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The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript
Episode: 619
Title: The First Penguin
Release Date: June 12th, 2024
Hosts: Brad Dowdy

Myke Hurley

Guests: Bruce Eimon
Additional Information
Official page: Episode 619
Audio File: Audio Episode 619
Podcast page: The Pen Addict 619
Length: 6969 min <br />1.15 h <br /> minutes
Previous Transcript Next Transcript


  • From RelayFM, this is The Pen Addict, episode 619. Today's show is brought to you by Squarespace and Factor. My name is Brad Dowdy, and this week, I'm joined by one of the most interesting people in the stationery world, Bruce Eiman. How are you doing today, Bruce? Hi, Brad. Doing great. Thanks so much for letting me on your show. I've been a big fan. I'm a big fan, long-time listener, first-time caller. Exactly. I was like, you know, I was telling you beforehand, this is episode 619. I was like, how have I not talked to you on this show before? Because you and I, we go way back. Not before the podcast, but I mean, it's pretty darn close. So before we get into that, I say you're the most interesting man in stationery, because I think you are, but I also think a lot of people may not know who you are at all. So can we get a quick bio, and then we'll get into what we're going to do today. Sure, sure. So let me see. Where do I start? I currently live in Tokyo, but I had a 30-year career in the States. And before that, I grew up in Japan. So as a child, my parents worked there. They were Protestant missionaries, so we're in the countryside. And that gave me the great opportunity of, you know, growing up in Japan. Not a big city or anything, but like, small city Japan. And then, but spoke English at home. And came over for college and had been in America since until three years ago when I moved back. And we'll probably go deeper into my stationery journey. Yes. But this is what kind of, that's the background in what got me into this deal. Yeah. So how did you get into stationery? Just before we get into our stuff, did you have a love for stationery growing up in Japan? And as an American growing up in Japan, even though you were like fully embedded and like you were living in Japan like full time, that was where you live, what you did. Did you notice at a young age, like you picked up on some of the stationery habits that that culture has that's different from in the States? Absolutely not. It was totally taken for granted. I didn't know any better. You know, I thought, you know, everybody in the world had what I was using. Stationery, I guess, has a special place, maybe more so in Japan. I don't know in the States, but they're fairly strict in Japan about what you can bring to your classroom, what you can't. And stationery was one of those ways to bring in cool things, semi-toys, semi-functional things into the classroom without getting busted by the teachers. So there was a special, you know, fondness for it, not because of the quality or anything, but just is a way to get around the six rules of the classroom. But I just assumed, you know, there's nothing special about it. You know, that's just what you did. I never think about breathing air because, hey, fortunately, it's always there. Yeah, that's crazy. So how did that kind of like move on into your like your adulthood? Did that that kind of stationery love, like maybe when you moved back to the States, did you miss some of the things? Did you bring some of the things with you when you moved back to the States? Did you come over to the States and go like, what is this pen? This is terrible.

Early interest in technology and computers

  • Actually, that's a resounding no to that question, too. So I, you know, went to high school here and I was really into computers. I had my Apple IIc back in the days. Raising my hand. Yes, I had that. Excellent. I was I thought, you know, computers were amazing. I was so fascinated by it. I studied computer science in college and I was all about technology. And that's before technology was so, you know, part of our lives. So still kind of I felt like it was a niche thing that had this cool potential. Yeah, it's no wonder. No wonder you and I get along so well, because I grew up with an Apple IIc in my room. There you go. All right. Now we're talking. Yeah. I'm sure most of the people have no idea what that is. No, no, no. We're talking pre-Macintosh. Yeah, yeah. Luckily, my dad was like one of those early IT converts at his job. So I was able to get some of the some of the cool stuff when I was a kid. And that led me to my career in IT, kind of kind of like yours. But turns out we have a different passion that led us in paths. Probably neither one of us would have expected at this point in our lives. So if I could actually elaborate a bit on that. So you're asking about, you know, did I bring things from Japan? You know, no, I was I brought my Apple IIc to America. It's like I didn't I didn't bring pen and paper. I brought my Apple IIc with the big hunking CRT monitor and everything. That's what I was proud of. That's amazing. You know, I studied computer science, came to Silicon Valley. And, you know, I didn't think much about the analog tools. I was trying to perfect my digital tools. And, you know, IT high pace place or trying to stay afloat. So it's about, OK, productivity. Let's you know, I was reading. I was all about, you know, getting things done and testing every other like to do list application. I was a big time Palm Pilot user. I was intrigued by the Newton, but didn't have the budget to go that far. And then I just felt like it wasn't doing it. It just wasn't doing it for me. So I decided to start writing things out. I didn't like the infinite surface of the computer where, you