoshi dates and they were like mid-December. So we missed tips by two weeks. We were two weeks too late for tips and we were two weeks too early for Bungujoshi. But we were right on time for CY's wedding.
So that was the most important thing, I guess. Exactly. That seems like a pretty big win. Yeah. Timing was not on our side, unfortunately. And, you know, there's other opportunities.
Like there's other stationery things to do. And, you know, it's not like tips is going away or anything like that. Hopefully, fingers crossed. So, you know, maybe in the future we'll go back in the fall and try to actually hit one of those. But yeah, so that was kind of the planning was like fall foliage and trying to hit one of the big stationery events and then also the wedding.
So just from a general travels perspective, I'm kind of asking this for myself, planning an international trip next year. How far in advance did you buy the tickets given that you've done this three times now and you're trying to like it is not cheap to fly to Japan or fly international for anyone around the world.
What was the timeframe that you were trying to pinpoint to book your travel? Ideally, I would I try to aim for about six months ahead of time just because, you know, prices and seating and, you know, basically as soon as the flights are available to buy. But some some airlines only do six months, I think some some do further out.
So we start trying to kind of look when once the flights are available. I think this time we waited a little bit longer. I think we booked in August or September. No, not not not quite that late, maybe around August.
And so the flight the prices actually did go up a little bit. And so we were like, OK, they're starting to climb. We need to like lock this in because otherwise we wouldn't have been able to justify the cost of the tickets because they were starting to get pretty expensive.
Yeah, for sure. For sure. So when you figured out you were kind of in the middle between like the two main stationery events, even though you still had the wedding to go to, did you start trying to put together a plan to where what you're going to target, like different areas of the country, different stationery stores?
It's like once you didn't have that one singular or really, I guess, a second one, not counting counting the wedding. Yeah. Once you had kind of had that game plan and you weren't going to get to go to Bungajoshi, that event, did you start trying to lay out like how you were going to approach the rest of your trip?
So I had already kind of planned because I booked hotels as well just to make sure that stuff was already selling out for hotels as well just because fall is a big tourist season for Japan, especially in like Kyoto and Tokyo and some of the bigger cities. So I wanted to make sure we had like an affordable hotel that had the amenities that we wanted and things like that.
So I had already actually planned out my entire trip because I had the wedding dates and so I had planned out where we were going to go. So we spent and I had booked it so that we at least had one or two weekend days in Tokyo during the entire two, a little over two weeks we were there because Bungajoshi, we were hoping to catch Bungajoshi on one of those days.
So we did the first nine days in Tokyo and then the day after the wedding we went to Kyoto and then Osaka and then Kuroshiki and then back to Tokyo. And so it was a little bit of a short venture out to the other side of Japan because we again wanted to get back to Tokyo before the weekend just in case.
And that was the original plan and that was how I booked the hotels. And I was just kind of like, I don't feel like changing them. So, and we already kind of knew that there were going to be a lot of things happening in Tokyo kind of around the wedding because I wasn't the only person that was, going on this trip. we had a group of friends here from the U.S. that were planning to go to Japan to go to Bungajoshi.
So we all kind of booked similar travel dates. you know, we had like a little discord server and we were chatting about it and, and sharing our travel dates and stuff. And so not only did we have possible Bungajoshi, which then didn't happen, but we were already planning specific like stationery days where we hung out together and we would go stationery shopping together.
So, those solidified a little bit more and because we didn't have Bungajoshi, then we were able to add in like a little bit more stationery time and a few other things. So, yeah. And boy, did you add in the stationery time and that's definitely what we're going to focus on today.
Although I have some, I have some sneaky questions in there, in there for you as well, but, it looked like an amazing trip. So I'm going to get started on the stationery. So before we do that, let me, let me talk about one of our first sponsors here of this episode and that's Wild Grain.
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That's wildgrain.com slash penaddict, or you can use the promo code penaddict in checkout. Our thanks to Wild Grain for their support of this show and Relay FM. related to Wild Grain, there is a lot of food content. That we're going to cover. I definitely have notes.
We're going to be, if, if y'all are hungry, while you're listening to this and you haven't had, you know, lunch or dinner or whenever you're, whatever time of day listening to this podcast, I apologize in advance because it's going to happen because I have questions. So, all right.
So one of the things I told you I did is I went through your Instagram stories. I'm sorry. In preparation for this show, I did my work. it took me probably an hour. I think you said there was about 1100 photos or a little more in there. And I, you know, started right in the beginning, you know, from LA to, Japan was the first story, which like the LA stuff looked amazing.
And like, that's a, that's a, that's a whole segment I'm going to completely skip. But if you're a Pokemon fan, I'll have a link in the show notes to Toasty's, Instagram. You can, you can start there and, and you should, because it was kind of amazing. You land in Tokyo and there's a traveler's, there's a traveler's, traveler's notebook shop in the airport.
And you're like, yes, it's not closed yet. Yeah. So I was actually having a lot of anxiety about that, because I wanted to hit up that travelers. So in Narita airport, so there's two airports you could fly into and we flew into Narita and Narita has the, traveler's factory airport store and they close at five.
Like you're in an airport, like people fly out at midnight and you're closing this store at five. And so our flight was scheduled to land at like four 30. And so I was, and you know, you've got to go through immigration and customs and get your bags and all that.
And so when we got on the flight, they actually, the time they told us that we were going to land was actually like an hour earlier. So I was excited. I was like, Oh, we're going to go to the traveler's factory. And my husband, I dragged him along to so much stationery stuff. and he's pretty good sport about it, but like, you know, we get our bags, we're exhausted and I'm like, we got to find the traveler's factory.
And I've been there before. and so I kind of had an idea of where it was, but I got there 10 minutes before they closed. And I like bought a whole bunch of stuff. I stamped my traveler's notebook. Cause that's what you do when you're at the traveler's factory.
You have to stamp. And, I had, I was like, you know, showing my traveler's notebook to the employees. Cause mine has like, it's, it's actually from that store. It's the limited edition that you buy at that store.
And I bought that when we went in 2019. So I was like, look, it's back. And so, you know, they, they're, they're super sweet and super nice. and they're not going to like kick you out necessarily, but like I was trying not to oversteen my welcome. That was your proof that you're one of them.
And can I stay five minutes late? Yeah. So it's like, as soon as I walked, you know, as soon as I landed in Japan, like as like, right when we got our bags and we're out the gate, I spent like a hundred dollars. Like right away. And, and like I said, my husband's used to this cause we did this kind of a ritual at this point.
