The Pen Addict 504/transcript

The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode:	504
Title:	Our Octopus Conversation
Release Date:	March 9th, 2022
Hosts:	Brad Dowdy
Guests:	Jacob (Fudefan)
Additional Information
Official page:	Episode 504
Audio File:	Audio Episode 504
Podcast page:	The Pen Addict 504
Length:	7272 min <br />1.2 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript	Next Transcript

Brad: Welcome to The Pen Addict podcast, episode 504. Today's show is brought to you by Harry's, Pen Chalet, and Topofolio. My name is Brad Dowdy, and today I am joined by Jacob, also known as Fooday Fan in our little slowly growing to be big community. Welcome to the show, Jacob, and thank you for all the time zone math that you had to do. To make this happen, I really appreciate that.

Jacob: Thank you so much for having me. It's a bit surreal because I've heard your voice so many times on the podcast, so it's nice to be able to talk to you.

Brad: Yeah, and it's good. It's funny you say that. Like, you and I, like, I listen to you all the time, you and CY, over at the Tokyo Inklings podcast, and I've actually talked to CY for my members podcast, so I feel like, well, let me talk to Jacob this time, but I'm gonna put him on the spot and on the Pen Addict podcast where everyone gets to listen. But you're a stationary professional now, right? You're a stationary, you're a blogger, you're a podcaster, you're an amazing photographer on Instagram. I love looking at all your stationary stuff. But what I have to start with, and I think hopefully our listeners would enjoy this conversation as well, is what's your background with stationary? How did you kind of get into this stuff to where you're at today? What was discovering stationary for the first time in your life like when you thought about what you were using?

Jacob: Yes, I would say I grew up in a house full of pens and paper because my parents were both working as journalists back then, and they weren't like collecting pens per se. They didn't care so much about what pens they bought, but they always wanted to have at least a handful of pens in good condition, ready to write at any point in time. So they kept buying more and more pens just to have them ready. And this being Sweden, most of those pens were these ballgraf ballpoints.

Brad: Yeah. So, and like, I don't know how old you are, and I'm not going to ask, but we're just going to say at that time, they're probably leaning on just the landline phone and the notebook and pen they need to pick up to do their job, right?

Jacob: For sure, for sure, yeah.

Ballgraf Pens

Brad: Yeah, yeah. So the ballgraf, I guess, from what I've heard, is just kind of ubiquitous in Sweden, right? That's like the pen you kind of find everywhere from households to offices to banks and, you know, official offices, right?

Jacob: Yeah, it's definitely the most ubiquitous pen brand. It might be the only Swedish pen brand, I'm not sure, but yeah, you can find it absolutely everywhere.

Brad: Sure. So when you had like access to this stuff, would you stash some of that away for school or did you just kind of, you know, just use whatever is available? And how did you go from, you know, using the ballgraf and the notebooks at home into finding something else in stationary?

Jacob: So early on, I'll say I had more of a mild casual interest in stationary. In school, I think it was mostly pencils, like woodcase pencils and later mechanical pencils, which by the way also were ballgrafs, everything ballgraf. I didn't really get into stationary as a hobby until much later when I went to Japan. So maybe fast forward a bit to talk a little bit about how that happened. So back at university in Sweden, I had this idea that I wanted to study abroad one year. I wasn't sure exactly where I wanted to go, but I wanted something of an adventure, I guess. So I thought maybe like Asia, somewhere in Asia, roughly that direction could be fun. And so I went to my university's like exchange program desk and they happened to have one exchange program with a university in Japan, in Sendai, in Northern Japan. So I applied for that and somehow I got in. So I went there and spent one year in Sendai in Northern Japan as a student. And that was in many ways such a great experience for me. I came to love Japan almost instantaneously. There were so many things, not just stationary, but I remember being struck by like how high tech the country was. I mean, this was before, this was before, you know, the iPhone and the smartphones. So my idea of a cell phone back then was this giant Nokia brick with like a black and white low res display. Right. While in Japan, they had a slender, colorful clamshell phones with like color displays. And you could even go to a convenience store or a vending machine and pay for stuff with your phone. It was like science fiction to me at the time. So I like that part. I like the fact that everyone was so, so kind to me. I remember walking around trying to ask for direction in my horribly broken Japanese. And when they couldn't explain the direction because I didn't understand, they offered to walk with me for a good like five, ten minutes to show this lost foreigner where to go. And there were many things like that I liked about Japan. And early on, you know, being a student and he was stationary, I discovered the big Marizen store near Sendai Station. And that was like an eye opener because they had more colorful pens and paper than I ever seen in my life before.

Brad: We're going to get into some of the Japanese stationery shops and some of that here in a minute. But I wanted to know just that Marizen shop at the time, how big was that shop? Knowing that, maybe I'm wrong, but, you know, maybe it's not as big as some of the shops in Tokyo. But just relatively speaking, what would it compare to? Like you're walking into the first time and seeing something like this.

Jacob: Yeah, so Marizen is, I'll say, primarily a bookstore. So most of the shop was books, but they had a fairly large stationary section. And it was mostly the fact that they had pens that I'd never seen before and just more colorful pens than just brands I'd never seen before. And also they had this so irresistible retail display. You could try it all and, you know, it's hard to not buy something when you go in there and everything looks so attractive.

Brad: Do you remember some of the stationery you bought at the time or the things that you used for that year of school that stick out in your mind?

Jacob: So I was pretty cheap because I was a student. I remember buying, I'm not sure if this was when I was a student or if it was later, but I was still very much a ballpoint person, I would say, back then. And I remember Pilot had two kind of high-end ballpoint pens called, what was called, Fumiraku, which I think may have been a Japan exclusive. But it's basically a ballpoint that takes this acro ball, like hybrid refills. But it's a nicer pen with a wooden grip. I think it's anodized too. And then Acro Dry, which is another like nice metal ballpoint pen. So I wasn't at that point into Fumiraku, which I came a bit later.

Brad: Yeah, yeah. And I guess one of the things I'm always curious about is when you're a student, is stationery, like analog stationery, even at that time in a more analog world, it's pretty prevalent, right? Like there's laptops and things like that at the time in school. But in Japan, is it very heavily analog at the time you were in school?

Jacob: Yeah, I remember taking a lot of notes. I remember all students, they brought their notebooks. And there was a lot of note-taking for sure.

Brad: Yep, yep. So when did that transition into fountain pens happen? How much, say, longer after school? Like, did you go back home after this one year and you were back in Sweden for a time?