know, people talk about inbox zero. And, you know, after that, they talked about inbox bankruptcy. I felt like I was suffering a to do list bankruptcy and it just wasn't working. So I started just pulling out a sheet of paper from the copy machine and limiting myself to that one sheet of that defined surface. And that I felt like brought a little sanity to my life. And I did that for a few years. And then one day I was in San Francisco, Japantown, went to a stationery there, stationery store there. Shout out to Mido. Picked up a Marmon report pad, which is just a report pad of loose papers that were, you know, glued together. And I don't know what motivated me, but I decided, you know, I'll just I'm using this so much in my daily life. Let me buy a nice notepad. Yeah. And I took that to work and started writing on it. And that was my aha moment. It's like immediately I could tell, wow, this is different. I thought paper was paper was paper. But what is it about this that's just so just pleasant to write on? And that kind of opened my eyes and started, you know, commuting to Mido and trying different things out and realizing just the joy of tactile tools. You know, I was banging my head against the computer keyboard and monitor. I didn't want to have anything to do with waste. And I thought handwriting was so wasteful, inefficient. Yet that wastefulness, deliberateness kind of brought in constraints that I felt liberated me. So that's kind of my journey to realizing that analog tools are good and also brought back memories of, wow, you know, the things I took for granted as a child. Yeah. A, are hard to get over in the States. But B, if you make the effort to find them out, they're not going to break your bank, you know. Yeah. Instead of 25 cents a pen, I'm going to spend, what, 175. Yeah. Big whoop-dee-doo. But realize that that's all it took to open up this whole world. And I got fascinated. I felt like, you know, productivity and all the techies were getting obsessed about was swinging so far to the digital side. Yep. That I felt it was time for kind of restore the balance. It's not like one or the other. It's not digital or analog. There's great use of technology, but also great use of analog. And that's kind of when I started thinking there's something here. This is really fascinating. I don't hear too many people talk about it outside of niche markets. And I felt like there's a more broader market appeal to this space. Yeah. So for someone that was born and raised, well, not born, but raised in Japan, it took until you got to a Japanese stationery store in San Francisco to discover Japanese stationery, really. Correct. Correct. I was listening to you talk about all the computer stuff. And we don't hear about it anymore. But you struck a memory here. We used to really fight everything going paperless back in the day. That was the code word. You don't hear that much anymore. It was like, oh, everything's going to be digital. Everything's paperless. And look at us now. We're talking about pens. Exactly. Isn't that funny? Yeah. I kind of remember there was some kind of 70s movie. I can't remember what it was, but how this guy from the 70s, time warped into the future. And everybody was eating pills because it was so inefficient to have a full meal. And pills were the way. And he was like, you know, we think efficiency was going to be the future. But boy, you know, so many things, food, you know, tools, everything, you know, we're still hanging on to older ways of doing things. And there's a reason for that. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what we're going to talk about a lot of that today. And I was thinking before we, when I was making the notes for this, I can't remember when exactly how our first conversation went. But I like I found some emails I put in the show notes that I we've my emails go back to 2016. But I know we started talking well before that. And just to to set set some background here, Bruce would go to Japan and he would come back with different stationery and send it to me. So we had struck up this email conversation and friendship. And Bruce understood the types of products that I liked, right? You know, fine pens, you know, interesting paper, cool storage items. And, you know, once or twice a year, I'd get a care package from you. What was it like shopping for stationery at that time when you're in this discovery phase, trying all of these things out? And again, this was the inexpensive stuff relative to like the fountain pens that we're going to talk about later or something like that. This is your like your store gel pens, your ballpoint pens, you know, the one dollar pad at the convenience store type of thing. So tell me kind of what drew you into this discovery phase, because that's what our conversations meant the most to me was you would send me a product, but you wouldn't just say, hey, try this pen. And you'd be like, look, OK, they'd be like a note or a long conversation about, you know, this is why this products exist. And this is what this company does. And this is what they're trying to do. What do you think? So tell me about how you got so deep into it so quickly. As far as, you know, how far back we go, my memory is fuzzy, too.
  • But I wouldn't be surprised if it was around 2016.

Transition from tech career to focus on Japanese stationery

  • I quit my tech job in 2015. OK. And when I did that, I we can go back into the wine stuff. But I spent about a year focusing on going back to Japan, building my network there, connecting with people both on the community side as well as the the manufacturing side, the corporate side to introduce myself, get get to know people, learn about products and kind of go deep into, you know, what what's cool out there.
