Editing The Pen Addict 619/transcript (section)

== Personal connection to BunguBox and life changes during COVID ==

* So, we've mentioned BunguBox and Karu. So, it seems that over the past couple years, your status has changed and you have married into BunguBox. So, can you tell me a little bit about how your life has changed in these past few years? Yes. So, big factor was COVID. Mm-hmm. So, I started getting involved with tips. And, you know, I knew BunguBox before. I knew of them as, okay, one of many boutique stationery company, fountain pen companies. But that was about it. And then I got involved in BunguBox, sorry, tips. And, like I said, Karu is a force of nature. She just marches to the beat of her own drum and just vivacious, energetic, and just, I fell hard for her in the process. And then, you know, just when she started paying me some attention, COVID hit. Mm-hmm. So, for two years, things, you know, I couldn't get to, I didn't get to go to Japan. Both tips kept growing and I was heavily involved. And my, I realized, you know, my heart was over here in Japan. So, even though I was trying to get my business in America going, I kind of reassessed and said, you know what, I'm not, I have a passion. I'm not a good solopreneur. I'd rather be the number two or sidekick of a dynamic energy house. And Karu was that. So, you know, we said, let's just get married. That way we can be together. Um, so, that's what brought me here. Um, you know, we, we both, it's, it's not our first marriage. Uh, we, we've lived life a little bit. So, we're, you know, we know what kind of more realistic about what we want out of life. And, uh, she was the partner that kind of did it all for me. And seems like she was willing to take me in. And now I am, uh, uh, what, uh, the first gentleman of, uh, Bungu Box. Yeah, I, I love it. And I love her to death. She knows that. And to, to hear that, that y'all got married, it's just, uh, it's a stationery match made in heaven. And, uh, we're, we're all better off for it. So, I super love it. So, just give us, uh, just, can you give us just a tiny bit? We're not going to, I'm not going to keep you too much longer, but just a tiny bit about Bungu Box for people who are not familiar with it. They, if they've listened to the podcast any length of time, they've heard me talk about Bungu Box for years and years and years and years. But just from my perspective, and I don't know if this will set you up to, to tell the story. It's, it's, they're a stationery retailer, but it feels different. And it's a little bit hard to describe.
* And they feel like important and like wonderful. And like, uh, I don't know, it's like life goals to have a shop like that. So, give me, give me a little bit of the Bungu Box story. Sure, sure. So, Bungu Box started 12 years ago in a small city in outer Japan. So, it wasn't, you know, in Tokyo or anything. It's, it's funny. People, well, Bungu Box has come a long way. So, now they have a reputation that, you know, kind of puts them side, side by side to the sailors and pilots out there. But they're a tiny, tiny shop. To this day, they're four employees plus three part-time people. And, um, they, they are a boutique fountain pen store. So, they focus on fountain pens. Um, Kauru wasn't involved in fountain pens at all, uh, throughout her life. Uh, it's kind of a late discovery. She started her business after she was 50. So, it was a late career start. Um, she wanted to do something that nobody else was doing. And it was kind of fond memories of her childhood, of in high school, they would, like her friends would pass around a diary, kind of sharing their thoughts. And back then, when you get into high school, you, everybody gets a fountain pen. So, she looked at just the expressiveness of those messages that she shared with her friends and thought, you know, that's something that she wants to preserve. And in her own way, she was not satisfied just selling the boring black, you know, fountain pens that the Japanese makers were making back then. And so, she started reaching out to see if, you know, anybody would make her own designs. And she would start with small lots, you know, 30 pens here, 20 bottles of ink there. And that's when social media just started picking up. So, she was very active there, just tried to share pictures. And she has a personality that carries well in social media. Um, and she was able then, you know, by support from brands like you, you know, people who would discover her and talk about her products. Um, she built this great international following. Uh, her basic business model is that she comes up with limited editions and then sells them out and comes out with the next design. So, she doesn't have a steady stock, um, or that's not the intention. You know, she'll keep around what she has inventory of. But the idea is constantly, uh, circulating her, uh, inventory with new designs to keep it fresh and to see, you know, what, what appeals to people. And there's a heavy emphasis on the story and, you know, kind of the whole, you know, what the theme is, how everything works together. Um, she was one of the first people in Japan to come up with her own, uh, line of inks. Um, now everybody and their dog has an ink because it's become so easy to do, but she was one of the pioneers in that field. And it was always about a name with a story. And especially when you translate to English, a lot of them are head scratchers. They're hard enough to make the association in Japanese. And then you translate it. That's almost impossible, but you know, that's kind of, she doesn't care. Yeah. So, you know, I keep saying she's a force of nature. She, she has no business background. Um, she was trained as a teacher, school teacher, and she just, she wills it. Um, I joined the fray and I'm very much, uh, an analysis paralysis person. Yeah. You know, I will analyze everything to find a reason why you shouldn't do something. Um, in Japanese, there's a phrase called, um, crossing the stone bridge while tapping on it, which means a person who's so paranoid that even if the bridge is built out of stone, you're tapping every single way to make sure it doesn't crumble under you. Yeah. So that's me. Kauru is more of Indiana Jones. By the time she crosses the bridge, the bridge is gone and she's already on the other side. So, you know, she's a lot of luck or, you know, you know, lady luck is smiling on her because of course she's had duds. Not everything she sells is a smash hit, but it's not like she's looking at what other people are doing and analyzing what worked, what didn't work. It's more about, she wakes up one morning and says, you know, this is what I want the next pen to be about. Um, good example, like what four or five years ago, she came out with her own ink bottle and she had to make like 6,000 of those bottles to, to get it approved, which if, if I had any saying that, I would say, you know, stop it makes no sense.