Jacob: Yes, I went back home to Sweden after that one year. But I was determined to go back to Japan because I just loved being there and I looked at the various options. And this was before the financial crisis. So the times were good and the various international firms in Tokyo were looking to expand. And yet they were desperately looking to hire people. So it was a good timing for me as I managed to land a job in Tokyo. So I went to Tokyo and started working in Tokyo. And I think that's when I got more into stationery and eventually into fountain pens. And one factor here was that my office was literally within walking distance from both Marzen and Ito.

Brad: I giggle because, and you and I have just talked about this before, just, you know, over Twitter or something, just the conversations. Just the ability a lot of people have in Japan, especially in the bigger cities, to look out their office window and, you know, just be able to point at the different stationary stores. So, yeah, we're going to pick up on that. I have a lot to talk to you about today, Jacob. So let me get to one of my first ads today, just so we can get into this a little bit more. And we'll start exploring your return to Tokyo and really get into it here. But let me talk about our good friends over at Harry's. This episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by Harry's. Everyone loves an underdog. And with a company like Harry's, you can rely on the best quality and construction methods in the Razer game with incredibly fair pricing. I've been using Harry's for, gosh, I can't even think how many years I've been using them. I just re-upped my Razer blades. You can get a 12-pack of blades for like under $2 a blade, and they last forever. So it makes them like the best deal on the market. So they're just the best. And new customers to Harry's. You can redeem a Harry's trial set for just $3. Like this is a set with a handle and the Razer blades. You can test them out when you go to harrys.com slash pinag. Harry's believes you shouldn't have to choose between a close, comfortable shave and a fair price. So they give you both. In fact, Harry's blades are designed to stay sharp longer. In a recent study, people who shave four times a week said their eighth shave was as smooth as their first. That's a better experience with every shave and savings over time. Harry's is giving their best offer to Pin Addict listeners. New Harry's customers can redeem a starter set. You get a five-blade razor, a weighted handle, foaming shave gel with aloe, and a travel cover to protect your blades when you're on the go. That's a $13 value for just $3. There's never been a time, a better time to try Harry's. Go to harrys.com slash pinaddict to try Harry's today. Our thanks to Harry's for their support of this show and Relay FM. So I need Harry's as a sponsor because I follow you and everything you and CY get up to in Japan and it costs me a lot of money. So you're working now in Japan and you're seeing you have this access, right? You have this newfound access to products. So what did that transition look like when you went from the ballpoint pens that you were using as a student and then you make a return trip as a professional now? And I'm assuming you're... When you go back, are you assuming you're living there full-time or are you looking at a shorter term? You know, not to get too much into your work or life or business, but like, are you like, hey, I'm moving to Japan and this is where I live now? Yeah.

Jacob: Yeah. Well, that wasn't... Once I moved back to Tokyo, I didn't really think about how long I was going to be there, but I've been here since then and 15 years now.

Transition to Fountain Pens

Brad: Yeah. So I was going to ask you how long you've been there. So about 15 years now. That's awesome. Yeah. So what was when you got back and you started working and what was it like when you discovered fountain pens in Japan?

Jacob: Yeah. So I can't remember exactly what a catalyst was, but it may have been some, again, irresistible retail display. But there are a lot of those. If you come visit here, you're going to see what I mean. Oh, we're going to talk about that.

Brad: Believe me.

Jacob: But I remember buying a pilot cocoon, so not Kakuno, but cocoon, which is the Japanese name for the Metropolitan. Yep. And I bought a few others. And I remember, but I didn't, I wasn't into like bottle ink. I hadn't discovered bottle ink at the time as I was buying cartridges. And I remember I loved how the pens wrote at first, but inevitably I neglected them and they were drying out. And when you have a converter or like a piston filter, you can easily push some ink up to the feed and you're ready to go again. But when you have a cartridge pen, you had to either squeeze the cartridge or like dip the nib in water to get it going again. And that part frustrated me quite a lot to the point where I was so frustrated that I even threw away some pens. Oh. And do you remember a podcast episode with Myke, like horror stories, Hall of Shame, someone who was crazy enough to throw away a Pilot M90? Yes. That was me.

Brad: No.

Brad: No, Jacob. Okay, we're going to have to end this show. Or at least I'm not going to, I'm going to tell Myke not to listen or to like skip this part. No. Oh. Okay. Tell me, tell me that. Yes. It's just, it's just the cartridge situation, right? Because that's just kind of like what they're really built for, even though you could fit, you know, the, the con 20 converter or whatever it's called in there.

Jacob: Yeah. There were some factors here. I mean, in my defense, and this is not much of a defense, but I didn't realize that there was much of a special pen because I recall buying this pen on Rock 10, which was sort of the Amazon of Japan back then before Amazon became Amazon of Japan.

Jacob: So I, for some reason I decided I wanted to buy a fountain pen and I went to Rock 10 and I just searched literally for the term fountain pen. And the M90 must have been just available then. So I, it just showed up early in the list, up in the listing and it had good reviews and it looked pretty cool. So I might as well get one of these. So I bought one. And there are a few things I didn't like. I thought it was just too small for my hands. Well, if I had, if I had read the product description, I could have discovered that before I bought it. But yeah, it was too small. There was something I didn't like about how it wrote, which was probably entirely my fault. And then due to my neglect, it eventually dried out. And I said, I don't like the pen to begin with. And again, I didn't realize this was a special pen. Sure.

Jacob: I threw it away. Oh my gosh.

Brad: Yeah. It's like the perfect storm. Like if you were any other week or two weeks away from the day you decided to do that, you're not buying that pen, right? There just weren't that many of them made. And, but I'm glad you did even though you threw it away. Oh, I am, I am, I am out of words for that. That is an amazing story. And this just goes to show you listeners that we have all, you know, traveled the same paths, right? And a lot of y'all that are listening now are doing the things that Jacob and I, it sounds like we've been kind of into fountain pens in a similar length of time. That like this stuff happens to the best of us. And we all have these stories. Well, I mean, I didn't throw away a pilot M90. Sorry, Jacob. But it was still like this stuff happens. And it's like, sometimes you just don't know. And sometimes you got to figure it out. But what got you over the hump of, okay, I am frustrated with some of these products. And I've literally thrown away what ended up being a really popular, famous pen. So what made you, you know, try a fountain pen again?

Jacob: I think it had to do with bottled ink. I remember going to an art supply store in Tokyo called Seikido. And they had this relatively new at the time, Iro Shizuku inks. Like the, I think it was, for some reason, Fiyu Shogun in particular was particularly appealing to me. And I realized that I needed not only a fountain pen for that, but I needed an actual converter. So I may have bought a Pilot Kausman 74 or something like that. And so I was determined to, this time, to get it to work. So I figured out eventually how to do proper care and maintenance. And once I did that, then I realized that fountain pens are pretty great. And it snowballed after that. And I ended up buying more pens. I went on YouTube and found, you know, Stephen Brown, Goulet Pens, Pen Habits, a certain pen addict blog. And before you knew it, I was at Pelican House talking to like-minded people.