  • My focus. Well, when I quit my corporate job, I wanted to do something that can leverage my strengths. I was in the tech world for 25 years growing up in Japan. So I thought, you know, what's a good intersection of those things? And, you know, I tried. I had a passion for stationery. But when I was thinking about my job and career, I was trying to be rational. I was trying to be rational. Yeah. And I thought, you know, OK, tech when it comes to electronics and cars and stuff, Japan used to be at the top. But now, you know, there's so much global competition when it comes to culture, anime and food and stuff. That's, you know, so well known in the American market. And what's something that Japan's really good at that hasn't gained any kind of traction in the States? And it just hit me that stationery in a weird way. Japan was kind of this island of its own that had this super advanced stationery that really hadn't made it globally. And there are plenty of reasons for that. But I thought, you know, that's an interesting possibility. So I decided to see if I can make a career out of this. And that's when I and after I gained that confidence, I quit my job, spent a year going back to Japan for research and networking. And then it was probably around 2016 that I felt comfortable enough that, OK, I've done my research. Let me reach out to people and, you know, people, influencer, you know, people, influential people. I hate to use the word influencer. Same, same. People like you who have been at this for a long time. I thought, you know, what a great person to see if I can connect with and share what I have.
  • Now, part of the reason probably people. Well, most people don't know about me. I'm not big out there. I'm not big in social media and stuff. So I'm a behind the scenes person. Yes. Part of the reason is, yeah, that's just not my strength. You know, people like you, you are great being the face of this industry. So I thought, you know, I want to reach out to the people who are good at, you know, talking about it. So, you know, popularizing things. So me sending you packages was a great excuse for me to get over the guilt hump. You know, I know I have, I already have 35, you know, gel pens, but, oh, I'll buy this for Brad. Oh, I'll buy this for this person. Then I can, you know, justify. It was all to help me deal with my guilt of having so much fun supposedly working on my career. Yeah, but it was a good, it was actually kind of like a subtle two-way street too, because you would get feedback from me who, like, I'm not, you know, embedded in Japan. But, like, I have a passion for this stuff, and, like, I could, you know, give you the feedback on why I like this, why I think this is good, why I think this is bad, you know, things like that. So we would just have these conversations just about, like, the craziest, wildest products that you would send and just, like, really cool pens. I get to see stuff ahead of time. Like, if the Jetstream Light Touch, which is a topic that I've talked on about, like, the past few weeks, because, like, that's something I'm super passionate about is those little product changes in, like, the mainstream pens. That's something we would have talked about a decade ago, if you'd found that over there, because I'm not going to have information on it here like I do these days, you know, 12 years ago. So I'm going to have Bruce, and we can, Bruce can send me this pen, and we'll have a little talk about it, and, you know, and that's it. We would enjoy it amongst ourselves, and then we'd carry on. But, like, it turns out, like, you were playing the long game, and I was playing the long game. We were just doing something that we liked, and it turned out to be pretty cool. And my focus really was on the day-to-day products.

Making Japanese stationery accessible and affordable

  • I felt like they're just – of course, people knew that there were very expensive things out there, like fountain pens and, you know, status symbol kinds of products. What I felt was lacking is the knowledge that they're regular items that you can use in your daily lives without bringing the bank and bringing joy and, you know, efficiency. What I like to say was how, you know, in America, you have Apple coming out with new iPhones every year, and, you know, everybody's waiting with beta breath of, you know, what are the new features? There's kind of a similar culture in a much smaller scale, but in Japan, there are these companies that keep coming out with new features. And most of the time, they're gimmicks. You know they're desperate, and you know they're making this desperate attempt to convince people that they have something cool. But now and then, they're like true gems that come out of that effort, and the fact that they keep trying to innovate, I felt like really spoke to people who are really passionate about their tools, want something new, want an edge. And it was just such a fascinating field that just wasn't well represented in the States. So my focus was definitely on those, you know, sub $10, not sub $100. I'm talking sub $10, some $15. And I thought there was so much potential in that field. Yeah, yeah. And I think there still is. That's still my favorite category of discovery. It's just slower moving, you know, just in general, even though it's bigger sales, like bottom line, if you look at the big companies, right? Your big pilots and unis and stuff. That's going to be their big bottom line, chunks of money. But as far as like, you know, a lot of the conversation in our stationery spaces around the higher-end items, fountain pens, and we'll talk about some of this stuff later as we get in the show. But I still, and I talk about it, and people are tired of hearing me say it, but I just love talking about a $3 gel pen. Like, I just, like, I get so much joy from that. And a lot of that, you know, comes from your help back in the day. So I definitely appreciate that. Goes both ways. Yeah, yeah. And speaking of going both ways, your fluency in Japanese has to have played a massive role in this. Like, it's like a lightning striking situation, right? To have, like, this perfect upbringing to, you know, take you on this path in IT, but then to be able to circle back into doing something stationery-based that's really like the epicenters in Japan, as far as I'm concerned. I'll probably get some emails on that one. But, yeah, I think, like, tell me what that's been like. Are people surprised, you know, when you go into meetings in Japan that, you know, this guy is so passionate about the products we make? