Scribe

Hey, hon.

Very well indeed.

That's good.

I've missed you as a listener.

Awesome.

Absolutely. Well, I last weekend when it first went on Netflix, I was telling myself that I would be very slow in my leisurely enjoyment of Orange is the New Black. And of course I had inhaled the whole thing before weekend was done. I loved the season finale and the actually the whole season really of Game of Thrones. I was podcasting about that on a Slate plus podcast. And actually right now I have been watching the most recent season, season four of House of Cards, which, you know, it's not really that good of a show, but it's like good enough to good enough to Marathon, which is like, I don't know if I would go back like one week after the next, but you know, I'll hit play next episode. So that's exactly what I've been doing.

Totally like, okay, I've got nothing better to do. Okay, yeah, sure. Oh, and I also really love although the first season of the season or the first episode of the season wasn't very good. I really like Endeavor, which is a sort of prequel to Inspector Morse that's currently in the Masterpiece mystery slot on pbs. But I haven't watched episode two yet. And for my writing with I Am I'm doing like an anti Steinbeck or an anti Lenore. I'm on the last page of a snowblind field notes and I am writing with a sort of completely white, so there's no marking on it. Mitsubishi mark sheet pencil, which I guess is the Japanese version of a test scoring pencil. I say there's no marking. There's actually just a marking on the is also white, but there's that sort of Mitsubishi. I don't know what that shape is called. A kind of three, three legged shape. So that's how you know it's one of theirs. But otherwise it's completely without branding. So that's my anti Steinbeck.

But it's an awesome pencil so I'm super happy with it. I didn't even realize I was making this statement until I sort of put it in front of the book, like, oh, yeah, it's white on white, tone on tone.

Yes.

You can do it.

You didn't say the weirdest thing about it, Andy, which is that for some reason that even British people don't really understand, I think it all takes place in a tent in the middle of a field. That's true. It adds this level of complication because with the guy who threw away the Vincent, it was because it was really, really hot and his stuff had been taken out. Well, why were you in this field in the sun, anyway? It's so weird.

That being Waziri looks delicious, you might say.

I always get the titanium basil. It's so much better.

June, who am I? Yes, I mostly write at Slate and podcast at Slate. So I of late or so I've been writing a lot about the Brexit. I was the foreign editor for many years, though. Now I. I mostly write about television and also I write for and edit Slate's LGBTQ section and also do a bunch of podcasts, including the XX Gabfest. But I also write for other magazines. I write about television for Marie Claire, and I've done a couple of pieces for Bloomberg Pursuits. I was just in Alaska writing or reporting a piece with them a couple of weeks ago and just a few other places here and there, but those are the main ones.

I'm so uncool. But yes, that could be true. But it's not much of a comment on me. It's more of a comment on you and the. Ooh, burn, burn.

Yeah. So cool.

Shall I launch into my fresh Points?

So, as I said, I'm writing these days about Brexit, and on the actual day of voting, there's always a problem on election day. You have to have content, especially these days where you have to just be, you know, posting things all the time. But on election day, when people are voting, there really isn't anything to say. You know, you can kind of predict a few things, but that's just emptiness. And so one of the things that I wrote about, so I was taking. I was participating in this circle of emptiness, but I was mostly commenting on something that was the British press, especially the tabloid press, was really full of, was the war on pencils as I headlined it, which was typically, I think, as TJ Cosgrove has noted a couple of times last May when it was the British general election. And then I think he also noted last week, they typically use these weird, stubby, fat pencils. I didn't know what they were. I didn't know who made them until TJ posted something. The Shaw's Voting pencil, it's called. And, you know, it's. They don't have to be a special, you know, test scoring pencil because it's. They're not. The votes aren't counted by machines. They're actually manually counted by people in town halls and places like that. So this year, because people were paranoid, it had been a very rancorous debate. And as we see, it's still going on, there was a whole little mini movement that, according to the Daily Mirror, which is not always the most reliable source, was fueled by social media to encourage people not to use the pencils provided because they could be rubbed out, as protesters pointed out, but instead to use pens. So I reposted something that I found on the Daily Mirror website, which was a video of a guy who looked like a very nice, sincere guy. I'm not really mocking him, but who was sitting on a sort of, you know, a lawn chair outside the polling station handing out pens to people. So ballpoint pens. Because he was encouraging people not to use the pencil because they were subject to erasure and having your vote changed.