Like, but yeah, they, they get you right there, like right away. Yeah. So there's, there's pro tip number one. If you're flying into Narita, make sure you land before five o'clock local to get to the traveler's factory airport. So Haneda airport is closer and it's actually kind of like the, the more ideal airport to fly into just cause it's closer, but it doesn't have a traveler's factory.
So like. Gotcha. Wow. So that was decision flying into the airport. No, it just worked out. It just worked out. Haneda is great too.
Yeah. So how, how long was this leg of the flight getting into, getting into Japan? It was like 12 hours. Okay. so we, yeah, we lay it, we did an overnight layover in LA, mostly because I was like having a little bit of anxiety about missing the connection. and so I was like, Hey, why don't we do an overnight layover?
And then we can like meet up with some friends and Oh, there's this cool Pokemon exhibit. So, but yeah, so it was like three hours to LA overnight layover and then like a 12 hour flight to Narita. Gotcha. So one thing you mentioned, I actually made a note to, to talk about this and it still come up, throughout like your, your images and pictures if everyone's goes and checks everything out.
So tell me about like the, the stamping kind of culture that a lot of like travelers does, you know, with each location having a stamp, like what's, what's the, the idea behind what they, what they offer there. So like there's stamps everywhere in Japan, like almost, almost every train station has a stamp, especially the J R owned train stations.
They have, they're sometimes they're hard to find. and I did not find all of them because sometimes you're in a hurry or your feet hurt and you don't want to like walk all over this massive train station to find a stamp. And sometimes they, you can ask, but they don't always like, no.
So I picked up stamps when and where I could, but yeah, it's just, there's so many places that you go and like stationery stores, almost every stationery. A store has their own custom stamp. one of our friends was staying in a hotel that had their own custom stamp that you could stamp. and you know, I'm not a hundred percent sure, like, you know, I'm not going to pretend I know like the cultural reasons behind it, but like even, so there's a thing and I bought one while I was there.
I bought a custom one, but it's, a name stamp. And so over there, like you, everyone that lives, you know, is like a citizen, I guess. they have these stamps and they're called hunko. And when you sign like official documents and paperwork, you actually stamp it and it's like registered to you and things like that.
And so like, I just feel like it's the end and people collect the stamps and, it's just, they love stamps. It's just like part of the culture, I guess. Like I, I, I'm not going to pretend to know why, but I love it. It's, it's funny that the expectation is, so all the, all these places have stamps and you can, you can, you can, you know, stamp your notebook.
It's not the expectation that they have the stamp, but that these locations are almost assuming people are going to have something to stamp like a notebook or a card or a postcard, which I think is super interesting. If you really think about it is, you know, you're not like travelers.
Okay. That's, that's easy. If you go to the traveler's factory store, it's like, yeah, I've got my notebook. I'm going to stamp it. Or you can buy an insert or something. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to have that opportunity, but to have like, say the railway or the hotels or all these different places and to have that opportunity to use the stamps, you know, to more, less stationery friendly people that just shows you how big the stationery culture is, or just that kind of analog, keeping that analog culture alive over there, which I think is such a cool thing about Japan.
Yeah. And like some of them we went to, they actually had like little paper slips. Some of them, like one of the train stations even had the name of the train station on it. And then you could stamp that paper slip, which was great when I got behind in my traveler's notebook because I prefer to stamp my traveler's notebook as I go, but I got very behind.
And so I was stamping paper and sticker paper and things like that to add in later. But yeah, like even like the airports have stamps. There's different shops that have them. And it's really easy to miss them too.
Like sometimes they're tucked away or just kind of out of the way because obviously if people are stamping, you don't want them to be in the way. But if you look for them, you'll start to notice them like everywhere. It's really fascinating. I would be all about that for sure.
It's really, it's a free souvenir too, you know, like to document your travels. So it's really cool. Sometimes the stamp pads aren't super juicy. You should probably really carry your own stamp pad.
Like if you really want to get into like stamping all around Japan, I would recommend like just keeping like a little ink pad in your backpack or whatever. Because some of them you get and they're, they're a little dry. They're a little thirsty. All right. So given, given my research earlier today, I, the one thing we can't do because we will be here all night is talk about every store you went to.
But I have a couple, I have a couple. I do want some specific, some, some shops that maybe we've referenced on the podcast before or people who are into this stuff know, have at least maybe heard in passing. So I have to get your perspective on Atoya being kind of, I don't know, for lack of a better term, the mothership.
It's how many stories tall worth of, worth of stationery? It's like what? 10, 12 stories? Yeah. Like one of the stories is like a garden, I think. And like one is a cafe or something. So like, but yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's a big store.
And our hotel was a four minute walk from Atoya. Nice. So yeah, it's a, it's, it's a very dangerous store. And so like, it's, it's a big deal. And so like, it's, it's a big deal.
And so like, it's, it's like Christmas, Christmas, like it's, you can't escape it. Like even, they're even playing Christmas music. Like it's so weird. Like to walk into these stores and everyone's speaking Japanese, but they're playing like rocking around the Christmas tree or whatever.
It's just bizarre. and, but anyway, so like a lot of the stationery that we were seeing was very Christmas themed. and even in Etoya, like, like the first floor was all like Christmas cards and like really cool Christmas cards. Like they, everything is over the top. They, they do everything so well over there. but yeah, so, each floor of Etoya is kind of like a different theme. so like one floor is like, I think like paper.
I don't quote me on this cause I don't know it off the top of my head, but like one is like art supplies and one is like more like home goods and one is fountain pens and one is like general stationery. Like, like each, each floor has like a different theme. and then you just go up, up the, you just keep going up and your basket just keeps getting more and more full. and then the other thing that's dangerous about Etoya, is that they, so one of the things they did, I think in between the last time that we visited Japan and then this time is they lowered the threshold for tax free.
So it used to be 10,000 yen, which was roughly the equivalent of like 90 to a hundred dollars. back when I went in 2019. but the yen is so much weaker now. so, and, and they've also lowered that free, that tax free threshold. So now it's 5,000 yen, which is like at the time of recording, this is about $33.
And then, so, because basically everything, so it's already cheaper because you're not paying like for them to ship it overseas. And then it's like 30% off. and then tax free, it's another 10%. So it's like, it's like everything is 40% off. Yeah. This all sounds like trouble. Yeah.
And so like, one of the things I did because Etoya was doing that, did the tax free and they made it very easy. They just scan the QR code on your passport that you get when you come through, immigration or whatever. And, and then everything just rings up as tax free.
So I bought a watercolor that I, that a brand that I really love, I think it's pronounced Holbein. that's how I pronounce it at least. And I did the math. And so all of the tubes of watercolor that I bought cost me $70. I bought a lot of tubes of watercolor.