* Yeah. She did it. And she's finally gone through her stack of 6,000 and she's ready to get, you know, another 6,000 made. Um, so I'm just trying to tag along on the ride. It's, you know, it's that horse I'm dragging, you know, I'm on the rope, you know, seven feet away, just trying to hang on, but it's a lot of fun. I think people are drawn to her personality, um, and she's always looking to do something new. Um, and she, she doesn't fit in the mold of a Japanese company. So surprisingly people know about Bunga Box in Japan, but she doesn't quite have the presence locally. Um, she's just known as a person who keeps surprising people. It's like, what? Yeah. Um, and you know, good example is our recent collaboration with Esther book. Um, yeah, for sure. Um, is, you know, a lot of credit goes to Esther brook. Um, they reached out to her, said that they want to work with her and she was honored, but also she said she's not going to compromise. So she gave them a lot of nose before we settled and, you know, really want to give a shout out to Esther brook for being accepting, you know, there, you know, there's some money that was lost, you know, a lot of samples that were made. Sure. She said, Nope, not quite right. And they listened to everything she said. They didn't fight back. And that's why, you know, we've been fortunate to have this, uh, a great hit, uh, for the, hopefully this will become a series with more to come. Uh, but we're really grateful for, you know, people who want to give her a chance because she, she, she's a force, you know, you know, fight and, you know, she's sweet, but I've, I've heard to put it, heard her put up good fights with sailor. Like I'm on the phone and say, wow, I wouldn't be able to say that, but like she gives it to them. So. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, she's a tastemaker and it's, it's a wonderful story and it's wonderful that everything she sells has a story. And that's like, I think one of the things that every, uh, everyone who's as a fan, um, like really attaches to, and it makes you really support businesses like that, uh, especially made from such creative minds as her. So yeah, it's awesome. So, um, you know, when I plan my trip over, um, I have some very extended days to, to make sure I get over to, to Bunga box and, and, and do it right. So we'll have to have you back on sometime to talk more, uh, Tokyo stationery, talk more business stuff, which I'm always, uh, fond of talking about what I bore everyone to death, but I always like to ask the little nitpicky business questions. Um, you know, I'll have every, all the links in the, in the show notes for everything that we discussed about today. Anything else you, uh, that we, we didn't cover in this episode. I have a feeling there'll be another episode in our future. No, I, you know, you sent us the show notes beforehand and we had to cut so much out because yes, we have a lot to talk about. Even though I might know a lot of Bruce's answers, like I still want to talk about this stuff.
* Pleasure's mine too. I want to give a shout out to something unrelated, but, uh, I started a San Francisco stationery meetup, uh, about five, six years ago and they're still going strong. They're a fun bunch of people in the San Francisco Bay area. They meet, uh, once a month, every second Saturday of the month. Um, we're in Japan town. There's this tea house that we rent out and we just, you know, they're fountain pen communities, but I wanted to make a community to talk about the cheap day-to-day stuff. And we have a solid group of people. They're very welcoming. No, no judgment. It's all about just having fun. So if you're interested, go to meetup.com to find the San Francisco or SF stationery meetup. Um, and then I think I just really want to plug the Tokyo pen show. I know, you know, it's only June. Hopefully it's June when you air this show. Yeah. It's time. It's time to book. I know you don't, you don't book these flights over, you know, for next weekend, you got to plan in advance and think, you know, October fall is a beautiful time in Japan. The dollar is strong. You can get a nice Japanese meal for half the price of a crummy Japanese meal you get locally. And, you know, it's, it's a shame because it's almost reaching a point where locals can't afford the nice places because the Americans come and say, that's so cheap. Yeah. But it's, it's safe. Um, there's great public transportation. You don't have to drive. Um, it's a fun time. And, you know, hopefully knowing that a person like me is involved in the organization, it's not, you know, we try our best to accommodate non-Japanese speakers. Um, we want it to be a welcoming place, uh, for international travelers. Um, so please check out, uh, our website, which is Tokyo dash international dash pen show. One word pen show is one word, or just search it Tokyo international pen show and all the information's there. We will be posting the exhibitors list pretty soon. We have 130 exhibitors, uh, 160 tables. Last year we had about 2,700 attendees. So we get a good crowd. Uh, we have a three day pass. So the people who make the trek all the way over, I'd encourage you to give yourself the, you know, freedom of attending anytime during those three days. So you're not rushed. Um, uh, you know, you make the show as much as we make the show. So I would love to see more people, uh, come visit us in November 2nd through the 4th. Got it. We'll have all the information in the show notes and all the links you can follow to go check out all the offerings, figure out how to get booked and all of that good stuff. Thank you again, Bruce. Uh, I'm Brad. You can find all of my work over at penaddict.com and you can find me, uh, pretty much everywhere at penaddict.com on Instagram, on Twitch. I stream three times a week. Uh, we talk about, uh, stationery over there too, in, uh, many, many formats where we're sharing our, our love for this stuff, uh, which, uh, which is, it just comes naturally. I love doing this. I love having you on Bruce. Thank you so much. I hope to see you soon. Maybe I'll see you in Japan soon. Uh, and yeah. Are you going to San Francisco? I will be. I am booked for San Francisco. So y'all will be there. I had a whole list of questions about, uh, uh, San Francisco pen show and, and Japanese stationers. We'll just have, maybe we'll cover that in person at San Francisco, do a live, a live recording. A live recording. Yeah. Live recording. So sounds good. Well, thank you so much and, uh, best of luck. And we'll talk soon. Thank you so much. All right. Bye. Bye. Goodbye.

[[Category:Podcast Transcripts]]
[[Category:The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript]]