Exactly, exactly. So it was very. And in fact, again, because the first editions of the newspapers didn't really have anything to say, actually made it to the COVID of more than one of the first edition of the Friday morning newspapers. And I don't know, you know, the election commission, you know, tweeted and said, you don't have to use the pencils, you can use pens. But, you know, I guess it never works to say, I promise you the pencils are pencil bolts, you know, won't be tampered with. But it was, you know, pencils have been used forever. It was just very odd that some suddenly they, people had lost their faith in pencils as a, that they would, you know, their, their vote would, would count and wouldn't be messed with. So it was very interesting to me and seemed, I don't know, indicative of, of what people losing their faith in pencils. Somehow it seemed very sad.

Yeah, I've actually seen a whole bunch of people say that they're. Their interest in pencils was started either when they were working for the census or whatever and had those pencils. So I know they're, you know, I know that this is not a show where y' all talk about collectability, but I know that people love to collect those census pencils, the Shaw's voting pencils. I think it would be very special circumstances to use them because it's, there's, there's. Maybe it's so that there'll be no incentive to try to steal them, but they're not very comfortable pencils to write with. Another thing, I know that people are. Why I imagine that many people are familiar with MOO cards, which are. They make business cards. They first got famous for little mini cards which were kind of half the height of typical business cards. And they again, they came to fame, I guess, because you can upload photos and so you can kind of either show off your photography or just if you've got some amazing image that you just feel you want to put on a business card, that that kind of became famous. And I should just point out before I go further that I have no connection with Moocards other than as a customer. But when I was recently looking for some more cards, I found this set that I thought was really cool. It has a pencil on one side, so where you have your name and your contact information. There's a sort of generic American yellow pencil with a decent medium point. Certainly. Obviously it wasn't sharpened with a classroom friendly, although it is a drawing, but still you can tell the model wasn't sharpened with a classroom friendly. And then on the other side there are sort of various types of paper. There are actually five options, but you can choose not to have some of the options in your pack. So I have like a yellow legal pad that reminds me of the legal pads that Tim encouraged me to buy and that I've been using and enjoying. And then there's. There's kind of a green, I guess, scientific rule of some kind. You know, one of those grids within grids kind of rules. And there's another one that I don't have in front of me, but, you know, not a sponsorship opportunity, but they'll be in the show notes so people can see them. And there's also some stationery options in the mini cards in the MOO designs, but I have to say they seem to be pencil free. It's all sort of ball points and gel pens, so not so attractive in the mini cards.

Yeah, I also like. So I did just change to this white pencil, partly because I was looking at the pencils I bought back from Japan to talk with you today. But I. Until I just picked. Until I just started this new pencil. I've gotten another one that I have worked down to. I'm afraid I've forgotten the taxonomy of stubbage that you guys worked out. It's well beyond the Steinbeck stage. It's basically at this point my finger and thumb are covering all that's left of the lacquer. So there's really nothing left. It's not. It's inches away from the sort of, whatever you call that, the pocket of my. Of my hand. And I'm just kind of wondering if you guys have any theory, kind of why we persist in using pencils when he's only almost to the point of being uncomfortable to use them that way. And of course, some people would say thriftiness, but. And that's a good point. And I. I know that it would be wasteful to throw it away before it was completely done, but I mean, I'm already wasteful in that or I have I don't know how many, maybe hundreds of pencils that are probably more, you know, they're probably whatever that thing is, you know, stash acquisition beyond life expectancy. So I don't. I know I don't really like. It's a fake thriftiness. It's a story I'm telling myself. And I. The pencil that I've been using is one of those mono Js which are nice. It's a great pencil, but it's not like it's the only pencil I have that will be this good. It's not like it's very, very, very special pencil that I can never get, you know, get again. I Just wonder. It's like, it's almost performative to be using it to such a small stub.