I did the math. Yeah. I did the math on those tubes of watercolor. And with the American prices, like if I were to go on any art supply store here in the U S like, it's all kind of about the same $300. Wow. Yeah. That's how much it would have cost me before tax and shipping and all that.
Did you just explain to Brandon that, like, like all this shopping is just, it's really just the flight was free by the time we, all the savings. I was doing hardcore girl math, like, like not girl math, stationery math. Like, like, it's like, look, I am losing money by not buying 80 pounds of watercolor.
You know, like we're losing money here if I don't buy. But yeah, no, it's great because they do the tax free. They make it very easy. I bought a lot of system tech show stuff there, like plotter inserts.
And I bought a plotter. So I bought an Ashford punch. That was like $70. It's just like a punch for a Bible size.
But the, it just makes it's, I just, I have one for the mini five and it's just so, it's just, it punches the hole so good. Like, I don't know. My husband was just like, you just spent $70 on a hole punch. And I'm like, just don't.
I was like covering up the numbers, like as he's ringing things. I'm like, just don't look, don't look. Yeah. And what day, what day was this? Was this day one?
That was the first full day. Yeah. It was the first full day. So the, the watercolors were the second visit, but like the hole punch and all, like the most damage I did at Itoya was, was literally, we hadn't even been in Japan for 24 hours. Yeah, exactly.
That's total. Like, I'm just, I'm nodding my head. Like, yeah, like that's exactly how it should go. Like, that's exactly how I would handle this. It's like, there's no being patient.
There's no waiting. Like you've waited long enough for this trip and you know, it's just going to be cool. Was there anything, so you are one of the most dialed in people, especially like to the Japanese stationery market. Like even I come to you with questions about stuff.
Was there anything in Itoya that surprised you either just from like, I don't know, the setup or the products that they carried or something you hadn't seen before that you're like, oh wow, this is kind of cool. Does that happen to you over there? Yeah, I mean, definitely.
Like, I can't think of anything like specifically. So the thing, the thing is, is like, even, even having been to Japan before, it's overwhelming. It is so overwhelming when you walk into these stores because there is so much product on display and you really can't. It's not like you're sitting at home in your underwear on jet pens and you're scrolling through and like, you know, looking through everything or looking at cute things with Japan online.
It's like completely different when you're there in person. And I feel like you get a little bit of like, at least for me, a little bit of blinders on. And so you start to like, zero in on the things that you recognize because otherwise your brain just can't really process everything that it's seeing.
It's just sensory overload. That makes a lot of sense. And so like, sometimes it was nice having my husband there because he didn't really know what he was looking at. And so he would pick up a thing and be like, oh, this looks cool.
And it was something I had never seen before. And so sometimes it's nice to kind of have that his perspective a little bit, like when I'm shopping, because it's just like, I feel like you're you're standing in a store. There's a whole bunch of people. They're playing all this Christmas music.
You're you're overloaded. Like your senses are just overloaded and your feet hurt and you're holding this basket full of station. It just everything is so overwhelming, whereas it's not like, oh, I'm going to open a bunch of tabs and then slowly, you know, at home and slowly sift through everything and add to cart.
And no, you're just throwing stuff in your basket. And you're like, if I if I bought doubles, oh, well, you're just you're just buying and you're moving on because you've got, you know, three other stationery stores to go through that day. And you just have to make decisions and, you know, cry about it later.
I guess I don't know. So, yeah, like I'm just throwing stuff in my basket and be like, oh, that looks cool. That looks cool. Because everything was so cheap. And so I was just buying everything.
But yeah, I mean, there were there were some things that I had never seen before. I can't recall any of them. Everything has blurred together, I think, at this point. Yeah. Well, I saw one thing in your Instagram.
I didn't know that the Disney 100 inks were a thing. Yeah. So I saw I'd seen the pins that they had on display and the things like that. But I didn't know there was like a set of, I guess, 100 inks. Right. So they only had like 12.
I don't know if they're going to make more. I didn't count them, but I think it was roughly around 12. I don't know if there will be 100 inks. Like, I don't know exactly what the concept for the Disney 100 is.
I just saw it and I was like, oh, Disney went like I had seen people talking about it. And so, you know, I was like, oh, that's something because they're they're an Itoya collab. So like it says on there, like Disney X Itoya. So I was like, OK, like I was looking for things that are like exclusive things I can't buy here.
Or if I were to buy them here in the US, they would be like really expensive and they're like way cheaper. And you have like the watercolors and things like that. So especially when I was shopping for inks, I was looking for stuff that like I had never seen before would be almost impossible to get back here.
You know, things like that. Yeah. So that goes to like the bigger planning question I had. Were you shopping for specific things or were you looking for specific stores that you really wanted to see? You'll know your vibe with and just see what you can come up with when you get to these places that you definitely don't want to miss.
So I made a list of like things that I wanted. Like I kind of had like a wish list of like certain things that I wanted to buy. And it was, you know, a couple of the items on there were a little more like outlandish. Like I was like, I don't think I'm really going to buy this, but who knows?
You know, maybe in the moment. And so, yes, we did have a store list of places that, you know, we plan to visit, especially for like our stationery days and things like that. And then I also had sort of like a, some of the things were like vague, just kind of reminders.
Like I had my plotter with me. I brought a Bible size plotter with me and I made that kind of my like Japan trip plotter. So it had like my itinerary and it had lists and information. And then I got the little fastener case that has like the zippers and it for the plotter.
We've discovered that it's the perfect size to hold your passport. So I was able to like carry everything I like all the important stuff with me in that plotter. And then I also use the extra paper like for stamping and stuff. But yeah, so I had a list in my plotter of like the things that I wanted.
And I took off a good portion of the list. Like I said, there were some things, some things I just didn't find. And then there were some things that I just kind of like ran out of money. Yeah, for sure. Like I wanted to buy this like this is like one of those kind of like outlandish things.
But they have like the they have these backpacks that like kids in Japan wear. They're like you could buy these really nice ones. And they're like leather, but they're like $400. And I really wanted one.
But they're like very they have a very specific style. And my husband was just kind of like, no, you're not going to use that. But yeah, we had we had a list of shops and we kind of had plans to go like as. A group. And then I also went to these shops on my own, too.
So or with my husband just so that I could like have a little bit of time to not be not feel rushed and not feel like, oh, someone's waiting on me. I need to hurry up and things like that. So. Right, right. So I did see the picture of you.
I forget who else was in the image, but you were sharing your plotter itineraries like pages. That was me and April, Penguins Creative and Ohio Joy. And we all had our itineraries. That was a great picture.
Like all these little layouts. They were all color coded. Little spreadsheets. Yeah. Little spreadsheets. It was fantastic. Like I got a kick out of that. That that image made my notes here.
