Monthly Archives: April 2015

Addicts of a Feather Enable Together

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I spent the day getting bad news from my supervisor and then almost forgave him when I discovered he was both a pen addict and a Kickstarter addict.

It happened at the end of a meeting when my supervisor was scribbling notes with an unusual stylus ballpoint pen combo. It had a strange shape and I think was a digital pen from Anoto. Unfortunately, as soon as I expressed an interest in it, his pen addict paranoia took over and he spirited it away to a safe place so I never got a good look at it.

This brief glimpse, however, led to a discussion of various Kickstarter products he’d supported, and this led to a game of “you show me what you wasted money on I’ll show you mine”. I currently everyday carry five things I got via Kickstarter. This includes pen cases from Nock Co. and my new wallet.

I then tried to introduce him to Massdrop (registration required to look around) because he probably still has some money roaming around in his wallet that needs to be spent.

All this got me thinking about the ways we pen addicts spread our addiction. For example, my loaner pens are now a Tactile Turn Mover and a Tactile Turn Shaker. When I lent the Mover to a colleague a few days ago, he liked it so much he suddenly asked to see “my coolest pen” and I let him try my TWSBI 580 and my Karas Kustoms INK fountain pen. (The latter came from a Kickstarter campaign).

He didn’t seem as interested in those but he definitely liked the others.

This seems to be the most common way to spread the addiction: share the wealth, so to speak. I find that once people try the Tactile Turn pens, especially if they have the chance to use them extensively, and the see the different in quality between them and a basic ballpoint, they are suddenly interested in spending the money it takes to get the higher quality pens. Suddenly the expensive pens don’t seem that expensive. (For the record, My TT Mover came from Massdrop and I won the all titanium TT Shaker in a raffle.)

Then, once the addiction begins to take hold, they begin to think about fountain pens. Once that takes happens, I have a few names I’ll pass on to my friend.

 

 

 

 

Kokuyo IDEA Notebooks–A Good Notebook Full of Bad Ideas

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The Kokuyo IDEA notebook is a great idea in the wrong size and shape.

For those of us sick enough to follow the stationery and pen business, the trendiest paper you can use as a fountain pen user is Tomoe River paper from Japan. (Note: that’s Toe Moe Eh with the last syllable pronounced the same as “day”)

Tomoe River paper is thin but fountain pen friendly, meaning when you use a fountain pen, ink doesn’t bleed through and stain the page below. Unfortunately there aren’t that many products made with Tomoe River paper except thick notebooks and annual planners that are too thick to carry.

However, Japanese stationery company Kokuyo recently produced the JIBUN_TECHO or personal diary system (link in Japanese). It is a personal calendar and diary system comprised of a reusable cover filled with three replaceable and interchangeable inserts: DIARY, which is a daily planner made of Tomoe River paper; LIFE, which is a kind of organized book of lists made from thicker Mio paper; IDEA which is Tomoe River paper printed with dot grid graph paper pattern designed for random scribbles and scrapbooking.

The main problem with the IDEA notebook is the size.  At 21 cm by 12.5 cm (8.26″ by 4.9″) it is too big to fit in a pocket which means you always have to have a bag to carry it in. It’s also too wide  to fit in the popular Midori Traveler’s Notebook leather covers (more on that later) .

The IDEA notebook compared with a Field Notes notebook.

The IDEA notebook compared with a Field Notes Red Blooded notebook.

That, however, is my only complaint. The notebook consists of 40 sheets of Tomoe River paper stitched together rather than stapled and printed with a 3 mm dot grid pattern (with a hard rule on the left). Despite the size, it’s the paper that makes this an excellent notebook. Tomoe River paper is unlike any other paper and is a treat to write on. I use mine to record a daily list of ten or more ideas–business ideas, article ideas, blog post ideas, ideas for other blogs, and lots of bad ideas–and I rotate to through my various fountain pens and inks.

Thus far the only ink I’ve had problems with is Noodler’s Apache Sunset which seems designed to test the limits of every form of paper. It has a lot of ghosting and, especially with a thick nib and/or a flex nib, occasional spots of bleedthrough. This doesn’t bother me as I’ve learned to embrace the bleedthrough, but it can be a deal breaker for some pen users.

An example of the ghosting. Surprisingly, it didn't bleed through to the next page.

An example of Apache Sunset ghosting from a Kaweco Sport with an M nib. Also a good look at the dot grid pattern.