Brad: So that's amazing. That's amazing. All right. So your comment there just made me have the perfect lead into the next topic I want to touch on. So your first three fountain pens, well, you know, relatively speaking, that you have, you know, usage of work. Pilot, pilot, pilot. What's the stationary marketing like there? Like you were talking about, I want to get into some of the retailers and some of the shops and things in Japan. But what's just the general stationary marketing like over there? Do they put a focus on all parts of stationary, right? Like from, you know, your entry levels, you know, school, young age school, stationary all the way up into fountain pens? Like are you seeing fountain pen advertising and things like that?

Jacob: I wouldn't say that, you know, if you go, if you take the subway in Japan, you see all kinds of ads. You may see like stationary ads, but that's not going to be fountain pens. It could be, you know. That's what I figured. Colorful ballpoints and stationary for school and so on.

Brad: The main line, more main line type of product. Yeah. Gotcha. Gotcha. So what do you think drew you to Pilot in those stores? Just like the in-store displays, getting to test everything out. Maybe it felt good, you know, or just the price points. Like that's what I always praise Pilot for is they do something so well at every single price point.

Pilot Ink Discovery

Jacob: Yeah, that might have been a fact, but I think it was just, that was, I think Pilot just has most shelf space at most of the stationary stores. It's a Pilot, Platinum, and Cellular being a distant third.

Brad: Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. So let's say in, I'm going to, I'm going to show my ignorance here. So let me, let me see if I can pose this question correctly. Cause I hear about Atoya a lot and it's kind of, I mean, they have multiple stores, right? But they have, do they have like say a flagship store that's like several floors of stationary? And what is your experience with like a store like that? Hmm.

Jacob: Yeah. So Atoya has a few stores across Japan. By far the largest one is the flagship store in the Ginza in Tokyo, which is this like upscale shopping district in Tokyo. And this is a 12 story building that's all about stationary. So there's one floor dedicated to like letter writing. There's one floor about like office stationary, like ballpoints and rulers and notepads and what have you. There's one floor about fountain pens and ink. One floor about planners, especially like system planners, like a plotter. One floor about like art supplies and desk decoration and whatnot. So this is a huge shop.

Brad: Wow. And I would spend the entire day there if I was a visitor, but I'm assuming living there, you kind of, you know, you kind of go in when you can, or if it's a special trip or whatever. So what, how does Atoya, Atoya's place in the market for someone who's say like yourself or like CY, who are like the super fans, do they still shop at a place like Atoya? Or are you looking for like the smaller, more dedicated, more, you know, personal, independent type of shops, if you will?

Jacob: So I would say generally there are three reasons why I go to Atoya. One is that it's probably the best place to get all kinds of interesting planner refills. And have a wider selection than pretty much anywhere else. It's also a good place to buy ink, including new brands that aren't otherwise available in Japan. And the third reason is that Atoya sales staff are usually better informed about upcoming products and releases than anyone else, including, and they don't even realize themselves how well informed they are. So let me give you an example of that. A few months ago, there were these rumors that Pilot was going to discontinue three Irochizuku inks, right? And there were some rumors on like a Korean site. It may have been Pilot South Korea's official Instagram account, but it was no information whatsoever in Japanese. It was no information in English. So I went to Atoya and I asked them, is it true that these inks are going to be discontinued? And they confirmed it. I mean, this was more than a month before there was any announcement from Pilot Japan. Yeah, that is true. This is going to happen. Not only that, there's going to be three new inks. So they knew that so early on.

Brad: Gotcha. So they're not only like kind of the biggest, they're also one of the best. And they also probably kind of drive the market, right? They have the pull or the muscle to just have all of the information because they're going to get access to all of this stuff when it happens. And luckily for you, the staff is well informed enough to communicate to you that as a customer. That's pretty cool. So, yeah. Yeah, I just find that whole concept so interesting. It's completely foreign to me. Like there's, I've never had that type of experience, right? Like I have retailers who I deal with online because, you know, they're, you know, a thousand miles away from me or whatever. But like, you know, I'm not fortunate enough to have like a shop like say like Venice Pens where I can just walk in and have these discussions and get that type of information. So, wow. Yeah, that's kind of messing with my head a little bit. It's really, really interesting.

Jacob: Because like you, go ahead. So, there's one more reason. Oh, there's one reason why many people go to the big retail stores like Itoya. And that is that they often have these so-called pen clinics. So, you don't go to a pen clinic to get a grind like a cursive italic. Like you go to a pen clinic because your pen might not be writing as well as you wanted it to. Maybe it's an issue with like the tines being misaligned or the nib and feed are misaligned or there's some dried out ink or whatever it may be. So, these pen clinics are really quite popular. And in fact, I know people who go to these pen clinics and bring their pens that are actually writing well. It's like you go to, it's like an annual health checkup for your pen.

Brad: Wow. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I see what you're saying. Yeah. Wow. So, they will just say, hey, it's basically like an automobile maintenance. Something you do every day here in the U.S. You're driving a car and you have to go get it checked up on and make sure it's going to continue to drive well. The people are using their fountain pens. Well, that's their daily workhorse pen. They're going to come to the pen clinic and get the tune up, if you will, right? Exactly. Okay. I'm going to diverge from the topic list here because you brought up something, a question in my mind. And I think I heard it from you and CY discussing. So, say these pen clinics and they'll have, for lack of a better term, nibmeisters. Feel free to correct me if we want to, you know, direct it a different way. But is the general sense from, say, like a pen clinic or any nibmeister who's set up at a retailer, they generally don't want to modify nibs? Is that something I heard from you and CY that that's like a real kind of almost a disrespectful thing?

Jacob: Yeah, that's definitely true. There's always been these nib workers that do offer to do nib grinds. But some of them are actually quite opinionated. You can go to them and say, I want this grind. And they look at the nib and say, no, you don't need that. It's fine. Wow.

Brad: Interesting. Interesting. Yeah, I love that. That's I love that. Like that dedication to say, no, this is the way it is. It's kind of wild. So these pen clinics, will you also have, say, at a Toyo or any other store you'd like to mention, will retailers do like special days or like a special pop-up shop or what we would call maybe a trunk show where the retailers will come in for like the weekend. And, you know, just have like a dedicated representation from a brand, say pilot, and customers can come and look at that type of stuff separate from what would normally be in the shop.