And I just cleaned my desk the other day and I found, like, another stub, and all that's left is, are the letters 7, 2, 5 and, you know, and the. And the. And the stub, you know, and it's, you know, the Kulfa rule and all.

Well, certainly it is easier with the black wings because of the long parule, but, yeah, it's. I don't even know why I'm doing it. Are you a goer? All the way, Johnny?

My final first point is that when I was listening to the last episode and hearing the talk of erasers, I was remembering a friend who I don't see very often. We live in separate cities, but she's an artist and she knows that I like stationery. And she knew that I had been in Japan and had acquired, like, in one brief period, had acquired a lot of stuff. So she wanted to. She was in town, so she wants to come over and look at it. But, like, there was a lot. It was all. It was kind of a small suitcase, but still a suitcase that everything was wrapped up, so there was padding, but it was kind of full of stuff. And so I said, dear, you know, we should have a safe word so that if you feel like you really kind of have gotten to that point where it's feeling like it's kind of, you know, the Neighbors slideshow, circa 1985, where you're like, if I have to look at one more Florida beach, you know, I can't anymore that you said that. And, like, there won't be any bad feelings. Like, I'll just close the suitcase and that will be it. And I was really sort of impressed and, you know, just kind of moved that the safe word that she chose was pink pearl. And it was only at the end, really. I think we almost got through the. Almost the entire contents of the suitcase before she said, pink pearl. No more.

Yeah.

If you send the Nerd whore.

That's like Donald Duck coughing up a

You know, there's a really cool station. Next time that you're at CW Pencils, I can't believe I almost had trouble getting that name in my memory. But next time you're at CW Pencils, a few blocks away, really pretty close, there's a really cool stationery store. Well, just kind of weird, weird things store called Top Hat. And they have a lot of stationery because they're the distributor of Delfonics pens and paper. But they also have other weird things, including a wide variety of duck calls. So, you know, you could actually purchase a good call for this purpose so that Johnny doesn't have to go into spasm.

To make sense.

Mobile is Delphonics. But I don't. I'm not sure.

That is the end of my fresh points.

I know. I've never really worked in a newsroom. Newsroom. I mean, I've worked at magazines, but not really newspapers. So I feel like my use of reporters notepads is a slight affectation. The kind of unraveling of the spiral that you're talking about.

Yeah, I agree. And as I think Brad Dowdy mentioned this on the Pen Addict last week, but when you sort of have it in, like, turnaround mode, you know, as if you were really using it like a reporter's notebook, there's this odd, you know, again, because of that, you know, innovative way of kind of almost covering the spiral. The spiral?

There's kind of like an inch at the bottom that sticks. Like, they're uneven. The front of the back are uneven, which I don't like. It's not a big deal, but it. I don't know, it feels a bit weird. So I feel. I feel the same way. It's just, it's. It looks great, but I'm not sure it's totally practical.

And of course, you know, it's my. My good pal John was the, you know, John. John Dickerson, who's now on Face the Nation, but. And is still on a Slate podcast, but was for many years a Slate political chief political correspondent and is a, you know, a great guy and a friend of mine. So I certainly would never say anything bad about the. The byline, but it feels like it's more sometimes the case with field notes. Like, it's great in theory, but I. It's got a lot of, like, it's innovative.

And that's great. And there's a lot of good things, but there's also a number of bad things, whereas the. The right notebook I love. It's like. It's like it's a reporter's notebook, but with really, really awesome paper.

Is that pretty?

We've been in discussions about the Gilmore Girls podcast for sure.

martinis, you know, she was the original person, you know, in the chorus. You know how A Chorus Line was actually kind of. It started as a whole bunch of gypsy dancers getting together and just talking about all the experiences that they'd had. And she was one of those people, the actress, and, you know, everything is beautiful. Ballet is her life. I think it's Kelly Bishop, right?

Love that stage.

Or Stub life.

I did, and I. I'm really interested to hear you talking about the Timitwis, because I. I mean, it's a beautiful thing, but, like, the whiting didn't really work for me. It felt unbalanced just for me, you know?