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And the fact that I could speak Japanese was huge. Yeah. And not to brag, but I was fortunate to learn it as a child. Not, you know, I'm so impressed by people who pick up another language, especially Japanese, after their 20s and stuff. You know, props to them because I learned it as a kid. So, you know, I watched all the same TV shows they grew up watching. So, I have that kind of cultural affinity and they accept me immediately. And it was especially a big deal because this may sound condescending and I don't mean it that way at all. I say this with full passion. But in Japan, where you work or, you know, where you belong is a big part of kind of your social pecking order. Like, if you want social respect, you work for the big banks, the big Toyotas and, you know, the Sonys and the well-known companies. Belonging is big. So, if you're smart, if you're out to make the big bucks, you probably don't work for a stationery company. Which means, you know, I haven't met any jerks. They're all just in it for the passion or, for lack of a better word, not very ambitious. They kind of, they're happy with what they do. They love it. There's no rivalry. They're all good friends because, you know, the pie is only so big. And it's not like, you know, you're going to ride a Mercedes if you're in the stationery industry. So, a lot of humble people, friendly people. They've, you know, they've embraced me wholeheartedly. And to be honest, if you could speak good English, why would you work for a stationery company? So, there's a language barrier there. Yeah. And business-wise, you know, you might, I think a lot of people are dismayed how hard it is to kind of buy things from Japan or reach out to small makers. It's not like they're trying to keep it to themselves. They're just scared.
  • Sure. You know, having to deal with the language. You know, you have websites that haven't changed since, you know, CompuServe kind of times. That's true. It's just kind of pathetic, but with no malice. It's just pure, you know, they're scared of reaching out, of being ambitious, they'd rather stay in their comfort zone. So, coming back to your question, for somebody like me who did not have that language barrier, who, you know, is from America, which, you know, they want to know more about. They don't know where to turn to. So, that was, you know, I was totally grateful for how, you know, I'd reach out to somebody and then introduce me to other people. And it just is like a chain reaction. And within a couple of years, I feel like I had the pleasure of meeting almost, you know, everybody in the industry of, you know. Yeah. So, the language was huge. And I think they've come a long way. They're seeing how much international interest there is in Japanese stationery. So, they're being bolder. But just the kind of people in the industry, we're not, not the people with real strategic minds. They're just doing what they love, trying to keep turning out a better product every year. And that's where I happen to come in and they truly embrace me. Yeah. That's super cool. And you can see it. And, like, that just overall feel, like, translates through the community as a whole. Just, you know, the kind of the things we believe in as a community and why we use these products and why we're all passionate about these things. And that definitely plays in. So, this kind of leads into, like, one of the big topics I want to talk about today, which is the Tokyo International Pen Show.
  • And that's a big, broad topic. So, before we do that, let me talk about our first sponsor this week. And that is our good friends over at Squarespace. This episode of The Pen Addict is brought to you by Squarespace. Squarespace is the all-in-one web platform for entrepreneurs to stand out and succeed online. Whether you're just starting out or managing a growing brand, you can stand out with a beautiful website, engage with your audience, and sell anything. Your products, services, and even the content you create. Squarespace has got everything you need, all in one place, all on your terms. Their Blueprint AI and SEO tools make it easy to get started. You can start a completely personalized website with their new guided design system, Squarespace Blueprint. Choose from professionally curated layout and styling options to build a unique online presence from the ground up, tailored to your brand or business, and optimized for every device. And then easily launch your website to get discovered fast with integrated, optimized SEO tools so you show up more often to more people and grow the way you want. You can also integrate flexible payments. To make checkout seamless for your customers with simple but powerful payment tools, you can accept credit cards, PayPal, and Apple Pay. And in eligible countries, offer customers the option to buy now and pay later with Afterpay and ClearPay. So one of the things I use Squarespace for is to sell. I sell products at the Pen Addict shop. And this year, I've been working on kind of a refresh of the shop with new collaborations that I'm working on. All of those will be coming, I don't know, probably starting in July and throughout the rest of the year. And Squarespace allows me to just build up those products, build up the imagery, set the pricing, set the shipping. And all of that stuff is really, really made simple by Squarespace because they have all the tools you need to sell the content on your site. And you can even do a membership program on Squarespace by adding a paywall to sell content or courses or sell files your customers can download like PDFs, music, or e-books. So I've been using them for a long time. I highly recommend them. I think I've been using them as long as I know Bruce. So head over to squarespace.com and sign up for a free trial. When