Unfortunately, the system isn’t very popular in Japan and I can’t imagine the notebooks being around much longer. That said, Kokuyo also recently released an IDEA mini, which is 18.2 cm by 10.7 cm (7.2″ by 4.2″) that appear to fit in the Traveler’s Notebook cover with some room to spare. They can be purchased from Nanami Paper.

I have a few of those, too. They are built the same and have the same paper and dot grid graph pattern. They just don’t hold as many bad ideas.

 

 

 

 

Getting Cold One Last Time, Probably

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I once had a Kansas farmer snicker at me in a “you poor naive lad” kind of way when I cited the TV weatherman as a source for what the weather would be in a few days.

One of the things Kansas farmers, actually all who live in Kansas for that matter, realize is that weather people are, more or less, making stuff up as they go along. In fact I’ve always argued that in Kansas “The weatherman says” is the phrase you use to start a joke instead of “Guy goes into a bar” This is because in Kansas the latter phrase used to be used in this manner: “Guy goes into a bar, finds out he has to buy a membership or he can’t buy a drink.”

Even though that changed a long time ago, “guy goes into a bar” jokes aren’t that popular.

I bring this up because despite it being almost shorts and t-shirt weather just a few days ago, today it snowed here in the Tokyo/Saitama. I was the only one who wasn’t surprised as one of my odd mantras about life in this area is “It always gets cold one more time. Even if you think it won’t get cold again it will get cold.” Today that was true with a vengeance.

Getting snow isn’t that unusual (it snowed in April five years ago) what was unusual was that it actually stuck in a few places rather than quickly melting. What was also unusual was that it kept snowing well into the afternoon.

It had a happy ending though because She Who Must Be Obeyed used it as a last chance to make chili. Since we used up all our kerosene for our small kerosene heaters we needed something to warm us up.

Tomorrow the weatherman says it’s going to be partly cloudy and 55 degrees Fahrenheit (13 Celsius). That’s a funny one. I’ll believe it when I see it.

 

Note: Heavily edited for clarity on August 7, 2015.

Levenger Sunset Fountain Pen By Stipula

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It’s really depressing when you open a purchase and your first thought is “How the hell am I going to get this fixed?”

This happened to me when I bought a pen from online retailer Levenger. The pen was the Levenger “Sunset” made by Italian pen maker Stipula. It had sterling silver decorations on top of blue cracked ice acrylic and that made it look vaguely like R2-D2. I liked the look and I liked the Italian pedigree and liked that it was priced to sell after a huge price drop.

This is not R2-D2 and that's a sunburst logo not a sunset.

This is not R2-D2 and that’s a sunburst logo not a sunset.

When I got it the first thing I noticed was the silver was tarnished. I emailed Levenger and their reaction was “Yeah, how about that.” In their defense, it wasn’t worth anyone’s effort or money to ship back to the USA for polishing and then have it shipped back to Japan.

I was also surprised that the word “Stipula” appeared nowhere on the pen. It only says “Made in Italy” under the Levenger Sunset inscription on the barrel to prove it wasn’t made by Levenger’s normal manufacturer.

I started using it and immediately liked the larger size. It’s 11.7 millimeters (just under half an inch) at the grip section and unposted it’s 5.4 inches (137 mm) long. Posted it’s an absurd 6.5 inches (166 mm). With the cap posted it’s too long to use comfortably.

The pen and cap. I like that cracked ice acrylic a lot.

The pen and cap. I like that cracked ice acrylic. The photos, unfortunately, don’t do it full justice.

A size comparison with my Cross Century.

A size comparison with my Cross Century. Note the scuff marks on the shoulders of the nib.

As I started using it I noticed that although it was a smooth writer–it’s a Rhodium plated 14 carat gold nib–it had an annoying problem. As I wrote, one of the tines would click out of place and I’d have to hold the pen slightly sideways to get an even ink flow. If I turned the pen over and pushed lightly I could hear the tine click back into place.

This became annoying enough that I finally put it way for a few years until last year when I sent it off to Mike Masuyama for work. He fixed the tines and smoothed the nib and it’s now one of my favorite pens. Despite its size it’s light and a pleasure to write with. It currently has Aurora blue ink in it which makes it even smoother.

The only remaining annoyance is caused by the silver plating. To accommodate the silver pattern and the sunburst (it’s not a sunset) on the cap, the clip had to be moved down the cap and this means the slot for the nib is small. Also, there’s a lot of metal inside there and it has to be cleaned frequently or it starts to corrode. Over time I’ve scratched the shoulders on the nib. It doesn’t hurt the writing experience, but I also have to be careful that everything’s centered when I put the cap back on or I risk mangling the nib.