So. So this is really interesting because I'm thinking that perhaps, you know, there were two that came together or, you know, two bullet pencil Kind of. Although Kickstarters. That and I both. But I didn't really use either of them because the Whiting just didn't feel right. So I might give it another go, given how much you all are endorsing it.

I think I'm kind of like, touch. It was more just the way that it felt like it was too tall and it felt like it was. The weight was right at the back. You know, it was too far back and it just didn't feel. I don't know, I just wasn't. I like the traditional bullet pencils more, although I don't like the smell.

You know, the way that they often have that kind of metallic smell. So I don't know. I'm sounding very picky, but.

I was going to say, you know, it's funny because the right notepads one is heavy and that's kind of a factor. Like, because it does, you know, if you're using this form factor because you want to put it in your coat pocket or your back pocket, it's kind of heavy for that. Like not, you know, unless you're wearing a jacket made of paper, it's not going to be a problem, but you know, you're going to notice. But I think as much as I like the field notes one, it feels like the right notepads one is one you can actually use for its purpose. Like when I'm using a reporter's notebook rather than, you know, say a field notes type pocket notebook, it's because I want to go quickly. I want to just, you know, like I might be in a movie, you know, just wanting to write large notes because I don't want to. I'm in the dark and I don't want to write over what I've, you know, what I just wrote. And you want to just be able to flip and flip and flip and you know, it makes me seem crazy to think that you go through a notebook in one movie. But it's kind of not, you know, if you're just from experience, I know that it's not. So it just feels like, yes, they're the same form factor, more or less. Although I know the field notes 1 is a little narrower, but it feels like one is really usable for the purpose it's intended and the other one is, you know, lovely paper and all, but kind of. I'm not really sure it works as a reporter's notebook.

I was self confident.

I wonder how collectible these ones are, though, because they're, you know, out of format and just like. It's more like regular stationery. I don't know. Who knows? I mean, it's silly to. To sort of bet against the collectibility or the. The willingness to collect field notes, but I wonder if these will be quite so. And obviously now we're getting into these really large runs. Although this one, I think was just 25,000, which is just 50,000 books, but still. Yeah, I wonder if people will go mad about these.

Yeah.

Yeah, it did feel like this time they were trying harder to win over the. The subscribe, you know, the extra thing, the sticker that obviously they know people are crazy for. That was only for the subscribers and all of that.

Oh, God.

Yeah. So the why is, I guess, really it was the. We booked the trip just because my girlfriend is a Japanese speaker and just wanted to go and, you know, do some research and just hang out. And I wanted to go because I went eight years ago to do a store, a travel story, and I had a good time. I really liked it, but, you know, it wasn't, like, totally my thing. But then this time I sold some, you know, freelance stories. I did a piece about Nakaya fountain pens. Got to go to some fountain pen fairs. I hope you're doing earmuffs, Jonny, and putting your hands over your ears as I use this hate speech. And so I went to some fountain pen fairs, and I hung out at the Nakaya offices with. With the Nakaya people, who are all amazing. And I met the president of the platinum company, who's also the president of Nakaya.