Jacob: Yeah, that's definitely true. Itoya in particular tends to have this like one week when they have when you're promoting pilot products. And they also have like one week when they promote planners or ink or something like that. So Itoya is one of the few retailers in Japan, I believe, that has a dedicated event space. So one of those 12 floors is a dedicated event space.

Brad: Okay, that's cool. That's cool. I like that. All right. So this might not be a question you can answer or it's at least maybe not fair to ask, but I'm going to ask it anyway because I want to know the answer. So if tomorrow you have a plan, say, I want to go check out like this new release, this is a cool pin. I want to see, you know, check it out for myself. What store are you going to?

Jacob: So unless I know that it's exclusive to a particular store, my first option would probably be to go to Itoya and ask. Even if they don't have it, the sales staff might know something that would lead me in the right direction.

Brad: So you're saying when I come to Japan, Itoya is my number one stop.

Jacob: It's definitely worth a visit for various reasons. It's not, I wouldn't say it's my favorite stationery store in Tokyo, though. That might be Kakimori, actually. So Kakimori, I think, might be, it has in recent, last few months, I guess, become popular overseas because of these metal dip nibs, right? And to a later extent, right? And also the inks. But what Kakimori is known for in Japan is make your own notebook. So you go to the Kakimori store, you pick up a tray, and first of all, you choose what paper you want. And they've got like Tom River, Bank Paper, OK Fools, and like two dozens of papers you've never heard of before. And you can try them all. You can bring your own pens and try, of course, and there are all kinds of fountain pens, inked up fountain pens and ballpents and whatnot that you can borrow and try whatever paper you want. And then once you choose what paper you want and how much you want, you choose back cover, you choose a front cover, you choose what binding or rather what kind of rings you want. And then they make the notebook for you, your very own unique notebook.

Brad: Gotcha. OK, I've seen this. And I didn't put two and two together that they're making the stainless steel dip nib that I chased for like three months until I finally got one. They're also the ones who kind of, you know, have this whole notebook set up that I've seen before and read articles on and seen reviews of that just seems like really, really fascinating. OK, so what.

Brad: One thing I don't have a grasp of in the market, and maybe it's unfair of me to even like think of things this way and I probably shouldn't. But what's how do you relate like a store like Kakamori to a Toya as far as like size goes, as far as like, you know, is it more of like a family ownership or do company just like a company own it? Or, you know, what is their place in the market versus someone like a Toya? And how do they coexist to where like a Toya is just not like pulling an Amazon to everyone in the market, right? Where they're, you know, taking over the market. How does Kakamori fit into this whole picture in stores like that?

Market Trends in Japan

Jacob: That's an interesting question. Yeah, it always has a bit of everything, right? But and it always even has its own and you make your own notebook, actually. But it's not nearly the amount, the types of paper you get to choose from is not nearly as extensive as Kakamori. So I think these specialized stores, they're always better at whatever they're specializing in, right? It's like a restaurant that you can go to a restaurant that has everything or you can go to a sushi restaurant that makes the best sushi in town. Gotcha.

Brad: That's a good way to put it. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And have you in your time in Japan, have you seen more or less of these access to physical brick and mortar stationary stores? Like, have you noticed like coming and going? Do you think there's more now than over the last decade, like 10 years ago? Do you think the market's different? Do you see new stores coming in or do you see old stores going away? What's your just general sense of that?

Jacob: I'm not sure I've seen stores coming and going. What I've seen is more focus on ink and on glass pens and to some extent fountain pens than before. Because there's this, you may have heard about that, there's this thing in Japan going on called ink numa, which directly translates to ink swamp, but a better translation would be like ink fever. People are obsessed with inks here. And usually they start with, you know, glass pens and dip pens, but some of them end up starting using fountain pens, like caconews and whatnot. And you see even some like traditional stationary stores that previously wasn't really, that previously focused more on like office stationers start selling inks and dip pens and sometimes even fountain pens.

Brad: Do you think that's an effect of like what you and I see a lot is like the really personal nature of a pen and an ink that kind of fits you? And these personalities of the products are coming out in the Japanese market more so than, hey, these are like really cool tools that I can use every day. But hey, I can also have this journal that I can create in and this planner that I can create in. And oh, by the way, I can go mix my ink and pick up a glass dip nib that like really speaks to me. Do you see like that type of effect?

Jacob: I'm not sure. I think for this new generation of fountain pen users, the fountain pen is just a way, a delivery mechanism for the ink, right? It doesn't really matter if it's a preppy or a caconew.

Brad: Gotcha. That's very interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's wild. All right. So we're going to explore this ink a little bit more, I think, in this next topic I want to discuss. And I think it's going to be a big one. And I have, again, Jacob, shocker, I have a lot of questions for you. So let me talk about our good friends over at Pen Chalet real quick. And then we're going to talk about tips, the big stationary show in Japan. So this episode of the podcast is brought to you by Pen Chalet. They sell authentic, amazing roller balls, fountain pens, ballpoints, mechanical pencils, and so much more. They have all of your favorite brands like Monteverde, Pelican, Lamy, Pilot Namiki, Sailor, and Kaweco, and are, of course, an authorized dealer of all of these brands. They have very fast and reliable customer service. They run special discounts twice a month, including closeout specials every two weeks. They're always adding new styles of pens every single month, as well as the brands mentioned earlier, Pen Chalet sells limited edition pens, and all the pen accessories you ever need, like pen carrying cases, pen holders, refills, fountain pen converters, and so much more. There's free shipping on orders over $50 in the United States, and they also sell internationally with very reasonable shipping rates. Pen Chalet has low prices on high-quality pens and offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee. So go to penchalet.com, click on the podcast link at the top of the website, enter the password penaddict for this week's special offer, and to get the code you need, save 10% off on anything at Pen Chalet. So, Jacob, I pulled up this spot on Pen Chalet, and right at the top, this is going to lead into a question I'm going to ask you in a minute. They have the Pelican Special Edition Classic 200 Golden Barrel Fountain Pen, which was last year's 200 Series Limited Edition. They have a great price on that, and if you scroll down, they have the Pelican Suveron 400 Silver White. So Pelican was in the news recently. They're making some changes here and, you know, bringing some colors back and making some changes to their pens. So this might be a chance for you to go get some of these really, really cool Pelicans. So, again, go to penchalet.com, click the podcast link at the top of the website, enter the password penaddict for these special offers. Thanks so much to Pen Chalet for sponsoring Relay FM and the Pen Addict. So my question is, before we get into tips, is Pelican a big deal in Japan?

Jacob: I would definitely say so. I don't have any numbers to back it up, but just based on what I'm seeing, of the Western brands, I think Pelican might be number one. So the popular Western brands are Pelican, Mont Blanc, Aurora, and to a lesser extent, Love Me, I would say. Those are probably the most common ones. Okay.