So I'm glad you brought that up. Yeah. No, it was funny because like I don't think I don't think we've talked about any of us doing that. We just all kind of did. It's just the travel notebook to like contain all that stuff because it's so like thin and not trying to make this into a plotter ad, but like it was it's just a people get on me already.
Exactly. Exactly. I bought another plotter. I don't know if I posted a picture of it in my stories. There was a square one. Yes. Yes. OK. I bought a that was sick.
It's a mini five square. Yeah. I've never seen that before. Yeah. So it's like a lottery item that you have. It's an online only lottery thing.
And our friend Quay, who's Mariah Cat on Instagram, she had she had entered the lottery and got lucky twice because she was trying to get a specific color and she got the same color twice. And so she was like, I actually because I told her I wanted one.
And she was like, oh, I actually have one if you want to buy it from me. So I got really lucky. And it's honestly, it's like the perfect size. I haven't done it yet, but I have one of my local friends shared with me.
That's the perfect size to punch for memo notes. Like it fits memo notes perfectly. Anyway, that's a tangent, but it's really cute. And that was actually on my list of things I wanted to buy was a square plotter.
So I was very happy. Nice. Nice. Well, that concludes our unofficial plotter ad segment. No, we're going to talk about it more. I know. Trust me. Let me get to another one of our official ad segments.
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And I want you to talk about Mount Fuji real quick. Oh, yeah. Is that something that you had gone to see on your previous trips? Actually, no. Okay. Yeah. This was the first time we really... So, well, I take it back.
So, we tried. Last time in 2019, we went to this town called Hakone, which is supposed to be, like, give you, like, really good views of Fujisan. And it was, like, really hazy. And it was really, like, you couldn't really see the mountain at all. Like, even though it was, like, right there.
Like, you couldn't see it. So, that was, like, a little disappointing. And we've seen it, like, from the train and stuff like that. But it's not the same.
Like, so, we took a day and we went out to Lake Kawaguchi or Kawaguchi-ko. And they were doing kind of, like, a fall festival. And they have, like, really nice fall foliage out there. And, yeah, it was really beautiful.
It was crowded. And we ended up, we bought, like, a bus pass. And then we were barely able to ride the bus because the buses were so crowded. So, we had to, like, walk almost everywhere. And so, we walked so much that day.
We walked, I think it was 24,000 steps that day. And that was the day that, even though I had really nice walking shoes on, it was day two. Like, it was our second full day. That was the day that I got huge blisters on my feet.
And those blisters stayed with me the entire trip. Because I did not stop. Like, I didn't, I wasn't going to stop just because I had blisters on my feet. Like, I got some band-aids and I kept going.
It was painful. But, you know, sacrifices have to be made. I wouldn't say, like, enjoy is not the right word. But the repeated images of the stairs going up. Yeah. I was like, I was feeling your pain there.
I was feeling your pain for that. I was like, yeah. Yeah. We love stairs. We're hurting at this point. We just love stairs.
And, like, so, like, when you leave, so when you go out of a, when you get off the train, this is a tangent, not station related at all. But when you get off a train, so Google Maps is your friend in Japan. Except Google Maps does not tell you, it doesn't, it tells you the best exit to leave a train station.
Because a lot of train stations have, like, multiple exits that'll take you out at, like, different parts of, like, on this side of the street or over here that'll get you closer to where you need to go. But Google Maps, there's no toggle for, like, hey, pick the exit that has an escalator.
Because not all the exits have escalators. And sometimes you forget, like, how far down you are. And then you get to the stairs, and then you just look up, and all you see is stairs. And you don't see, like, the sky or feel, like, that cool breeze.
And you're just like... I mean, it's fine. Like, you know, you do all those stairs, and then you can just eat whatever you want. Because, like, you're like, I just burned so many calories, like, walking everywhere.
So... And food is definitely on our list to talk about. One of the Mountain Fuji diversions that I had was, that was the first image I got to see of the manhole covers. Which I am a huge fan of seeing the manhole covers all throughout Japan. And different areas will actually paint and mark these things.
And we found the Pokemon ones. I saw that. Like some of them. Yeah. That was fun. That was really cool. All right. So let me dive back into some stationery.
Tell me about Ancora. I am assuming, was this... Would this have been your first time to go to that shop? Or have you been there before?
Because it's new-ish. Yes. And I will say that overall, I was a little disappointed in Ancora. Okay. They didn't... Hang on one second. Oh, go ahead. Just to let people know that Ancora is like Sailor's, like...
Yeah. Would you call it like their boutique store from Sailor directly? It's like Sailor plus, like, yeah. It's kind of like a little boutique. It's in Ginza. Okay. it's... I mean, it's a really cute store.
Like, the store itself is very cute. But they didn't... So the thing with Ancora is like, they do these, like, limited releases. Right? Like, they'll release a new product and they just drop it randomly. They're like, oh, here's a new pen or here's a new ink.
But if you're kind of in between those product drops, they don't really have a lot. Like, they have this, like, build your own sketchbook thing. But they were out of stock of, like... Because I was thinking about doing it.
Oh, okay. But they were out of stock, like, out of a lot of the components. And then they have the thing where you can, like, build your own Sailor compass, like they did at the DC pen show. Like, it's very similar. It's like the pick apart and you can put it together.
But I wasn't, like, happy with, like, a lot of the colors. And then they didn't have any of the, like, limited edition converters. And they had, like, one limited edition pen that I wasn't super excited about. And so they do this thing at Ankora, though, that's really cool.
And unfortunately, I missed it, like, because of timing. Timing was my enemy here. But so they have two inks that they sell that you can only buy during certain conditions. And one of them is their rainy day ink.
So you can only buy it on a rainy day. No way. So, yeah. So if it rains that day, then they'll put the ink out for sale, like, for the rest of the day. And so I, the day we landed in Japan, it rained. But it was too late for me to get it.
And then the day we left Tokyo to go to Kyoto at, like, 8 o'clock in the morning before they opened, it rained. And so, like, I couldn't get it. So luckily, I still had friends in the area. So they were able to pick it up for me.
But then they have another ink that they only sell when it's a full moon. And so it's, they only sell for three days every full moon. And it's, like, the three days of the full moon or whatever, like, when it's at its fullest or whatever. And so, like, I was able to get that one because of a friend.
Because the full moon was when we went to Osaka. And so, like, the timing was just off. But luckily, you know, that's the great thing about having, you know, friends, you know, there in Japan. It's, like, they could just pop over and get it for you.
And then another ink that I bought from Ankora was they had this, like, sweet potato ink that, so they didn't have it the first time I went. And they didn't have it the second time I went. And then the very next day, they posted on their Instagram, oh, yeah, we have this ink for sale.