you're ready to launch, go to squarespace.com slash penaddict to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com slash penaddict when you decide to sign up to get 10% off your first purchase and show your support for the penact. Our thanks to Squarespace for their support of this show and all of RelayFM. And I want to make a shout out to the Penaddict merch site because when I was visiting Japan, Japan's very much a gift culture and you cannot visit people empty-handed. And there is no stationery I can bring over as merch from America, you know, to impress people. So I was hitting that penaddict merch shop, you know, buying things because it was stationery and American and I buy t-shirts, I buy pins, I buy a whole bunch of things. So thanks for supplying me with my trading goods. Well, I have to thank you back because you helped me create one of the greatest items I've ever created in the shop. And it's the Kokuyo sketchbook with the penact full stamp. So those who don't know, and it's been years since I've had that, we did a short run. Bruce helped me out with that. The only reason I was able to get these notebooks is because of his translation services. So that is still one of the coolest things I've ever done. And I have you to thank for that. Oh, no, thank you. I was so excited because it's not a glamorous product, but it's so solid. It's the coolest. If you're in the know, that's the pocket notebook to have. It's a 10 out of 10 S-tier item. Like it is one of the greatest stationery products ever made. Absolutely. One of the greatest pen shows on the planet is the Tokyo International Pen Show, apparently. And I need you to tell me all about it, please. Sure. So, well, let me start on my journey because I was not into fountain pens at all. This is a big deal. Yes. So, yeah. How did I go from not caring about fountain pens to one of the organizers of, I like to say, some of the top shows in the world? Yes.

Building a community around Japanese stationery in America

  • So that was a journey. So as I was trying to figure out how to bring in Japanese stationery to America, I definitely wanted to leverage an existing community. And when I looked around, the only two stationery related communities I could come across were either scrapbooking or fountain pens. And scrapbooking wasn't really my path. I was thinking more about how can I bring in, you know, stationery to kind of the corporate world. So I thought, all right, let me find out. Let me get involved in the fountain pen community and learn, you know, as a novice. And it was just absolutely fantastic between, you know, Brad's podcast as well as the San Francisco Pen Posse that runs the San Francisco Pen Show. Just so much online and real life community that welcomed me in and taught me everything to know. So I really, I figured the way into the American station market had to go through fountain pens. And I'm so glad I took that journey. I got introduced to pen shows. I would go to the LA Pen Show, the San Francisco Pen Show. And it's, they're not always inviting, but they're people like, you know, you, like the pen posse people, like the younger generation who was working so hard to make it accessible to newcomers to the field. So that really won my heart and got me interested just in the community aspect. I didn't, I never thought about making a business out of fountain pens. That was tangential. For me, it was just kind of a path to what I really wanted to do. But as I was attending those shows, I think it was 2018, I started hearing rumors that some people are trying to organize the Tokyo Pen Show.
  • And I heard of some people doing it. I didn't really know them. I knew of them, but I wasn't embedded in the fountain pen community. And my immediate reaction was not excitement, but fear. It's like, oh my God, you know, I've been to many Japanese stationery events and they're all very corporate. It's all about selling. It's all about branding. And if they are to run a show with the name Tokyo Pen Show in it, just the name alone is going to invite so much interest. People are going to have such high expectations from outside of Japan. And I was worried that if it turned out to be a corporate event, it's going to be so disappointing. So I reached out to a friend of mine who runs Kakimori, which is a stationery store here in Japan. They focus more on paper and notebooks. And I said, you know, let me help out at your booth so at least I can get my foot in to apply some influence or, you know, just warn people that we have to make this a community event. Yeah. So I raised my hand. I was still living in the States. So I flew over like a week before. And immediately I got sucked into the organizing committee. They said, oh, we need somebody who speaks English. I want you to translate all of our announcements. So I said, yeah, yeah, great, great.
  • And there was no turning back. I became an official organizing member for the next year. I've been doing it for six years.
  • And once I got inside, I found out all my fears were for not. It's run by the least corporate people in Japan. And it's headed by Kaoru of Bunga Box. And she's a.
  • Vibratious by the vibratious entrepreneur who's like the furthest thing from a Japanese businessman. And then it's also the sidekick is Mr. Endo of Eboya, which is probably known for their ebonite fountain pens. But their true business is they're one of the three remaining ebonite manufacturers around the world. So he's he's in the factory day in, day out, you know, and we meet at his office, which stinks of ebonite. But, you know, he's he looks stern, but he's he's a puppy inside. He's just eager to do the right thing and just wants to have a good time. So anyway, my fears were unfounded. I always tell this story and Kaoru scolds me because she she makes it sound like, you know, I had no faith in them. But, yeah, they they knew what they didn't know what they were doing. They just wanted to do it. There was a strong passion and it's just been such a joy working with them. So, yes, I I was met or involved in it remotely while I was living in America and then came over post covid and I've still been heavily involved in that. So that's kind of my journey.