That said, I’m pleased that after several years the pen finally became a purchase worth getting and something worth keeping.

The nib and cap. You can see the Levenger logo and the scuffs on the nib shoulders.

The nib and cap. You can see the Levenger logo and the scuffs on the nib shoulders.

Out With the Oldest Keeping the Newest

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I finally threw out something I worked hard to get.

As I gear up for the final few days before school starts, I’ve been using my last couple free days to slowly clean up bits of the house. (This is what I do when I’m babysitting.)

One of the things that had to go, besides old clothes, was 75% of my karate belt collection.

I’ve written before how I started studying karate soon after I came to Japan and mentioned how my style has only a few belts for adults. Because I’ve earned only a few belts and because I have the hoarder’s tendency to cling to sentimental objects, I kept all the belts I’ve earned. My original white, my brown, my black belt and my 4th level black belt.

I'm only keeping the one on the far right. The kanji is, sort of, my name.

I’m only keeping the one on the far right. The kanji is, sort of, pronounced like my name.

However, that sentiment takes up space so I decided to clean out a drawer and get rid of the oldest belts. It was cool getting the black belt, but it was cooler getting the 4th level black belt and a black dogi. If I’d continued studying (that’s another post) I’d have black belt with a red stripe and a lot more kanji on it.

The only catch in this plan was She Who Must Be Obeyed. She often complains about the lack of space in our apartment. However, right as I announced I was throwing something out, she immediately questioned the decision. On some occasions when she’s done this she has persuaded me to change my mind. That said, I suspect it is one of those signals I don’t read very well. She actually wants the stuff gone.

This time I was very clear the belts had to go. I don’t really need them and the last person to use the white and brown belts was a rugby coach back in 2004.

Blissfully Embarrassing Myself Without Knowing When to Leave

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Be careful what you wish for, because I just might say yes.

Although I’ve gotten a lot better at it, I’ve never been very good at reading signals people are sending and I’m not always fully aware of the conventions involved in certain situations. For example, in Kyoto, if you’ve been invited to a house for lunch toward the end of the lunch you will be offered tea. As you approach the end of your cup, you will be offered another. The savvy person refuses the second cup, engages in a brief faux argument and leaves. In Kyoto the tea is the signal the lunch is over and the host’s polite way of saying “Thanks, now get the f@#k out.”

I, on the other hand, at least when I was younger, would have taken the second cup after it was offered and then gone on blissfully unaware, once I finally left, that my host was spreading the story that I was rude and wouldn’t get the f@#k out. (So maybe THAT’S why I don’t get invited to parties. Too much tea.)

I say this because something similar to this happened when I was in Albania. A couple of our language teachers repeatedly said that the next time I was in Tirana I should contact them and they’d have me over to their place for coffee.

I was not aware, at the time, that this was the equivalent of “let’s do lunch” and “my people will call your people” and that I was not actually being invited over for coffee.

Of course, during one trip to Tirana, I called the people in question and said if the offer was still good I was in town. There was a brief moment of “Offer? What offer?” and I reminded them of the offer and was invited over for coffee and dinner. Well, sort of.

They had a small place they shared with extended family and I got the chance to say hello to several people and then got my coffee. I was offered a second cup and then time just kind of froze. I remembered that I’d imagined there’d been an offer to stay for dinner so we all ended up on the couch watching TV to wait for dinner.

After a while, even I could sense something was wrong, but nobody seemed to be dropping hints that it was time to leave. Of course, as it turned out, the hints had already been dropped.

I then entered a panic loop that amounted to something like “I feel tense and that makes them feel tense and I think I’m overstaying but if I’m not I don’t want to be rude but I feel tense and that makes them feel tense and I think I’m overstaying but if I’m not I don’t want to be rude but I feel tense and that makes them feel tense and I think I’m overstaying but if I’m not I don’t want to be rude but I feel tense“. Etcetera.

Solution: sit and do nothing until the situation changed.

After about an hour of the panic loop, it finally dawned on me that nobody seemed to be making dinner and I was the reason they weren’t. At long last, I thanked them for the coffee and letting me watch the TV show and apologized that I’d have to be leaving.

Instantly everyone got nervous smiles and escorted me to the door faster than I’d ever seen happen in Albania.