Like, we made a little batch because they, like, I think they make it there. Wow. And then I had to, like, rush back over to get this ink. So, it's, like, the timing with Ankora is very strange. That is odd. But. I like the little niche specialty stuff.
Like, okay, rainy day ink. Like, I get that. I was, like, that's cool. But I could imagine when it's, like, literally everything in the shop is tied to something.
Yeah. It's, like, all weird. I imagine it could get frustrating. Like, it's a very cute shop. And I definitely think it's, like, worth visiting.
But maybe try to time it to where they have a release or something. Because otherwise, it's a little bare. But, yeah, it was. It's really cute. And I did actually.
I had a friend pick up a pen from them for me ahead of time. Like, they make beautiful pens. So, I actually did come home with an Ankora pen. But, again, timing. If I would have waited until I got there, the pen would have been sold out. So, yeah.
Interesting. Interesting stuff. All right. I want to hit up this stamp carving workshop you did at Cute Things from Japan with Eric Small Things. And you and it looks like the entire group that you went with, this was one of the special events that you planned. So, can you talk about that and maybe just, you know, what other kind of group activities y'all did from a stationery perspective?
Yeah. So, when we were at the San Francisco pen show, Eric Small Things, she came over with Cute Things from Japan. And she did a stamp carving workshop at the San Francisco pen show. And we were, I was working with Plotter and Design Phil. And so, I couldn't, like, couldn't, like, couldn't participate in the workshop.
And several of the rest of us who were, like, really excited about this workshop and kind of, like, helped, kind of helped, like, make it happen in one way or another, couldn't really participate because we were working. So, when we were talking to the owner of Cute Things from Japan at the San Francisco pen show and she found out we were coming to Japan all kind of at the same time, this plan was kind of, like, hatched to, like, do a workshop while we were in Japan.
Sort of as kind of, like, a thank you for our help and things like that. And so, we picked a day and then we all went out to the Cute Things from Japan store, which we were going to do anyway because I think everyone in that group has, like, probably placed multiple orders from Cute Things from Japan.
So, like, it's kind of like a little pilgrimage to go there. And so, we planned, it was on a day that they are normally closed. And so, we got the store to ourselves to shop and then we did this stamp carving workshop with Eric. And so, it was a little bit different from the San Francisco pen shows workshop because the one that they did at the pen show was a demonstration.
But the one that we did at Cute Things from Japan, we actually purchased, like, part of the fee was to cover the cost of the stamp carving kit. So, we got, like, a whole stamp carving kit that's very similar to what Eric uses for her stamp carvings. And then she took a request of, like, what would you like to carve?
And so, she pre-prepared that for us. So, several of us did the melon soda because that's, like, a very Japan thing that we love. That's on my list. That is written right here.
We're going to talk about that for sure. Yeah. And so, yeah, it was a lot of fun. And it was just really interesting to get to do that in Japan. It was such a fun activity to do with Eric because Eric was actually preparing for this exhibition that she was doing, which opened the day before we left.
So, we were actually able to go to it. And she had, like, these stamps on exhibit. And then you could, like, buy some of her stamps and things like that. But she had some of her hand-carved stamps on exhibit.
And I posted some pictures in my Instagram stories. But the detail and, like, just, like, you can really see, like, how much of, like, a master of her craft she is. So, to have her there, like, watching us fumble around and, like, cut these, like, really crude stamps that she's over here, like, oh, it's so good.
And she's, like, praising us. Like, it's just, she's so nice. We're like, we know it's not good. But thank you. But, yeah, it was a really fun experience.
And then, so then after Cute Things with Japan, we went to, we had, like, a whole, like, little stationery day planned. So, we went to the Traveler's Factory in Nakameguro, which is, like, if it's necessarily, like, the flagship one. But it's a big, like, it's, like, two stories.
And the top story has, like, a little cafe where you can, like, not cafe, but, like, a little lounge, I guess. We can, like, kind of hang out and get a soda. And then I think we, where else did we go? We went to, where else did we go that day?
Loft, maybe. Oh, yeah. We did some shopping. I saw those pictures. Yeah. I went to Loft, I think, like, half a dozen times. Because it was also very close to my hotel.
Because we were staying in Ginza. So, I was very close to, like, a lot of these things. Which just made it more dangerous. So, I don't know if that Traveler's Notebook or that Traveler's Factory visit was when I, from the image, I wrote down this quote.
So, this was on one of your images and one of the stories I didn't write down which day it was. Then we met the creator of Traveler's Notebook. Like, just, you, like, it was, like, food picture, food picture, melon cream soda. Then we met the creator of Traveler's Notebook.
You know, meat on a stick. You know, sushi, whatever. You know, you just threw that in there randomly. Like, hashtag NBD or whatever.
So, that was on a day that I got the privilege to have lunch with some members of Design Phil. So, Takayuki, who is the creator of Plotter. And another... Because April, being as creative, works for Design Phil. And so, I had helped out at pen shows and stuff and worked with them.
And so, when Takayuki found out that I was coming to Japan at the same time as April, he was kind of like, hey, we should have lunch together. And I was like, yeah, sure. And, you know, it's kind of one of those things where it's like, if it happens, it happens.
And luckily, we were able to make it happen. And so, then, after lunch, April... Because April... And she'll talk about this in the Stationary Cafe podcast, probably. But April's entire itinerary was food-based.
So, she literally, like, planned her... Everything was planned around food. So, like, she was the real, like, food MVP. Like, if I needed a recommendation, you know, like, I would just ask her.
But so, when I was with her, she was like, there's this really good ice cream place right down the street. I want to go. So, we said goodbye to Takayuki. And, you know, they went on their way.
And we were eating or getting our ice cream. And April... Like, there's, like, a tapping on the window. And April looks up. And she gets really excited.
And I don't know who this person is. And she was like, oh, like, this is the creator of the Traveler's Notebook. And, like, so we were... So, he... So, he... I think he had been, like, walking down the same path.
Because they all kind of work in, like, the same area. And so, I think Takayuki had said, like, hey, you know, April's down there if you want to say hi. Because I think she was... She was like, you know, he's super busy.
So, I'm not going to get to see him on this trip. So, I was like, oh, let's take a picture. You know, so... It was... It was kind of, like, just, like, one of those serendipitous moments. Which actually happened a few times on this trip.
Like, because we had so many friends, like, out and about. And we would be, like... I was at one of the loft locations. And I'm going down the escalator.
And my husband's like, I hear your friend back there. And I look back and our friend Judy Tokubetsu Memory is, like, up behind us on the escalator. Like, we did not plan that. But, like, we just happened to be in the same place at the same time.