  • So we've been doing this for six years and I think we've we've kind of figured out what our personality is. Now, first, for some context, you know, in America, kind of the reason I got into Fountain Pens because that was the only game when it came to stationery.
  • In Japan, it's not like that at all. We are spoiled here. There are so many like professional and community events around stationery. Since it's not the one and only, you know, we have to find our niche within the market. But if you're a true hardcore fountain pen collector, there are kind of trading events run by, you know, frankly, middle aged Japanese men who have strong opinions about, you know, what's good, what's bad. And, you know, kiss, kiss my ring kind of thing. Yeah. And those have a very, you know, Steve Baird entry. You need some kind of I was courage to to go there and mingle and be a kind of secret handshake. Yes. Yes. You know, it's not it's not a knock on them. It's just a culture that they created. Right. It's, you know. Right. And then once you earn your their respect, it's like, wow, you know, I get to ask all the questions and, you know. So but that's that's for the true hardcore. Hardcore. Then there's pure stationery events that are massive. And, you know, they run the gamut of, you know, washi tape to stamps to pens to, you know, character printed, you know, Disney notebooks and stuff. All of it. What was lacking was kind of focus on fountain pens and just handwriting. Not about decorating, but more about handwriting and what's the richness of that culture.

Education and inclusivity in Japanese pen shows

  • So Kaoru, who started the show, was insistent that, you know, not only do we serve the current fan base, but she wanted to carry on this art form to the next generation. Education was a big part of her. So she really wanted to do something that was welcoming and, you know, approachable to people who were found to have been curious in this world of digital and everything.
  • So we really had a focus on how can we make it approachable? So we were doing several things. Oh, sorry. To backtrack a little bit. They had also spent a lot of time in American pens shows. Kaoru and Endo have been to, you know, LA Pens Show, DC Pens Show. They were intrigued by this community, almost like a fan fest. And how it was just pure, unadulterated fun and love for this field. So they, and that didn't exist in Japan. You know, it was kind of a, almost a blind sight that, you know, Japan is the mecca of all these great stationery, but why isn't there a pens show? So they said, let's do it. They initially planned on renting out half a floor of a convention center. And everybody was, all the naysayers were saying, boy, that's, that's way too big. You guys got to tone back. And then Kaoru is kind of a force of nature. She just, she bulldozes through. She, she doesn't take, you know, she, she doesn't, it's not analysis. It's like, don't stop me. I'm doing this. It's will. Like, it's will. Like she wills it. She wills it. Absolutely. And that's how she's very non kind of traditional here. And people just, it's like, she's already gone so many steps ahead of people. People are frantically trying to chase her. And it turned out, she, they filled out the half floor in no time. So they had to expand to a full floor. Luckily, the other half of the floor was open. And that's how they started the first pens show. And from the beginning to make it approachable, they did several things. One was we have a mascot. So the mascot's a penguin. And there's a Japanese phrase called the first penguin. I never heard that in the States or in English, but it describes the first penguin that jumps into the ocean. And then all the penguins follow after that. And she felt like, you know, this, they were being the first penguin. They were doing something that had never been done before. And she was hoping that if they jump in the water, everybody would follow. And to some degree, that has happened in Japan. It's become a big thing. And so that's one thing. We have our penguin. And then we also, every year we decide to have a theme, kind of a playful theme. Last year, it was the penguin's harvest party. You know, it's always, it takes place in November. So it's in fall time. We've done tea parties. We've done Christmas parties. We did a harvest party. This year, the theme is the penguin family tours the world.
  • So once we set a theme, we hire a professional designer to create a poster for us with the penguin and the theme. That's kind of a way to bring in a little playfulness to the event. We started from one floor. And since last year, we've occupied two floors of a brand new, this spectacular conference center.
  • Soft Bank is a huge tech company in Japan. The bottom four floors of their worldwide headquarters is owned by the Tokyo City government as a trade center location. So we're like in the smack center of Tokyo in this brand new building with trees all around. It's just the location alone is gorgeous. You know how most pen shows have a name that's different from the actual physical location?
  • In our case, that's not the case.
  • I have commentary. I'm just going to keep myself on that one. Yes, good job.
  • We're lucky. And then we're in two floors.
  • I asked Kaoru, what's the one thing I should plug about this year's tips? And this is another head scratcher. It just kind of shows how she's in her own world. She said, make sure you point out that the top floor is the northern hemisphere and the bottom floor is the southern hemisphere.