This last part was the hint I’d done something wrong. The Albanians usually made a big show of encouraging a person to stay even when it was clear they desperately wanted them to leave. The fact they were sending me on my merry way made it clear how desperately they wanted me to leave.

I apologized the next time I saw them and even apologized to some of their friends in the Peace Corps, because I was 99% certain the entire Peace Corps knew about what happened the very next day.

Since then I’ve gotten much better about reading those false invitations. That said, I probably always knew about those false invitations, but free coffee’s worth a social faux pas or two.

Crowds Damascus Steel and Almost Cut Faces

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I almost cut a woman’s face off today.

In my defense, she was behind me and she was holding the knife too close to her face.

Today was the Japan Custom Knife Makers/Japan Knife Guild Custom Knife Show in Ginza. As always, I froze my credit cards in blocks of ice and headed down to the show.

This year’s show was crowded and I was pleased to see lots of women who seemed to have an interest in knives and that lots of knives were being marked SOLD.

Soon after the doors opened. It's already getting crowded. Not everyone is set up.

Soon after the doors opened. It’s already getting crowded and not everyone is set up yet.

I’ve been around the shows enough that people are starting to talk to me. I’ve even discovered a few English speakers. One guy asked if I was a distributor and I went “No, I’m a, wait, if I say I’m a distributor will I get a discount?” Suddenly he forgot English.

The other trend this time was Damascus steel. Almost every knife maker had a version of their knife made with Damascus. The man who asked if I was a distributor was famous blacksmith/steel maker Kazuo Nomura. His most impressive knives were mix of aogami super steel and different shades of copper. The problem was they were only sold as a set of 10 and the set was $10,000. They also had hand made maki-e handles to help justify the price.

The three on the left are part of the set. The one on the right is extra.

The three on the left are part of the set. The one on the right is extra. Would you really bone chicken with these?

Close up of the damascus steel. This would be a pain to clean and keep dry.

Close up of the Damascus steel. This would be a pain to clean and keep dry but it looks cool.

A different knife maker's version of Damascus. These are only $125.

A different knife maker’s version of Damascus. These are only $125.

Although everyone was friendly, I think it’s time to move the show to a bigger hall. As the show got crowded it got hard to move around in the small room. At one point, my Canadian friend pulled me away from a woman I was about to bump. When I turned around she was holding an eight inch Bowie knife up to her face to read the logo or check the polish.

Also, it would be nice to see knife-related goods like sheaths and sharpening utensils. There are already a couple vendors who sell knife parts for knife makers they should also start carrying some Japanese waterstones.

Despite the Damascus trend, there was a better mix of knife types than some of the earlier shows I’ve attended. They makers had flippers, lockbacks, fixed blades of different types and a even a few novelty knives that were kind of fun.

This is sharp and way too small for my hand.

This is sharp and way too small for my hand.

It made me look forward to the next show, which doesn’t always happen. I’ll have to keep my credit cards frozen though.

 

Cute Fashion and the Fashionably Cute

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Although they are very interested in looks and fashion and branded goods, the Japanese don’t seem to have an interest in beauty pageants.

Instead they’ve found a way to connect annoying cuteness with fashion and high-tech consumerism in something called Tokyo Girls Collection.

Tokyo Girls Collection is a fashion show and concert held in a large arena and is open to the public as well as journalists and buyers for stores. The models usually have a girl next door appeal and many are singers and actresses representing fashion companies and magazines and not professional runway models. Most appear to have eaten at least once in the last year.

The thing that makes the show interesting, even as it’s featured endlessly on the news for two days, is not only the spectacle of it but the shocking ordinariness of it all. This isn’t a Paris fashion show steeped in pomposity, false sophistication and the tragically trendy where the clothes being shown will never actually be worn–the fashion equivalent of concept cars–it’s ordinary looking people (albeit annoyingly cute ordinary people) wearing clothes that can be purchased at the show.

In fact, part of the spectacle is the droves of young women trying to watch the show whilst simultaneously working their smartphones to try to buy the clothes and accessories they’re seeing on the runway. In some cases the clothes can be picked up at the show; in other cases they are shipped to the buyer. Every year the news features a handful of young women who’ve both succeeded and failed to acquire what they were hoping to acquire. There are also interviews with women who’ve traveled several hours to be there.

The show has been popular enough over the past 10 years to spawn several rival shows–including a Tokyo Boys Collection–and has even been sent off to Beijing and the USA. It’s also grown in size and spectacle with more bands and more brands.