Brad: And I don't know what this, I don't know how to ask this question, but I'm going to try. Okay. So compared to the Japanese, say the Japanese big three, would you say their popularity is like definitively lower, but they're pretty popular in their own right for people who like fountain pens? Or is there some kind of, you know, like would Pelican be like up there with like Platinum or Sailor, but maybe not Pilot as far as like what people see in fountain pen stores and what they're using?

Jacob: So I think considering the price point, I don't think you see as many like people getting into Pelicans early on, but out of the collectors here, you see a lot of Pelican fans for sure.

Brad: Interesting. Interesting. All right. So you might see some of these at the Tokyo International Pen Show. So can you tell me a little bit about the Tokyo International Pen Show? I know it's just kind of, it's getting bigger and better like every few years. I know we've had some, you know, some COVID downturns in this show going on. And, but everything I read is that this show is on a big time upward trajectory. So can you tell me like what your experience has been?

Jacob: Yeah. It's been around for like three or four years now, right? So it's a fairly new show. And I would say early on, like the first one was more of a general stationary show. I would say in the sense that you had pen vendors, of course, but you have a lot of ink and you have a lot of general paper and stationary products, which was probably a good idea because ink was and continues to be so popular. And in particular, what they did well was that they managed to get these small regional stores all over Japan to come to tips. Because there's this concept in Japan called like Gotoji Inc or like regional inks. So you have these small stores like in like Yamagata, Fukushima, Totori or whatever. And they have their own store exclusive ink and you cannot generally buy them online. So you have to go on like a five hour Shinkansen trip if you want to buy those things normally. So these are sought after inks, but unless you have like a week to spend on a Shinkansen, you can't go buy all of them, right? Yeah. So if you live in Tokyo and you want to get those things, tips was one of the best places to do that. So I think that was part of the early success that it managed to get those vendors to come to tips. I think the most recent tips was more pen focused in the sense that you had some vintage pen vendors. You have some very small pen makers that I hadn't even heard about before, like Furuta and H-Works. So it becomes more and more of a pen focused show from a more general stationary show.

Brad: That's interesting. So I always listen. I mean, I listen to your podcast every time it comes out, but I've always listened with great interest when y'all do the tips recaps. And last year y'all did a live show there at the show. And I always remember like CY and maybe, I don't know if it was you to a lesser extent, just being like, really, I need to get these inks like quickly, right? Like it was, it was a big deal, right? And then to hear, okay, maybe it's still a big deal, but now we have these new makers in the community that have made their way to the show. So that seems like really, really positive.

Jacob: Yeah, for sure. And I heard that by attendance numbers, TIPS is now the world's largest pen show. So not stationary show, but the world's largest pen show. So it has grown significantly. And I'm looking forward to see what, how this year's show turns out. I'm hearing rumors, by the way, about pen addicts going to TIPS.

Brad: And, you know, we got the most positive news, what, just in the past week or two, that the travel restrictions are starting to loosen up a little bit to where it wouldn't be, you know, too much of an issue to travel. So we have budgeted and saved money from a couple years ago just for this trip. And we were supposed to go last year or this year. No, we were supposed to go. Yeah, we were supposed to go last year. And we obviously had to cancel that for just COVID reasons. But we're coming. Whether I guarantee it's this year, I can't say for sure, just because I don't know. I'm not hiding that fact. I just don't know. You know, the state of the world changes every day, it seems. But I imagine between this year and next year, we're going to be there. And, like, I can't wait because I obviously, you know, have a bunch of friends there that I want to see. I want to hang out with you guys. I want to, you know, experience the show. And just to hear you say, like, the growth, seeing the growth of the show and talking to people involved with the show, even in a travel-restricted year like last year, is pretty amazing. How is the show handling, like, is the show able to grow as, like, the amount of vendors come increases and the amount of people increase? You think that's something that they have the space for and the ability to handle the growth?

Jacob: Yeah, I mean, they have – the venue is very, very good. There's definitely enough space to grow. And I think the show is overall so well-organized compared to some other shows. And, yeah, I have no doubt that they will be able to scale it up further if more people will go to the show.

Brad: So one thing I want to mention to our listeners who don't follow this stuff as closely as I do, when you look at pictures, say, from last year's Tips Pin Show, they have volunteers in, like, noticeable, say, like, a vest or something to where you can see, like, someone in the room that can help you get directions to the things you want to check out. And that's something you never see or very rarely see outside of, like, the front desk at a U.S.-based pin show that I go to, right? So, like, you can find things out when you arrive. But once you're actively, you know, in the show, if you have, like, questions come up, seeing that, I thought that's, like, a really cool feature. Like, that's thoughtfulness in the show promoters to do that type of thing. I thought that was a really, really neat touch.

Jacob: Yeah, for sure. By the way, while we are on a topic of tips, there's an in-fun story I want to tell about last year.

Brad: I literally, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to break the fourth wall here. Literally, while you were talking, I moved the topic we're going to about to cover right up to this section here. So I could remember to ask you. So I want to hear this story because I'm not even sure I know the full story, even though I ended up being involved in it.

Jacob: Right.

Jacob: Yeah. So about one week before tips, I got a message from someone who wishes to remain anonymous. But let's just say, you know, who that person is. And this mysterious person said, we can probably get you some samples of some paper that you really want. We just need to, they didn't say Tommy Rivers successor, but that was implied. Right. We just, we just double checking with the manufacturer that this, this is fine. So we'll get back to you in a few days. So I said, okay, I'm intrigued to say the least. And I got another email and they said, we're ready to go. But here are your instructions. You need to go to tips and you need to find this person. Let's call them the paper supplier. You need to find this paper supplier and you need to tell him the following. You need to tell him or you need to ask him, are there any good takoyaki restaurants around here? So takoyaki is this Japanese snack that we like round balls with the octopus inside. So this has nothing to the paper. Are there any good takoyaki restaurants around here? And you should expect the paper supplier to reply, no, I'm not from this area. I don't know. And then upon hearing that reply, I was supposed to look upset and say, there just aren't any good takoyaki restaurants in Tokyo because they don't put enough taco in it. Not enough octopus in a takoyaki. This is completely random and it's like an inside joke. But the reason why for this conversation is that the paper supplier is from a region of Japan that is very famous for takoyaki.

Jacob: I am dying over here. That Joel actually had these conversations to do basically like the top secret paper handoff, right?

Brad: It's like the James Bond handoff. Yes. And you were successful and you talked about it like right there on your live show, right? I think it happened before the live show and you had already done some testing and stuff, right? Like that's how soon you got it.