And then, like, when I was leaving Kuroshiki, April was coming into Kuroshiki. And we crossed paths, like, at the train station. And then, like, I found another friend at... When we were in Kuroshiki at the Superior Labor Store.
Like, we were there at the same time. And my husband, like, he was doing these, like, little recaps on Facebook. And one of his captions, he was like, And Ariel saw yet another friend, like, out in the wild. That's unbelievable. Yeah, it was really fun to, like, keep bumping into each other, like, all around Japan.
Golly. That is so cool. That is, like... I don't know. That just goes to show you the draw that these places have that we talk about all the time. And then we fawn over the images and is like, I want to go to all these places, you know, like...
I looked at the images of the Superior Labor Store. And I would be, like... If I went there first, I would just have to turn around and go home. Like... Yeah, it's so... There's just no getting out of this, like, for me.
Like, it's a problem. I... It was, like, good and bad that that was, like, towards the end of our trip. Because I was already, like, so low on money at that point. And my husband was, like, giving me lectures about, like, you know, we've spent a lot of money.
Like, you need to stop spending so much money. And then I walked in and I was like, oh, I'm going to do a custom traveler's notebook. And I'm going to buy this, like, limited edition Harris Tweed bag and this and that. And he's just like, you know, like...
That was another time where I covered up the screen. Yeah. Oh, I went ooh. When I saw the bag, I went ooh. Yeah. And I really wanted to buy more.
And I had to stop because I think he would have dragged me out of that store. Like, I think he would have just, like, filed for divorce on the way home or something. So, like... Because, yeah, if we would have gone to that store at the beginning of the trip, I would have just been like, well, I can't buy anything else because I spent, like, a thousand dollars here.
You know, because... Yeah. Even though the yen was weak, that store is still quite pricey. Yeah, for sure. Because it's a lot of leather and... But, I mean, everything is just so beautiful in that store. And Kuroshiki itself, like, shout out to that little town. I loved Kuroshiki.
Like, partially just because it wasn't super crowded like all the other towns that we went to. It was a really good visit. All right. Well, I have one more quote I wrote down through your images. We're going to go over that quote here in just a minute.
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So thank you to Pen Chalet for your support and sponsoring Relay FM and the Pen Addict. All right, next quote. You ready? Sure. We bought another suitcase. So I was wondering in the beginning, and I actually had a question about your luggage packing.
And I was like, now that I've done more research, I'm going to move this question to later in the show. Because this came in about story number 10 out of 11 or so. We bought another suitcase. So explain to me what happened there.
So we kind of already... I feel like this happens every time we go to Japan, is we already come with the expectation that we're probably going to buy a suitcase while we're over there. And so this time around, we brought a big suitcase with us, which we haven't done in the past.
So we brought pretty much the biggest sort of regulation check bag that you could bring. We kind of maxed out those dimensions. And so on the way out there, or over there, we packed it full of gifts for friends that we were going to meet up with. And Trader Joe's snacks and stuff from Bucky's and things like that.
Things that people had asked for. And because we knew that we would empty it once we got there. So the first nine days we were there, we filled it up. Like, we knew it was full.
And part of it was because my husband was buying Gundam. And Gundam are large. Like, the boxes are big. And then his... So, like, the things I buy aren't very big.
I mean, stationery doesn't take up a lot of room. Like, you could fill... You could go overweight on a large suitcase because stationery... The thing with stationery is that it's heavy.
Right. But it's more compact. But my husband's other hobby is that he does synthesizers and, like, electronic music and stuff. And so some of those synthesizers are big. Like, they're pretty big.
Like, the boxes are big. And you want to keep them in the box to, like, protect all the knobs and the buttons and, like, things like that. So he did buy a synthesizer. And so he was talking about, like, hey, maybe we could just buy, like, a carry-on size suitcase.
I think we could fit everything into there. And then I'll have a carry-on size to use. And it's a little more useful for me, like, when I'm traveling. And then he went back to the Gundam base with CY.
Because CY was like, oh, yeah. Because CY loves Gundam, too. And so he's like, let's go together. And then he bought two more Gundam.
So we had, like... So he had bought two. And then I bought one. Because I was like, oh, maybe I'll do a Gundam.
And then I found out that the Gundam I bought is, like, super-duper hard. Which I didn't know that there were, like, difficulty levels. So then I also came home with another Gundam. Because CY gave me, like, a little entry-level one.
And he's like, start here. Like, so you don't break this other one. Anyway. So we came home with, like, five, six Gundam. Like, and so we had to buy another, like, decent-sized suitcase.
Mostly for... I'm going to blame the Gundam. Like, that's the real... It's totally your husband's fault. It's his fault. Like, I could have fit all my stuff.
Into the suitcase that we brought. And then I also bought some, like, glassware. So that went into my carry-on. But, like, luckily we had two free check bags each.
So we didn't have to, like, pay any, like, overages or anything. Like, it was kind of like one of those things where it's like, okay, we're not going to go over, like, the standard limit. You know? Like, that's where we'll cut ourselves off. And we ended up checking three bags.
So, I mean, we could have, like... If we would have stayed another week, we would have been fine. Like, we could have bought another bag or something. But, yeah. Like, I mean, you have two options, really.
It's like, you can bring the suit... I mean, you can see you have three options. You can bring the suitcases with you. You can buy suitcases while you're there.
Or you can ship it back. But if you ship it back, then you have to deal with, like, you know, the cost of shipping it. Plus the uncertainty. And then, like, it might take a couple weeks to get to you. Like, we got to use our stuff right away when we got home.
So, that's the benefit of, like, buying a suitcase. Plus, like, Japanese luggage is really nice. Yeah. I mean, that sounds like the move. It's like, yep, that's exactly pretty much what I would probably be looking at myself.
So... So, now we have three suitcases that we bought in Japan. That's good. So... But, yeah. You're set. You're set. I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you about food, at least just a little bit. Because I love, you know, all things Japanese food. And just the creativity.
And the ingredients. And just the wild uniqueness of it. -huh. At least tell me about melon cream soda. Because that played a huge role in your Instagram. And what's the story behind there?
Do you know why it's so popular? Why is that the thing? so... Other than being good? Yeah. You know, it's... So, I love, like, Japanese melon soda.
Like, it's something I had never had before we went to Japan in 2016. And I tried it when I was over there. Just because it was like, oh, that's something different that's on the soda fountain. Let's try it. And then I kind of just, like, really got hooked on it.
And then April is also, like, super into it. Like, she's more into it than I am. But, like, the... But, so, like, it was just, like, how many green drinks can we drink in a day? Like, it kind of just became, not necessarily, like, a competition.