Eventually, I predict, it will simply become a concert and people will forget about the clothes.

Show Me the Losers and Show Me the Tears

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In honor of Ariana Miyamoto becoming the first half-Japanese Miss Universe Japan last month, I’m suddenly thinking about the worst beauty pageant I’ve ever seen.

Oddly, you can blame the Italians.

I think it was 1993, but I’m not sure. All I know is I was up north in Shkoder visiting my friend Eddie and, as was common, the TV was set on an Italian channel. The Albanians enjoyed their new freedom to watch foreign TV without the threat of going to jail and a lot of them had picked up Italian as a second spoken language.

I couldn’t understand Italian at all and Eddie was keeping his Italian skills secret, but it was beautiful Italian women dressing beautifully or barely dressing which meant it was worth watching.

At least that was the premise; then it got bizarre.

First all the women performed a dance that was apparently choreographed by some famous choreographer as the person’s name kept being flashed on the screen. The problem was the dancing amounted to the women standing in geometric patterns and waving their arms to the rhythm of the music. Even the fact the women were in bathing suits couldn’t override the bizarre.

Then there was some kind of vote held that may or may not have involved telephone polling. As soon as the poll was complete, the survivors were announced and then sent off stage and the emcee interviewed the losers. I couldn’t understand what was being said but I think it amounted to:

emcee–How bad does it suck to be a loser?
loser–It sucks pretty bad.
emcee–Are you sad to be loser?
loser–I’m very sad.
emcee–Now get off the stage, loser.
loser–Thanks for inviting me! Viva l’Italia!!

Then the survivors were brought out to do more posing and another dance involving geometric shapes and hand waving. Another poll was taken and the survivors were sent off so the losers could be interviewed.

Along the way Eddie and I held our own poll (which is not dirty) and decided our personal favorite was a woman with a pageboy haircut and a sophisticated university look.

At some point the emcee brought Gina Lollobrigida on stage to do the “serious interview” portion of the contest. Our sophisticated university girl went first and was so moved by standing near the famous Italian actress/sex symbol, she burst into tears and was unable to speak. Gina Lollobrigida comforted her but you could tell she wouldn’t survive. She didn’t.

Eventually a winner may have been crowned but I don’t remember her name. I may have stopped watching by that point. All I remember is the dance and the losers.

The Last Train and the First Train

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One of the decisions you have to make when you live near Tokyo is how late you want to stay out when you’re spending a night out on the town. Your choices are simple:

1) Go home early.
2) Stay out all night.

You can not stay out “later than usual”. If you try to do this, you will stay out all night.

This is because Tokyo’s train system begins shutting down between 11 and midnight. If you have to catch two or more trains, you have to be aware of the last train on each line. The last train from the closest station may depart at 12:45 a.m. but the last train you can take to get home may leave at 12:30 a.m.

If you miss one key train you will miss all of them and may find yourself taking a taxi home or back to the bar.This makes for odd schedules. The Yahoo Transit site tells me that 12:45 a.m. is the last train from my Ikebukuro heading my direction. It stops about half way and then the instructions tell me the next connection leaves at 4:59 a.m.

This also makes for odd evenings.

I remember meeting a friend from high school and university who’d been living in Japan since the 80’s. I hadn’t seen him in decades, but after only a few drinks and some reminiscing, I had to leave for home at 10 because the bar was in a strange location and I had four trains to catch. It was either “Sorry but I turn into a pumpkin at 10:00”  or I had to say “I know I haven’t seen you since the Reagan administration but can I crash at your place?” (It might have worked with him; it doesn’t work with ex-girlfriends, though.)

The other choice is to stay out all night. The first trains start around 5:00 a.m.

What typically happens around last train time is the working people, the Cinderellas, rush to the train to get home or their wives will throw pumpkins at them (something like that). To reach the train they have to human slalom around the college students and party animals (Vampires) who have the energy to stay out all night and are just heading to the clubs.

The last train is typically one of the worst rides you can take. It’s crowded and full of drunk people. It’s one of the few times I feel nervous riding the train.

If you’re not interested in playing Vampire but don’t have any one who will throw pumpkins at you the next day, there are other options, but they are expensive. There are capsule hotels and, if you can find one that takes singles, Love Hotels. They are safer than the last train and the prices are usually comparable to taking a taxi home.

In fact, I suspect it’s the hotel and taxi industry that lobby to keep Japan Rail and the private train lines from operating all night.