Jacob: Yeah, so I found this person. We had our octopus conversation and I got the package and I walked down to a cafe, just nearby cafe. And since I knew that I was going to get this paper, I had brought all kinds of pens with like footer nibs, course nibs, music nibs, all kinds of like ink testing, sort of paper testing pens. And so I was sitting there in a corner doing my secret paper test. What I didn't realize was that just a few meters away from me, see why I was sitting there talking to someone. And I was supposed to keep quiet about this and not tell anyone. My explicit instruction was don't tell anyone before the live stream. So I was sitting there, see why I was a few meters away.

Jacob: Fortunately, he did not see me.

Brad: He would have been in your business for sure. For sure. For sure. Yeah. What are you doing, Jacob? Let me see this. Let me see this. I can see him right now. And yeah, because also they didn't want you to know that you had it. So people weren't coming up and asking you to try it and have it getting out. And then kindly, very few weeks later, I had an envelope arrive from an unnamed source that basically came. It looked like in the confidential. Right. Like secret packaging. And I was just dying. It was great. So since we're on this topic, let's hit this up with Tomoe River real quick. And you have been at the forefront of kind of tracking like our changes, the things that we care about that no one else in the world cares about deeply. But like it's very valuable to have someone with like the information that you have and the ability to share that with us. So can you say anything or do you know anything of this new Tomoe River successor since TIPS? That's been what, four months now, five months? Are we going to see anything in the near term with this new paper?

Jacob: So I heard back then that it will be available sometime between January and March this year. They weren't quite sure because it depends on how fast it could sell out the stock, the existing inventory of quote unquote new Tomoe River. Right. Right. Since then, I heard revised estimates first half of this year. So until June. So that's the latest I've heard.

Brad: So, yeah. So hopefully we'll get something this year for more people to check out. I think it's going to do well. Right. Like it's not the same. Right. It's never going to be the same. And that's what I always like bang the drum on. And it's like, and that's why I don't want them to use the original name is right, because then we'll always have to harken back to like the paper that we can no longer have. I'm ready for it to be new, freshly branded because it's going to be good. Right. There's no doubt that it's good paper. It's also not, you know, the 52 GSM Tomoe River paper that everyone loves. Right. It's, it's slightly different.

Tokyo International Pen Show

Jacob: I would describe it as having slightly more texture, but it's a very, very subtle difference. Yeah. In my tests with like shading inks, like chroma shading, multi shading inks, it performed just as well as Old Tomoe River. Maybe the sheen, I didn't try as much with sheening inks, maybe the sheen isn't quite as pronounced as possible. But if you like chroma shading inks, like, you know, say the one, two, three, and if you don't like a little bit, and we're talking very subtle difference in like texture, then you're going to love this paper.

Brad: Yeah. So I think you and I are like of, of the same belief. It's, it's going to do really well. It's going to be very popular once it releases and it's going to satisfy, I think the majority of people who might be, you know, missing, you know, the, the original Tomoe River. So I, I think I'm, I'm looking forward to that becoming a thing and hopefully we'll get to see that later this year. All right. I want to get into some of your, your, your personal stationary that, you know, you use, you know, how you became, you know, the, the stationary content creator, all star that you are. But first let me, let me hit up our last sponsor of this, this wonderful episode. I told Jacob before the show that we're going to have to have like a second and third appearance because I could just pick your brain all day about this stuff. But let me talk about our good friends over at Topo Folio. This episode is brought to you once again by Topo Folio. Last week we spoke about this awesome Kickstarter project and it has now hit its funding goal. So I'm a backer of this project. I look forward to getting this and I'm excited that it's hit its funding. So fellow pen addict, Myke Lynn has created this project made for tech users with a strong bias for our analog tools. Myke pulled hundreds of tech and tablet users to find out what they wanted in a perfect case to carry all their gear. One thing that kept coming up was that this case needs to be adaptable. Our needs can change daily and while most cases are good at carrying just some things, the Topo Folio has been designed to be completely versatile and modular. Custom magnetic inserts can be added or removed to help keep your gear easily accessible and perfectly organized. Each case comes with four of these inserts to make it work for almost anyone. Artists, designers, writers, travelers, creators, you name it. The adaptability means you can mix and match depending on who you are that day. Tablets are only becoming more and more powerful, but to do this, they often need extra accessories like keyboards, chargers, and styluses to be used effectively. This case is built to keep all these items organized in one place. There's also a hidden pocket to add an Apple tag or tile tracker to keep track of the case if it's ever lost or stolen. And this is his third Kickstarter project. Myke doesn't want to just make a great case. He also wants to source the fabric made from recycled plastic bottles called Reprieve. The fabric is naturally water resistant to help keep your gear safe. Support the Topo Folio Kickstarter project now by going to originalcontentbooks.com slash Topo Folio. That's originalcontentbooks.com Topo Folio. Go and check it out now. And if you aren't familiar with original content books, I share out Myke's links all the time. He does really fun stationary links. He's a stationary person, and there's lots of stationary accessories built into the Topo Folio. So I'm excited to back it, and I appreciate Myke and Topo Folio for sponsoring the podcast this week. All right. So just reading that question or reading that sponsor spot, I realized there was one topic I didn't put in here. And we'll kick this off in this section of the podcast, and that's the drill log. And I'm bringing that up because that was a Kickstarter project secondarily, right? It was, you were, you'll correct me if I'm wrong, but you were part of the reason that they moved from, hey, we're just going to sell these in Japan to there ended up being an outlet on Kickstarter. And I guess the broader question is not necessarily directly drill log related, but do you see more of a willingness for Japanese creators to end up on a platform like Kickstarter now that they've opened it up a few years ago to Japanese makers? Do you see that becoming even more so than, you know, like drill log? And we've had a few other projects come up recently.

Jacob: Yeah, I think so. I mean, we've seen, as you mentioned, there's another one recently that Moonlit found in Japan. And I think in the past, the Wonshot and others have done Kickstarter projects. There is like a Japanese version of Kickstarter called Makoaki, where there are more of these projects with domestic focus. So there's definitely more crowdfunding going on in Japan than you can see on Kickstarter. But it's possible that if they want to reach more wider audience, that they are migrating from this Makoaki platform to Kickstarter.

Brad: Gotcha. Yeah. I see it come up like on occasion. And I said back at the time that I really hoped we would see some neat stuff coming out of that market. And I think we have so far. So I look forward to, you know, what else is out there. So on that note, drill log being a good example, what got you into wanting to share the things you discover online? You know, sharing it on Instagram, creating a blog at foodafan.com, you know, working on the podcast with CY. How did you make kind of the change from, and it's not that it's changed you personally, but you started, hey, I'm a user. And now I share things and talk to this cool stuff. Talk about this cool stuff with other people. What was that? What was that like for you? Was that something like you did purposefully? Or did you just start sharing things and it just kind of grew from there?