  • This is going to be a world tour. People are going to come and tour the world by visiting all the booths. And the big point is that this year we have the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere. So it's an experience. It's a full experience. Oh, that's amazing that she said that. So we have like a theme ink for the show. So it'll be something to do with the world tour or something. We ask exhibitors to try to come up with show exclusives if possible along that theme. So, you know, it's hard to ask people to create a product. But if there are smaller companies that do paper products or leather products, they can try to do something to match the theme. Yeah. Now, one thing I love about American shows is how they take place in hotels. You know, that gives you the ability to just linger forever. Right. I was shocked when I went to my first Penn show. I was expecting a more structured event. And, you know, it's just you don't know when it starts. You don't know when it ends. When you're at the bar, you don't know who's the seller and who's the buyer. Because it sure seems like that buyer is trying to sell something to that seller. You know, it's just like the blurring of the, you know, the maker and the consumer is wonderful. And how, you know, because it's at a hotel, you can linger forever. Now, the challenge in Japan is that hotels, one of their primary source of income is weddings. So, any hotel with a decent sized ballroom is booked years in advance for these weddings. You know, and they cycle through, you know, 15 couples a day. Cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching. So, for us to try to reserve a hotel for a whole weekend is virtually impossible. It's still my dream to one day have the Tokyo Penn show. And when that becomes a reality, we probably won't be in Tokyo. We will be following the global trend of, you know, Tokyo Penn show not in Tokyo. But, you know. Yeah, I'm going to save that clip for later usage when I have to travel over there. I was like, hey, remember this?
  • So, we tried to, within, you know, we do have, you know, we have to leave at night. But we try to make it fun. One thing that I think we stand out is we rely heavily on volunteers. We have, we signed up about 80 volunteers last year. And, you know, we prep them. We train them. And they have kind of an apron. They all wear orange aprons. So, they feel like they're part of this. They're part of the inside, not the outside. What we find is a lot of people who don't know much about fountain pens love participating. Because then they meet people and, you know, while they're working to get to learn about it. So, we feel like that energy, the passion that they bring, kind of sets the vibe of the show floor itself. And even though we can't have, you know, a party for the public, one thing we started doing a few years ago is it's a three-day event. On the night of the second day, we have an exclusive time for the volunteers to go shopping. So, after we kick out all the guests, we ask the exhibitors to stay.
  • And, well, actually, we close off half the show so that the people, half of the vendors can go shop and with the volunteers. And we actually serve alcohol. So, we have like a little toast. And then we encourage vendors to bring foods or drinks from their local town or country. And we have, you know, as much as we can try to recreate that community feel. A relaxed environment where people can talk shop. They can peruse around. And they offer special discounts. Like you roll a die and then they will take off whatever percent based on what kind, you know, what kind of die came out. And then it's fun because vendors start competing. Like Nagasawa will say that, okay, we'll let you roll a die. And give you exactly that amount percent off. And then another company will say, we will double that. It's kind of the fun, very festive atmosphere that we truly believe. Then the volunteers bring that back to the show floor. And just this, it just does not feel corporate at all. You have me ready to book a ticket. Okay. So, let me also make some disclaimers.
  • We want to be the best show. We want, you know, come on, this is Japan. We want all the best of the best of Japan to be there. But we don't have, we don't have Platinum. We don't have Pilot.
  • We've been working on them. Sailor, we have only because the head of our show, Kaoru at Bunga Box, is such a big customer of Sailor. And she has her way of twisting arms. But Platinum and Pilot aren't there because they don't sell direct. They have an extensive distributor network. To them, to sidestep their distributors and sell directly is a big taboo because, you know, they're offending, they're taking business away from their customers. Mm-hmm. So, we keep, you know, we're trying, we're working on them. We tell them, hey, I see you're in American pen shows. Why can't you do it for us? And then they kind of muffle their voice and say, well, our international division is more desperate. We don't have to do that to sell our products. So, you know, it's this attitude. And then, you know, the vendors like Nakaya and Namiki and even the real boutique places like Boku Mondo, they are so behind. You know, they have such high demand. Right. They're not out there to find another customer. And the kicker is the exchange rate has gone, shifted significantly over the past year and a half. The dollar is so much more powerful than the yen now. It's gone up by about 50%. So, it's a bargain for Americans to come here and shop. Yeah. The local market, you know, they're just not buying the high-end stuff. So, Namiki, if they have a choice, they'd rather go to Dubai or America. You know, they'll make more money that way than coming to Japan. You know, we're getting more and more international visitors, you know, high spenders. And that's starting to sink in, but they still view this as a Japanese show for a Japanese audience. So, the premium brands, you know, you would expect them to be here. They're not quite there. I feel our strength is really in the small