Yeah. And so that was great. And then I also did a piece about stationery stores because I this trip that there were like, it was just a cool thing to do. I mean, wherever I go, I always go and hang out in stationery stores. But it, like most, you know, it's kind of. It's a little bit of a, you know, something that you tell yourself when you're that, oh, everything's so different here, you know, like, it's not necessarily, but there is really cool different stuff in stationery stores. And there are a lot of stationary and art stores. So just having, you know, sold this story, it just gave me an excuse to do what is my favorite kind of relaxation thing, which is just to seek out and visit stationery stores. So I just wanted to mention some of the ones that I thought were particularly interesting for pencils because one of the things that I noticed, like, when you said a negative thing, like, I really didn't have any negative experiences, it was a very happy, fun trip, which actually I did enjoy being there more this time, or somehow I felt more at ease or more happy. I don't know. Whatever it was, it was a good trip. There's so much stationery in so many stores. And even if you stare at everything, even if you spend literally hours looking at everything in the various stores that you go to, you then go to another store and you see completely different stuff. Like, it's amazing what variety there is, except really in pencils. There really wasn't that much variety in pencils, even though I felt like I was looking really hard. Like, there are all the tombow pencils, including some that we don't see much over here. And there were all of the, you know, uni Mitsubishi pencils. But then that would be it. Like, there just wasn't much beyond. Once you'd seen the range, and occasionally I did find a few sort of different. The range widened a little bit, but it kind of was a little frustrating that I wasn't seeing all these crazy, you know, this amazing range that there were in pens and fountain pens and notebooks. But some real. Some highlight places were Gekkoso, which is this. So Gecuso is an art supply store. They sell pretty much only their own kind of store brand things. They're most famous for their sketchbooks, which come in a variety of colors and sizes, but it's maybe five colors and, you know, four sizes. But it seems like all the Japanese artists use them. Whenever I would go to museums and there were pictures of the artist at work, they would be holding their Gekkuso sketchbook. And they. Among the other things that they have are these pencils, which they sell with a sort of a leather pencil cap, you know, to cover the point. And the Pencils come in 8B. I'm sorry. Yes, 8B. So extraordinarily soft. Extraordinarily. You know, they're like the British voting pencils. So as. As cool as it was like it's a cool. You know, Tim, you would love it. It's an unlacquered. A natural pencil, but. And it was somewhat expensive, but like I just. I couldn't really buy them because I didn't think I would use. So I just bought one with a cap. You know, it was almost like a souvenir because I just couldn't see myself using it. It was much too fat. But it was a very cool store to visit. And in the basement they have a coffee shop. But also on the walls, people who've purchased supplies there send in things that they've made with the supplies that they buy there. And so it's just a very cool place to shop. And they also have, as well as the art supplies, some bags. So canvas bags in various sizes. Their logo that they're very famous for is a post horn, you know, that you often see in Scandinavia. So most of the things say in Roman script, Gekkoso and then the post horn. So it's a cool store. And there's a really nice restaurant across the street, another place that I really recommend. And actually if you can only go to one place and you're into pencils, Sakaido would be my recommendation. It's a. There are many branches and it's an art supply store. And the branches are huge. They have just very expensive sort of ranges in all of the departments. And they were the place that had the most pencils, you know, that I could just spend forever and ever inspecting every pencil. And that was great. And also their things tend to be cheaper than anywhere else. You know, Japan has a reputation of a place that's very expensive. But I think actually it's a place where you can spend a lot of money or you also have much more budget options. Budget friendly options. So Sakaido, everything is at a discount and they have a lot of pencils.

I know. You know, I have to say that some of the places do have kind of more international friendly. But you know what? Like the Sakaido one, even if you speak Japanese, it's just not like it's. It's more like, here's how to get to the stores. You know, they're not really set up for E commerce, as we used to say.

But if you're. If you ever find yourself in Japan, find this Kaido Bunpuro is A really cool art store. Yeah, an art supply store. Again, quite a bit of pencils and a lot of other stuff. And the reason that I really enjoyed Bunpodo, which is in an amazing part of Tokyo, thriving used bookstore section, you know, kind of like London's Charing Cross Road used to be many years ago and really isn't anymore. You know, just blocks, blocks after blocks of specialist, you know, art supplies, Sorry, specialist used bookstores. So just, you know, art books, just cookbooks, you know, just. And just so many of them. But Bunpodo was not only a great art store, but also had a fantastic range of postcards, both, you know, some of the typical tourist postcards, but also, you know, arty postcards, which just I wasn't seeing anywhere else in Tokyo and also had one of the things that, you know. So Japanese art stores or art supply stores have the things that we would expect, but it's Japan and so they have other stuff that we don't see here. So, for example, rooms full of, you know, the hand, the chops, the stamps that people use to sign things. You know, there are sort of entire floors of art supply stores, kind of different levels of expense. You know, you can have them carved, you can, you know, the different kinds of ways that you would keep them in your pockets. And another thing that is very common in Japan and less common here, is because Japanese books tend to be of the same size. So not only, you know, the A5, A6 type, you know, sizes that we're familiar for notebooks or art supplies or art sketchbooks, but also what we used to call in England reading books also come in standard sizes. So you find lots, again, reading books, entire sections and. Or rooms full of book covers or printed or, you know, like Tyvek or, you know, you don't really see leather, but just really and often with very cool sort of traditional Japanese design. So you see a lot of things like that that you just don't see in America at least. And Bunpodo had really good. A good selection of book covers. I'll just do. I'll just do a couple more because I know it's not very fascinating if you're not there, but.