Jacob: So before I had my Kickstarter, sorry, Kickstarter, my Instagram, I, as any fountain pen collector user, I ended up inevitably with too many fountain pens. And I wanted some fountain pens to sell, right? You know, that I got bored with or that I didn't use enough. And I found this Japanese secondhand marketplaces that are called Mercari and Rakuma and Frill and Yeho Auctions and so on. And I started trying to sell secondhand pens that I had bought but weren't using. And I quickly realized that the amount of time and effort I put into the photography of the pens I was selling, I directly translated to how well I could sell them and at the price I wanted. So for that reason, mostly I started thinking more about how can I take better photos of my pens so I can sell them, right? That's interesting. That's really how it started. And then it kind of snowballed into a hobby of an interest on its own. So I started thinking about, you know, when you see like this professional product photography, it's never in like hard, you never see like harsh shadows or like nasty reflections from everywhere. It's always very smooth, even lightning. And I didn't know at all at first how to achieve that. I started studying and I started getting into like artificial lights and strobes and diffusers and reflectors. And like this is a whole rabbit hole, right? And since that became a hobby in itself, I started just sharing my photos on Instagram. Like I took them with a purpose of selling pens, but then I asked, yeah, I might as well put them on Instagram. And then I realized that that in itself was kind of fun. So that snowballed and I posted more and more on Instagram. But then I came to a point where I wanted to write more about the pens I posted on, posted about, than I could fit in Instagram format. And that's really how I started the blog.

Brad: Nice. How long have you been writing the blog? Do you recall when you started it? Maybe in like 2018 or something like that. Okay. Yeah. A few years ago, a few years ago. So, yeah. I wrote in our show notes, I called your photography S tier. Like it's a really like elite, elite stationary photography. And you mentioned that it has become a hobby of yours. I don't know anything really about photography, which probably shows in my pictures as well. But for the photography nerds out there that want to know, can you tell them like your camera setup and your lens setup, just like real quick so they don't have to email me saying, or email you saying, hey, what camera does Jacob use? Or what lens is he using? Can you give that rundown real quick?

Jacob: Like, well, what I will say is that the camera itself doesn't matter that much. What matters in order of importance, number one, light modifier. So light modifier is things like diffusers and reflectors and gobos and things that either make the light softer or bounces the light. Okay. That's the single most important part of the setup. The second most important setup is the light source. And I always prefer a strobe light. So like either speed lights or studio strobes, because then you can completely control. Because the strobe light is so bright compared to any other light, it cancels out any other light. So strobe, if you master strobe light and light modifiers, that's pretty much anything you need. Then you can use even an iPhone or whatever, as long as you're connected to the strobe.

Brad: So I'm writing it strobe light, light. See, I didn't do this for the audience, Jacob. It did it for me. Light. I'm just kidding. No, but I always love your photography. It definitely stands out for sure. So you started the blog in 2018 because you stopped throwing away fountain pens and you wanted to sell some.

Brad: And then eventually, how did you hook up with CY to actually start recording a podcast, right? Like you've got the blog. You've got the Instagram. It's obviously growing, right? Like people are enjoying like what you're creating. How did the podcast come about?

Jacob: Yeah, so we have a little pen community here in Tokyo now. And most of us met around like 2018, 2019. Some of us met at Pelican Hubs. Some of us met at this pen club Wagner's pen meetups. So, and then we stayed in touch and then we did our own like meetups. And now we have a little group of pen enthusiasts here in Tokyo. So, and in this, in this little group, we talked about, you know, maybe we should do a podcast with more of like a Tokyo perspective. And we talk about, you know, the events we go to, you know, the trends we see, the news and the products we've seen. And so we talked about that for a while, but we weren't sure anyone would ever want to listen to that because, you know, the pen addict may be a niche podcast, but Tokyo English is the niche within the niche within the niche, right?

Brad: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's, it's my favorite type of podcast to listen to, like the, the mega niche, right? Like we cover some things, right? And we're like a niche podcast, exactly like you say, but you take it, like you said, several levels into the nicheness. And I'm here for it. Like, and I know you have a bunch of listeners that are here for it. And, you know, I think, you know, I don't want to speak out of turn, but hopefully you're seeing, you know, that in the community built around, you know, the podcast in which you and CY and your, your other guests and your other regular co-hosts have created. I think it's really special.

Jacob: Thank you. Yeah. I'm glad to hear that. And we are, yeah, we've been blown away by, you know, how, how well the podcast has done. I mean, we couldn't imagine it would go anywhere as well. Yeah. Yeah. So we, we, about two years we decided, I think it was CY that said, okay, let's actually do this. So CY and I recorded our first episode and let's see how this goes. And now 50 plus episodes later, here we are.

Brad: Yeah. I love it. I hope, I love it. And I hope there's a lot more in your future.

Jacob: And I would like to think, I think we are probably the first and probably still only pen podcast to have done an emergency episode. So an emergency episode about pens.

Brad: I love it. I love how like that instantly became a thing. Like I think about this stuff all the time. It's like the minute you did it, I was like, well, now that that's a, there's an emergency podcast in the stationary community. Now that is amazing. It was, it was great. It was really good. Oh my gosh. That's awesome. All right. On a personal note, what are your favorite pens, pen brands, inks, paper? Tell me some of the things that get you excited right now.

Jacob: So in terms of pens, I am definitely a bit of a pilot fanboy. And I think my favorite pilot model must be the custom 743, which is the same shape and size as 823. But the difference is that 743 is the cartridge converter. And I like the simplicity of a cartridge converter. Now, see why I agree to disagree about that particular point.

Jacob: So I like the simplicity of a cartridge converter, but more importantly, I like the fact that custom 743 comes in all kinds of interesting nibs. You got posting nibs, wabble nibs, soft nibs, falcon nibs, music nibs, coarse nibs. There's so many interesting nibs to choose from. So that's one reason why I like custom 743. Now it looks a bit, it's not the most colorful pen you can imagine, but there are ways to spice up a pen with aftermarket. It's Ushimor, right?

Brad: Yeah, yeah, we can talk. That's an entirely different podcast. Because maybe when I decide to do it, and that pen is the platform for me to go to Bocamundo or do something along that nature, we'll have our own emergency podcast. Because Brad will need to raise funds to get his pen fancied up. So what ink brands, like we talked about how crazy the ink market is right now in your region. What's standing out to you?