But sort of, like, bragging rights. Like, oh, this is my, like, fourth green drink today. You know? Like, between, like, the matcha and the melon soda. But, yeah. So, I think there was...
I think I read something about, like, there's, like... There was, like, a popularity of, like, these, like, retro-style cafes in Japan. And, like... I mean, you can find melon cream soda in just, like, so many different places. And melon soda is just...
It's, like, they sell, like, a melon Fanta. And I'm just, like, why can't we get that here in the U.S.? Because it's so good. I love it. Like, it's just so good.
Like, it's so hard to get over here. And you can buy, like, melon soda. Like, canned melon sodas at, like, Japanese grocery stores. And, like, H-Mart and, like, things like that.
But it's not quite the same as, like, getting it fresh. Yeah. I did see a lot of your pictures did have them, like, in, like, the vintage glassware. Yes. Like, the shape and the style was very, like, throwback-y. It was kind of cool.
Yeah. It was really great. Like, I drank as many as I could because I knew that once I got back here, it would just be sadness. But, like, even, like, I went to a subway. So, like, well, one of our stationery days, we were, like, on our way to Bungu Box.
And we stopped at a subway so that someone could get... I don't remember what they were getting. Or it wasn't... We stopped at a convenience store for someone to get something. And there was... Oh, they were getting the Tokyo banana ice cream.
Anyway. Yes. And so there was a subway in the convenience store. And so I, like, followed them in just so they see what they had. And they had a melon cream soda in the subway. And it was, like, $2.
And so I was, like, I want that. Like, so I bought it. And I walk out with this melon cream soda and everyone's looking at me like, where did you get that? Like, I don't know.
I'm just happily, like, it was a huge mess because they, like, dumped the ice cream in and then they put the lid on it. But anyway, it was great. It was fun. That's awesome. But yeah, no, the food in Japan is... It's so good. And it's so cheap.
Like, price-wise. Like, the quality is good. But the price is so cheap. And there's no tipping in Japan. Like, it's just not a thing.
Period. Like, you just... You don't tip. And so, like, what you pay is... That's it. And so, like, when we came back to America and, like, ordered food and then we have to tip and then it's, like, $60 for, like... I was like, this would have been, like, a Wagyu, like, dinner in Japan.
Right. For, like, like... Like, it's just not... Yeah. Like, the quality difference is sad. But... Yeah. Yeah. But, yeah. The food... Like, you could eat... You can eat really good in Japan for, like, very little.
Yeah. Last quote I wrote down from your Instagram stories related to food here. It says, I'm not going to pretend to know what I actually ate. So, that's probably a recurring theme in Japan. So, there were a couple meals where we ate with CY or his wife, Akane, because they were having the wedding.
So, like, a lot of restaurants in Japan don't... You can't seat, like, a party of, like, 15 or 20. Like, that would be the whole restaurant. And so, they split up, like, people who were there for the wedding and wanted to, like, spend time.
Like, you got to kind of pick, like, do you want to have dinner with CY or do you want to have dinner with Akane? And so, one of the dinners we had with Akane was, like, this, like, yakiniku, which is the, like, the barbecue, like, at the table.
Kind of like Korean barbecue, but Japanese. And I had no idea. Like, we were eating, like, the entire cow. Like, there was tongue.
I tasted intestine. I wasn't a huge fan of it. I don't know what parts of the cow we were eating. And I didn't want to know. Like, at some point, you're just like, I'm just gonna eat this.
Like, half of it was raw. It was all fantastic. We also spent the better part of it. Like, all of us spent the better part of the trip trolling Drew from Goulet because he doesn't like runny eggs.
And so, a lot of eggs you get in Japan are, like, raw or runny. And so, every time we got, like, a raw egg or a runny egg, we would share it with him. And he was just like, why are you picking on me? But, yeah. So, it was a really good time.
But, yeah. Like, so, a lot of times I was just like, you know what? I'm just gonna let someone else order. Or I'm just gonna order, like, this set that other people are ordering. And I'm just gonna eat it.
And maybe I'm not gonna know what it is. But it's edible. Like, it's not gonna kill me. You know? Like, I don't have any allergies or anything. And it was all good.
Like, and maybe not the intestine. There was, like, a weird seasoning on the intestine. I didn't know. The tongue was a little, like, like, you're kissing somebody. But you're actually, like, eating their tongue.
The texture. But, like, overall, like, everything was very good. And, you know, I ate chicken hearts and chicken liver. And we had raw chicken. Which was interesting. I didn't eat very much of that.
Yeah. Yeah. That seems like a pass. Yeah. I mean, it was, like, lightly seared. It was mostly raw. But, you know, you're in another country.
And, you know, you're gonna try new things. And it was a really good experience. That's part of the whole deal, right? Yeah. All right. So let's, I have a few kind of, kind of quick, quick, quick hitter questions here to wrap things up on.
Okay. Based around your favorites. And since we're on the food topic, what was your favorite food you ate there? Either meal or dessert or anything. Was there any one standout food that was your favorite from the trip?
I think the Yakiniku dinner, like, as a whole was very, very good. Like, that was, it was, like, our most expensive meal. But another standout was this pork katsu place that we went to in Kurashiki, which is very popular. And we got lucky because it was kind of, like, off-season and not a lot of people at the time.
And we got a table, like, pretty quickly. And it was amazing. Like, the katsu. It's like a fried pork cutlet. And it's really good.
Nice. Nice. All right. So what was your favorite location? And I mean that in, like, city-wise, neighborhood, like, area. What was your favorite, like, location? I really liked Kurashiki, like, the historical quarter.
And I don't know if it was just because there weren't a lot of people there. And so it was, you didn't have to deal with crowds. But other than that, I also really liked Ginza. And this is our first time staying in Ginza.
And I liked just how close we were to everything. And how, like, accessible everything was. Even though it is kind of, like, a fancier, like, rich people area. Gotcha. Gotcha. All right. What was your favorite stationery store?
Cute things from Japan. Just because, like, the experience that they offered for us, you know, was very tailored for us. And we got to kind of have that, like, little bit of private shopping experience. And plus, like, it just felt really cozy.
And everything's, like, very aesthetic. And it was very cute. But other than that, also loft. Just because, like, you can go crazy in there.
And also, you try it. They're all good. They're all great. Right. Like, you can't pick one. They're all amazing. No wrong answer. No wrong answer there. Like, cute things from Japan, for sure, is just, it's an experience that you have to make time for.
And it was really great. And I did really enjoy the pictures of the exhibition, like, the size and scale of some of those stamps were unbelievable. Yeah. That wasn't at cute things from Japan. Right. It was, like, at a different location.