Tokyo Hands, again, is a. Just an amazing range of things that they have in the store. Like they sell bicycles, they sell, you know, huge selections of bags. By the way, are y' all listening to Jeff Brutwicky's Bag podcast? It's really fascinating.

Yeah, it's called.

Really good. He's a great interviewer. He interviews the create, you know, the people who make the bags, the business people, the entrepreneurs. And it's really fascinating. Anyway, so they have, you know, Japanese businessmen tend to all carry the same bag. And now I know exactly where they buy them. And they have like huge ranges of like the fake food that they, that they have outside restaurants.

It's just like crazy range of things that they sell in the store. Like lots of hobby stuff. But they also had gigantic stationary selections. Really, really extensive selections of diaries. Diaries and planners are huge in Japan throughout the year. I mean, I'm sure like at the end of the year it's particularly big, but I was there in March and there were still entire floors devoted to planners and diaries.

Now you've mentioned Itoya, I have to say, since you mentioned disappointment, Itoya is good. But they had a big renovation some time ago, maybe two years ago, and now it's huge and it's very well organized. But it was a little bit like there was no spark to the place, you know, like it somehow lost. It was bland and a little bit generic. You didn't feel like you were going to discover something awesome there.

Right?

I don't know if I did actually see that. I saw that at the big toy store. But the last place I wanted to mention, Kakimori, I felt was just so much better at it than that. So Kakimori is a little bit out. You know, Itoya is right in Ginza, you know, super easy to get to. Kakimori. You know, the Tokyo subway is so amazing that you can go anywhere and get anywhere super easy. But it's in this neighborhood called Kurumae, which is just a little bit out. Although it's a very kind of. It traditionally was a place where notebooks were made, but you know, by factories. And Kakimori is this place, it's run by young people. It's all about encouraging people to use analog tools. And so they have all of these. All of the pens that they sell are available for people to play without any. They're not on strings. They're not tied to the wall. And some of the, like, the pens especially were really expensive, but you can, you know, test them and write with them. They're not. There's no security. They're not behind glass because they really want to encourage people to just to write with pens and pencils. And they had really cool, very nicely curated stationery. And they also had this really great. Make your own notebook. So custom notebook in a. Much more kind of in a toy. It was. Everything was kind of a little bit, you know, you had the consultation with someone at Kakimori. You know, you could touch the covers and you could touch the paper and. And the people were super friendly, and it just felt much warmer. And then actually there's a little ink stand. There's kind of a separate entrance where they have their own inks, but you can also mix them to make your own colors kind of thing.

Yeah, so those are my. Since we're not in Japan, I guess there's. Those are all the ones I'll mention, but there was just one last. Two last places I'll mention. One is Bumbogo Cafe, which, you know, there's this whole thing. But this is a place where it's all about stuff. Stationary. So there they sell stationary. They have things for sale. But then in the rest, there's also just a regular restaurant that you can order, you know, food and drink. But then there's just kind of stationary and stationary magazines that you can look at and you can, you know, you can take the note. There's geckoso notebooks. You can take the notebooks or sketchbooks. You can borrow supplies. There's pencils, there's pens. You know, you can draw or write. A lot of people were doing manga or, you know, cartooning, and they were scrapbooking. And then if you're. You can pay a certain amount to become a member. And then they give you a key to the drawer at the table where you, you know. So all of the tables have a drawer that you open with the key and that has like, special supplies in it.

And like, it was cool. You know, we were there on a Sunday. We had to wait like 45 minutes for a table, which is not typical in Japan. Like, you don't usually have to, you know, people don't wait. There's lots of places to Eat, you know, at that level, anyway.