Mita Club Inks

Jacob: So one ink brand that's not new per se, but which I recently discovered is Mita Club's inks. So Mita Club is a small retailer in Gunma Prefecture, like north of Tokyo. And they have their own line of inks that is interesting for two reasons. One is that the inks are actually made by Kuretake, which is known for sumi inks for Japanese calligraphy and so on. And real sumi ink isn't suitable for fountain pens. But Mita Club asked Kuretake to create an ink that was suitable for fountain pen that had the characteristics of sumi ink, whatever that meant. So they collaborated on a series of inks for fountain pens. The other reason why I like Mita Club is that I think Mita Club's ink bottles are some of the most beautiful ink bottles I've ever seen. They're round bottles, but they're done using a traditional Japanese glassware technique called Edo Kiriko, where you cut these very intricate patterns in the glass. See, this is very beautiful, like light reflecting in a bottle.

Brad: Wow. Okay. Yeah, I'm definitely going to have to check that out at least to take a look. And that's one of the things, like one of the challenges for our non-Japanese residents is sourcing some of this stuff. Again, that's our third podcast episode. Like I'm just making lists of all the podcast episodes we have to have. But really, those episodes are covered at TokyoInkLinks.com. That's where you need to go to find out about all this stuff. So what's the big recent releases in the Japanese market that you've seen recently? Like what's popular besides the inks or any pens or anything coming out? Like I put down specifically to discuss your discovery, not discovery of the product, but your adventures in purchasing the unique Kuretoga dive, which is something that I'm very interested in, in the things that I like. So tell me about that process and what else is really hot right now in the market.

Jacob: Yeah. So glass pens continue to be incredibly popular. And I don't see that changing anytime soon because the popular glass pen makers, they only produce very small batches and very slowly. So it will take a long time for it to reach its saturation points.

Brad: Yeah. That was, let me interrupt you there. That was my question is who is making these? And is there a big manufacturer making these or it's smaller, it seems like from what you're saying, smaller makers.

Jacob: Yeah. These are small, small studios making, making these glass pens. And why I particularly like these glass pens with stub nibs. So glass pens work really broad stub nib, which is super fun for like inks watching or calligraphy or just playing with inks.

Brad: Yeah. I've talked to a glass blower in the US. I've just exchanged a couple of messages and they were so backed up and in doing a non pen related stuff, like they dabble in the pen stuff. I said, I want this, but I want it with a stub nib. I was like, yeah, yeah, we can do it. But like a year from now. Yeah. Right.

Jacob: So the most well-known maker of stub nib glass pens in Japan is some called Glass Studios Tooth. But it's almost impossible to buy those pens. You have to like wait in line hours for a lottery ticket for a chance to buy them. That's sort of the level we are at. Wow. But there is another company called Hanabi Glass. Maybe you heard about them. They're based in Yokohama. They also make glass pens with stub nibs, which are, in my view, equally good. But what's interesting about Hanabi is that you can actually buy the pens. And other than that, you can buy them from overseas because Hanabi has an online store in English and they ship overseas. Because Hanabi is actually run by an American guy in Japan.

Brad: Oh, interesting. Okay.

Jacob: So that's pretty cool, I think. Another trend, which I don't quite understand yet, but for some reason, pigmented inks are becoming popular again. So, you know, Kakimori has recently refreshed its line of pigmented inks. Bangbox just a few months ago released a new line of pigmented inks. Sailor just refreshed its line of Astoria pigmented inks. And just like a few days ago, Pilot announced a new line of pigmented inks. So there's something going on with pigmented inks. I'm not quite sure why this is becoming popular because I think that can be kind of boring, but there's something going on there.

Brad: Yeah. I wonder if it's a dip in conjunction with the dip nib thing, right? Because that makes it a little bit more accessible, you know, as opposed to people when hesitant to use fountain pens with them. I don't know. Maybe. But that's definitely something to check out. I like pigmented inks. I wasn't going to say I love them, but I do like using them from time to time. But just it tends to not be as frequent as pretty much every other type of ink. But yeah, that's interesting. That's very interesting.

Brad: Last thing. Tell me about the Karu Toga Dive experience that you had and why it surprised you so much as much as it surprised me.

Jacob: Well, it surprised everyone because this was like a stealth release. Suddenly my Twitter feed and my Instagram feed was full of people just discovering these pens. We haven't heard about them. There was no heads up. Suddenly these are available. And then they were not available anymore because they were all sold out.

Jacob: Yeah.

Jacob: And so even some of the most well-known stationary journalists, bloggers, influencers in Japan, they were all surprised by this. And some of them went very far with their coverage. There is one guy called Bungo, who is the editor of Buntobi.com. He's one of the most famous stationary journalists in Japan. He got so excited about Karu Toga Dive that he published a 90-minute video describing the mechanism in detail.

Jacob: I went through about 10 minutes. I made it about 10 minutes. I was good. And he created this scale-up foam model just to explain the mechanism, which I think is just amazing.

Jacob: That's passion.

Jacob: That's passion. Yeah. I want to live in the market where that gets people all riled up.

Brad: The Karu Toga Pencil stealth release gets people in a tizzy. That's the market I want to live in. So that's why I'm glad that I got to talk to you at least a little bit about that today, Jacob. I really, really appreciate the time you took, the, like I said in the beginning, the time zone management that we had to do to get this to happen. And I just thank you so much. Is there anything you want to shout out or plug or anything? I'll have all the links to all the blog and the Instagram and the podcast. Anything else you want to say?

Jacob: Hey, maybe a shout out to my co-host, CY. He's making some of the most crazy stacked nibs you'll find. I met up with him a few days ago and he had stacked a Sailor King of Pen nib. Like KOP nibs are pretty expensive to begin with, right? You're not going to stack those unless you really know what you're doing. Yep.

Brad: That's my favorite thing about CY is his risk tolerance is much lower than mine. Like he doesn't care. Like he's going to try, right? And I'm like, oh no, this is a King of Pen nib and we're going to do what? Exactly. And he's like, yeah. He'll just like, yeah, this is what I'm going to do. And I'm like, okay, thank you, CY. We'll put a link in. He's gotten Myke in trouble with some of the nibs of his creation. So I'm probably next in that. So we'll see. We'll see about that soon. So, all right, Jacob, you're amazing. We will do this again sometime down the line. And thank you so much for joining me on this episode of the podcast.

Jacob: Thank you so much for having me. This was a lot of fun. I appreciate it. All right.

Brad: And thanks to all our sponsors this week, Harry's, Pen Chalet, and Topofolio. Until next week, say goodbye, Jacob.

Jacob: Goodbye, Jacob.