to medium vendors who don't make it even to the big Japanese retailers. The things that you have to go, you know, ride a three-hour train ride to get to. They're really kind of off the beaten path places. We have a great representation of them. So, you know, you can make a visit to Tokyo any given Sunday and go to Itoya and find a great selection of products. But there's still things that just don't make it to those stores. Those are the vendors that we have at our show. And we do have some of the biggest retailers. We have Nagasawa. We have Itoya. There's also a boutique, a fountain pen store called Shosaikan in Tokyo. They all exhibit at our show. So, we're leaning on them to try to bring out not only their store exclusives, but some of the, you know, their high-end pilots and platines and namikis and stuff. Yeah. So, those products are still represented from a distributor perspective, right? Just not necessarily from, like, the big corporate perspective. But I do think that's the beauty of the pen show anyway is I want to go and discover some things too. Even if I'm not buying something from everyone that I'm discovering there, I'm discovering new people to, you know, look at in the future. These smaller businesses, I think, are really what drive, like, what we do. You know, there's, the big companies are great. And, you know, I'm a huge, you know, Pilot and Platinum and Sailor fan and use those products, like, a ton. But the joy of sitting there talking to the person that made the thing, like, your friend Taizo at Yamamoto Papers, one of my favorite people on the planet. Like, someone that's just so passionate about the singular thing that they do. Like, you cannot beat that. And you get that at pen shows and especially somewhere like the Tokyo International Pen Show. Right, right. That's so true. And that's what I'm so happy about that, you know, we've, to the best of our abilities, we're trying to recreate that direct interaction and the people, you know, connecting the passionate people on both ends. And one more thing I want to add for us, what's important is the I in TIPS, the international part of TIPS, both from a vendor's perspective as well as visitors. You know, it is a pen show primarily for Japanese audience. So we want to give our audience a chance to interact with these non-Japanese vendors who don't have representation in Japan or, you know, are that Japanese customers have heard about but never had a chance to touch. So we've been working hard to bring vendors from the States. We have Franklin Kristoff, Shone Design, Gina's, you know, Custom Knits Studio with Gina, as well as Endless Stationery from India, Galen Leather from Turkey. They took a gamble and showed up. And I think they were very happy with what, you know, they're having their interactions. Yeah. And unfortunately, you know, with COVID, all that had to stop. And, you know, last year was the first year we had our show post-COVID when all the restrictions were lifted. And I don't have stats, but I was impressed by how many people from Asia, you know, a lot from all around Asia, as well as North America and Europe, people who came to attend the show. And the vendors came up to me and said, you know, for the first time, I'm really motivated to learn English because I've never been to a show with, you know, so such diverse customer base. And that really excited them and validated them. Like, wow, these people are interested in what I do. Yeah. You know, they haven't thought of themselves. You know, to you, it's obvious that there's a global love for this stuff. They're just kind of stuck in their shell. Sure. And this is, there's still so much potential. And you, the audience who comes to visit the show, makes them want to stretch beyond, you know, their comfort zone and, you know, talk to you and hear what you think. They're starving for that input. So I think it's a mutually beneficial thing. And you get to see, you know, what's not out in the world yet. And they get to hear from you. What moves the needle for you? Because, like, you know, we've, Brad and I have had this conversation a lot. You know, what appeals here doesn't necessarily appeal there. Um, there's so much synergy there and excitement that I'm really excited. This year, I'm focusing on expanding the international, just participation base because I think it'd be so much fun. And I like to think of how to recreate that funness that I benefited from so much at American Pen Shows. Yeah. And I, I, it seems as someone who's never been, it seems like you're on the right track because just last year watching it from afar, you could tell like the vibe and the feel was different. It seemed bigger. It seemed like more people were there. Um, you know, I heard a lot more of my friends going either from a vendor perspective or from an attendee perspective. So, yeah, like, I think it's only, like, it's only the start in, in with, with tips as far as, far as I'm concerned. And I have just got to make it a point. And I've been, I've been on it for years to, to make it a point to, to get over there. And that's, it's just going to happen soon because it, it just has to, right. It's like, it's going to be like, it's going to be amazing. It's going to be amazing. All right. So, I want to talk about one more thing that we've, uh, discussed a little bit, um, before. And that is, uh, Bungu Box. So, I want to hit up on that before we wrap up today's show. But first, let me talk about our second sponsor. And that is our friends over at Factor. This episode of the Penn Act is brought to you by Factor. Warmer, sunnier days are calling. Fuel up for them with Factor's no prep, no mess meals. Meet your wellness goals in time for summer, thanks to the menu of chef-crafted meals with options like calorie smart, protein plus, and keto. 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Our thanks to Factor for their support of this show and RelayFM. So, BunguBox, huh? Yep.

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.
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