And it was a long wait. A lot of people there and like, people in groups, like, they'd gone to talk and socialize and kind of journal or, you know, do an art sketch or. And it was really, really cool. It felt very. I don't know, like, it just was a nice feeling. And it also felt like you were glad that people were getting together to do that kind of thing in a group. It was very, very. I don't know, just. Just warm and companionable, but also very, very. I don't know. Art Supply Positive. It was really good.

And then the very last thing, I promise, the very last thing I'll mention is Japan is. You know, Japanese people speaking obviously in a great generalization tend not to be all that fun. You know, they don't really focus on, like, what's the cheapest. You know, there's much more value placed on value and quality and something that will last. But Japanese towns all have. Or neighborhoods all have these hundred yen stores. So, like, hyakuen is what they call. And so it's just like a dollar store or a pound store that you might see in England. But the quality of the stuff, especially in the stationary aisles, were just amazing. If I could only, like, if they sent me to Japan and I could only be there for an hour and then I had to return, I would just spend it in a hundred yen store because it was amazing. And actually I saw, like, pencils there that I didn't see in the regular stationery stores. It wasn't junky stuff, which is what I typically expect to find in dollar stores or pen stores.

No, I never have. And it kind of drives me crazy that I. Because, yeah, they do have daiso Hyakkyuen stores. I did see some there, but I've never been to one in America.

Yeah. You can get so much stuff, and you come home as if you've been, you know, like the Great Gatsby throwing shirts up in the air. And he's got all these pencils and notebooks and. And everything. Exactly.

You know, obviously my. I'm just speaking from my very limited experience, but my impression is that, yes, it's very much an art tool that I did see people, you know, writing. It wasn't, you know, that it wasn't that, you know, the thing about Japan, again, a little bit of stereotype, but that it is this weird juxtaposition or shocking juxtaposition of hyper modern and also very, very traditional. You know, the. The woman wearing a kimono as she, you know, goes underneath a giant. Whatever the most modern thing is, you know, neon sign or something. So the fact that there are all these stationary stores and, you know, it's not just the Big ones. There's in our. We stayed in a very kind of an old neighborhood and there would be two or three stationary stores. So obviously people are using them, but I think they're mostly associated with children and with schoolwork. And then if you use them afterward, then maybe you're an artist. So yeah, it seemed not to be just something that you would typically do.

how

I mean, yes. I can't explain it, but it seems undeniable. I mean some. The Delfonics brand has a whole bunch. It's not just the Rollbahn. They have others, they have another brand that makes a sort of a narrower book that has, you know, German words in it or they have binders that come with actually also Danish words. So it's a thing. And you know, there's, you know, I'm picking up a notebook that I got at a kinokunia and you know, it's. It's. I got it mostly because I like the format. It's a. A5 format with the. With I think 5 millimeter spaced lines. And it, you know, has a nice photo and then it says in English a pleasant memory and beautiful scenery. There are a lot of unforgettable things in everyday life. I write an important thing and do not. Let's finish. A way of writing seems to be for freedom and oneself. And like I think that that's intentional at this point. I think that they know that English speaking people will buy stationery that has just weird English phrases on it that don't actually make sense. I don't know.

Yeah, I know that was probably impute terrible motives there. But yeah, I think it's like, it's Almost. Yeah. And so I've got another notebook that I'm looking at that as soon as you send like. Yeah. So this is called Notisbuch and it's got all this stuff. It's also created by the Life company. It's got all these, you know, German words, but then it's made in Japan. Like it's. So I think it's just a kind of a. It's almost. It's an aesthetic.

Right, right, exactly.

Yeah. And I know that you know that there's no shortage of English speaking people who could have proofed them. So I think that it's. I do think it's almost like just a look that they're going for at this point. And I guess I admit that at this point I think it's cool too, but I can't really explain it.

Ooh, now. Well, I do like the stamps, I do like the book covers. You know, one of the things that I bought that I was most excited about was this in Marion, which is another fantastic. It's a book or bookstore, but they also have really good stationary sections. And it was like a special offer I can never resist, like something that comes as a set. And it was like one of those Kukuyu. I forget what they're called. They have a name that you can get them at Amazon. So it's like a folder that has a. Also has a. You can stuff things into it. They've got a funny name that I can use.