But, yeah, it was really cool. It was a really cool experience. All right. Biggest question. What was your favorite purchase? Oh, man. So, I don't have my traveler's notebook yet.
Like, the one that I had custom made. Okay. Because their little sewing, like, whoever does their sewing wasn't there. And they wouldn't be able to finish it before I left Japan. So, CY has it right now.
And so, like, it's hard because it's, like, I don't have everything back yet. But, like, I really love the little bag that I bought at the Superior Labor. It's just, like, so unique. And it's just really cute.
And I took it with me to, like, I have a, I started a stationery club here in Houston. And so, we had, like, kind of our December meetup, like, right after I got back. And I brought it with. And I was like, oh, I could put all my journaling supplies in here and take it with me to, like, cafe journaling.
And it's really cute. So, anyway. I think that's probably, like, currently my favorite purchase. We'll see what happens when the notebook comes in. But I bought so much, too.
So, it's really hard because I love the plotter. And I bought a glass pen from OWN. Which I haven't even posted any pictures of it yet because I just haven't had time. But, yeah. Well, there is a hall pick in one of the stories where things are sitting on a desk.
There's no desk visible whatsoever. My desk still looks a lot like that right now. And there is some verticalness to the items on the desk as well. So, yeah. I think you did okay.
Yeah, I know. So, like, talking to you, like, I could literally talk to you for hours about this. And, like, I don't know if this, like, gets me more excited or more scared to go to Japan. Because, like, I'm, like, just shaking, nodding my head. Like, yep, this is exactly how it would be.
Yep, yep, this is exactly what I would do. Yep, I'm buying a new suitcase. And you would probably buy more pens than I did. Because I only bought the one pen, the one that I pre-bought.
Because my focus was a little more stationery this time. And I don't know. Because you have a lot of pens. Like, you have more pens than I do.
Like, I have a lot of pens. But you have way more pens than I do. So, it's just, like, I'm curious to see what Brad would buy in Japan. Like, what are the things that would catch your eye?
Because you have a lot of pens. You've seen a lot of these things. You've been to pen shows. You know, like, what you can and can't get.
Like, I think you would probably be going more for, like, the exclusives. Or the things that are, like, really hard to get over here. Like, I kind of wanted to come back with, like, Toyoka stuff. But I didn't. Like, you know. That's another suitcase. Yeah. Or just, like, a box.
Like, just, like, wrap it in bubble wrap and, you know. Carry it on. But, yeah. Like, I would be curious to see. Because, like, there's so much to buy. Like, there's just so much.
Like, everywhere you go, they're stationery. Almost everywhere you go, they sell washi tape. Like, I bought so much washi tape. Even though, like, I have nowhere to put it all.
But there's just so much of it. And it's, like, you're just collecting them as, like, little mementos throughout your trip. I have so much paper. Like, they give you so much paper goods while you're over there.
Like, I have so many just, like, scraps of paper that I'm like, oh, I'm going to put this in my journal. And I'm just like, this isn't going to fit. Yeah. Like, I know I would do damage. I would do damage just in the convenience stores.
Yeah. Because of how much stationery they carry that in the convenience stores. And, like, I can't pass up, like, a cool gel ink pen or a pencil or things like that. Like, it would be a mess. And then you go into Loft and there's just, like, three aisles of pens.
Like, gel pens and rollerballs. And, like, your eyes glaze over. Like, you're like, I can't focus. There's just too much.
You've got me excited about it. I have one of these years. It's going to happen. Like, it's definitely going to happen.
Save your money. Like, save up. Yep. Because, like, you really do. Like, I know that was one of the questions that we didn't really get to. But, like, budget. Yeah. It's a big trip. Yeah. Like, depending on how long you're going to be there.
And also, like, because I had a significant other that was also spending money on things, too. Like, we blew through our budget very quickly. Like, the money, like, the cash that we had saved. Like, that was gone.
Very quickly. Yeah. Luckily, a lot of places take credit cards now. Which is pretty dangerous. Yeah. For sure. For sure. But, yeah. It's very easy to spend your money. Yeah. For sure. Even with the weekend.
Yep. I know. Now's the time to go. It is. Now's the time to go. Like, if you could swing it sooner rather than later. Like, while the yen is, like, it's historically weak right now.
Like, I don't. I mean, this is the time to go. And that's why Japan was so crowded. It was because. True. So, yeah. I saw a lot of your pictures. Yeah. A lot of the touristy places.
Like, you went to Universal. Oh, yeah. And, like, Super Nintendo World. Yeah. And things like that. And the pictures were just, like.
Yeah. And Kyoto because of the leaves. And, like, the festivals and, like, things like that. Like, it was just. It was so crowded.
But it was so beautiful. You just have to be. I think anytime you're in Japan, you just have to be, like, okay with, like, being smushed up against people in the train. You're going to get sardined into a train at some point.
And you're just going to have to accept that this is your life now. It's worth the ink at the end of the line. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you for sharing your experience with us. I'm going to have a bunch of links in the show notes. I know.
What's your Instagram or anywhere else you want people to follow you? Yeah. You know, Instagram, ToastyTreat. I'm also ToastyTreat on Twitch. I've been slowly going through a more long form, you know, stories of the trip and things.
And I got to work on. I'm working on the travel journal and stuff. You know, we do journaling and stationery. And we swatched all the inks I bought and stuff like that.
So, yeah. I bought one ink. I think I may have shared a picture of it, but it's called My Bank Account is Sick. No, I didn't see that one. It's a Tono and Lim's ink.
And that's literally the name of the ink. And April and I both bought it because we were like, yep, this has to come home with us. That's amazing. So, yeah, that's kind of the result of this trip is our bank accounts are very sick. Well, I'm just jealous.
And I love seeing all the pictures and seeing all your travels and yours and April's and everyone else who was there. I follow everyone already. I've got to follow the trip. So, it was great living through you.
Great talking to you about it. And I'm sure I will hit you up with many more questions. And I'm sure we'll field some questions that I will pass on to you for sure about this trip. So, thank you so much for doing this.
Yeah, thank you for having me. Yeah, I'm really, really glad we got to talk about this because I was excited. You offered this up and I jumped at the opportunity. Oh, yeah, we didn't even talk about the karaoke.
Oh, my gosh. Like I said, we're going to have to have another podcast, an After Dark podcast, a B-side, a pen addict, friend of the show podcast. I think there's a lot more conversation to be had. Like what happens when you get like nib grinders into a karaoke bar?
Yeah, yeah. Those are the stories I really want to hear. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Yeah. Well, we'll wrap it up there. Until next time, say goodbye, Toasty. Goodbye, Toasty.