LOG-ON stationery buyer Patrick has spent the past 13 years hunting for great stationery products, in the process he's met countless talented makers all over the world. During his last trip to Tokyo, he was able to meet with 3 stationery makers and make some new friends despite his busy schedule! Let’s follow his journey in Tokyo and meet the talented stationery makers in Tokyo!
Visiting the newly renovated TOKYO STATION inside the KITTE shopping mall, shooting from a nice stationery store called Angers.
Lunch with Gudetama
Passing by MoMA Design Store
Took a 30 min trip to visit Tsutaya Kaden
In one of the encounters, I finished my work earlier than expected, so I took an hour of train from Tokyo to Yokohama to meet Mr. Tsuchihashi; the stationery commentator and book writer whom I’ve known for about 10 years but have never had the chance to visit his office.
Tsuchihashi san’s book shelf
It just so happens that he was being interviewed by a stationery group from Osaka to be broadcast by podcast. We had a great dinner together and met some new friends from Yokohama and Taiwan.
We discussed a lot during the dinner. One topic was “What is good stationery”. To me, a good piece of stationery is something you develop a lifelong relationship with, you’d be afraid to lose it, you want to have with it you all the time and mostly importantly it connects you with like-minded individuals all over the world. I was glad I took a chance to be adventurous and meet this new group of friends.
The next day I visited the Traveler’s Factory and got some new things.
In the name of customization, I customized how my mug would look with metal wires
Having a few minutes of me time in the factory
While in a 2-hour meeting with the Traveler’s Company team, they showed me their secret 10th anniversary products.
Dinner with the Traveler’s Company team, comparing different sizes of my own craft and their 10th anniversary mini Traveler’s Notebook
On the day I was to leave Japan, I found 2 hours of time before transportation, so I headed to a store I love called Kakimori in Kuramae. The store owner Mr. Hirose was also there whom I bumped into when he was in Taipei last year. We are all strangely connected somehow, the only obstacle for the incredible to happen is whether you allow that chance to happen deep in your heart.
Voila! I bumped into Mr. Takabatake the Stationery King in Japan! We’ve known each other since the beginning of my stationery career and he was in the middle of a TV show recording in the store. He ran into the TV van and grabbed this huge pencil shaped coin bank to show me, it was hilarious!
Staying loyal to your passion leads you to unforgettable adventures, in my case doing so transcends the barrier of languages, because I cannot speak the Japanese language and my friends in Japan don’t speak English at all :)