Yeah. And they're like systemic notebook, I think they call it, you know, that you can fill in the days yourself, you know, so that you can use it at any year, any month. And on the other side you can put a notebook. There was also like a little plastic filing system, you know, where you can put things in different sections. That was also inside there. And then they'd put. They took pens into the front and you know, the truth is that I haven't really. I use it mostly at home, but I love that, that ability to kind of customize and you know, get a lot of notebooks together, which I know I'm making it sound just like a Midori notebook, but there's something super efficient about this that you can have your schedule notes, you know, filing expenses away in one place. I love that. And, but it's also, it was inexpensive. It was like $12 for the whole thing, which was a special price. But like, they're not sort of representing that this is, you know, some super collectible, you know. You know, it didn't cost $100. It cost less than 20. And I love the kind of everydayness of it. You know, you have the idea of somebody putting this in one of those famous black, you know, briefcases and taking it to the office. It's not. They've not. It's not a luxury item. It's just something that will last a long time. And that is really cool.

No, it did seem like HB was the most common, but there were still a lot of Bs and two Bs. And not only in art supply stores where you would have the full range of pencil grades in a box that was intended for kids to use at school. You could choose B or 2B. So I think HB is still standard, but certainly much more openness to slightly softer grades. And, you know, I know that there's those pencils that you talked about with Caroline one time, you know, 6B. I think I got one that was H8. Sorry, 6B and one that was even 8B. 4B and 6B. I'm sorry. And those are very soft with a very thick core. You know, that's supposedly used to help with penmanship. So I definitely saw those. But I think. Yeah, mostly in the middle range, but lots of mark sheet pencils, as they call them, test scoring pencils. So I did get a few of those myself because I do like the way that test mark's sheets, as they call, you know, they have a nice dark line without being too, you know.

They still hold the points as well.

Yeah.

Right.

What did you guys use them for? I mean, do you use them for actual writing or was that some special usage?

That sound therapy, MRRB or whatever.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, definitely. So when I'm writing, typically I write on, you know, write at my computer or if like, say the Brexit Life blog, that was everything on the computer because there's just no time for messing around. But so something like, if it's something that needs to be written very quickly, like the Brexit Life blog, that would just be pure computer, not even making notes on paper. But for most pieces, I would, you know, maybe if there's something that is giving me a hard time, you know, go and, you know, take it to analog and just go with a. I don't know, just some. What do we call them, A legal pad and a ballpoint pen and try and work that out. But in terms of organization and, you know, figuring out what I need to do and where I need to be, I do most of that with pen and paper or with pencil and paper. And weirdly, there are certain tasks that I always use a pencil for. I don't know, I'm not remembering the. The term for it, you know, like lifelogging or where you keep track of all the things in your life. You know, I often do that with pencil and I typically write with a ballpoint pen or then other kinds of writing I do with fountain pencil. I guess it's a lot of. You fool yourself into thinking if you use this particular tool, this will. Everything will work in a certain way. So I have lots of weird. They're almost habits, but I do. So, yeah, I do use analog tools a lot, especially for organization.

Yes. So well, website and makes those videos. Kind of wants to show how people from different backgrounds who live in New York have an interest in Asian, especially Japanese culture. And she chose. She asked them to show what they have for breakfast. So because breakfast seems to be particularly like. We take our breakfast habits from when we were growing up. So, like, I've been in America for a long time. I'm very American. But I think I do still eat a more British breakfast than most of the people I know. So I had Weetabix, so that was my English breakfast. But then she just kind of likes to see your Japanese interest. So my Japanese interest was stationary. So I showed her some pens and pencils. And it was interesting because, you know, I know her quite well. She actually was the translator for when I went to the Nikaya office and so as I was showing her things, she was very curious, so I, you know, I would give her some. So I gave her some field notes, and I wanted to give her a pencil, and she said, oh, no, I don't use pencils. And it just seemed like that was like a border that she didn't want to cross. So that was a funny aspect of that. But, yes, it's a strange little video.

Yeah, you can find my writing in Slate, but actually the easiest way to keep track of what I'm up to is on Twitter. I'm June Thomas.

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