Bungu Joshi in Osaka 2025 Event Report

It's been awhile since I've attended a stationery event and when I found out that I would be in Osaka when Bungu Joshi would be happening, I carved out a few hours in my itinerary to go attend. 

I found out about the event a week before but didn't buy my ticket until the day before.

Tickets were easily available on KKday. I used the app and it gave me a QR code for entry.  

We went on a friday and the event started at 10am. 

Since we were driving, we arrived around 10am and were able to find car parking in the event building (ATC Hall) easily. 

We followed the signs for the entrace and we were ushered through to scan our QR codes, we then went down a hallway to pick up shopping bags (for all your purchases) and brochures.

Payment for items was in a separate area outside of the event space and all your purchases were calculated at once, which meant you did not have to struggle with payment at each booth and could just grab and go if you wanted to.

There were 2 halls, one on each side. I don't think there was any particular theme for either hall and vendors with the same product categories were spread out and not concentrated in an area, which meant you had to walk the entire event to properly see everything on offer.

I recommend setting aside at least 3 hours if you wanted to take your time to browse and also if you wanted to make custom notebooks/items. 

Unfortunately, I only had 2 hours so I did have to speed run some parts of the event hall.  

There were a lot of wax seals.

I'm really trying not to add these to my collection, so I skipped most of these booths. 

There were plenty of stickers and notebooks, these booths were often the most crowded and hard to get to. 

I love themed stationery and the packaging for these coffee stickers/notepaper was so good~!

There was a selection of custom booths, like this custom ballpoint pen where you picked a different colour/length for each portion of a pen. See top right for some examples. 

Bungu joshi also had it's own room where they sold original merchandise, some were collaborations with brands such as deco rush tape. The room also had mini games and photo spots!

A lot of booths had signs with QR codes for you to scan. 

Most of them had a freebie if you followed their social media, it was usually a postcard or a sticker they had made specially for the event. 

There were a few interesting products, like a golfball stamp so you could identify your golfball, eyeliners, which made sense if you think about it.

These cup tops were cute but I couldn't think of a reason I would need to use them so I didn't end up picking them up. 

Retro stationery was also still very much a thing. These blackboard dusters doubled up as screen cleaners and I thought that was super cute. 

So much nostalgia! I remember these glue pots from when I was in primary school.

Bungu Joshi was really great! I saw a lot of new stationery, new brands as well as established brands with new products so it was 2 hours well spent. 

If you wanted to do a big stationery shop and you're in the area of a Bungu Joshi, I recommend taking a look! Your wallet might not thank you after but it'll be worth it!

What other stationery events have you attended? I'd love to hear.

 

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Review: Hapila! [DAISO] Custom Memo Notepad

Like many others, my wallet is often overflowing with cards. And it makes it quite heavy. So sometimes when I only need one or two cards, its troublesome to carry my entire wallet. Even more so when I hardly use cash these days since everywhere accepts mobile payments. So when I chanced upon this, I decided to get it.

Custom Memo Notepad

Featuring a clear pocket on the front.

Pocket size: 92mm x 70mm

Overall size: 110mm x 76mm

What it looks like inside:

Standard grid paper

Cardboard page on the back for writing ease

The pocket is surprisingly useful!

You can use it for ID like office Id and student Id.

Or just a store point card / membership card.

You can use it for travel cards too.

And of course, this memo pad was designed for hobby trading cards [idol cards, anime cards, game cards]

You can customize it in many ways.

What do you think?

Would you get this?

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March 2025 Printable

 

March 2025 Printable 

Download here: Link

For netprint and ibon information, please see our instagram.

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Review: Kept Quiera Highlighter Tape (Raymay)

I've reviewed a few tape highlighters and the technology  keeps getting better. 

This one from Raymay's Kept line is my new favourite. 

The Quiera highlighter is a dual sided tape highlighter. 

It's 5mm wide and you get 3m of each colour. 
It also claims to be erasable, which is pretty useful. 

 

The tape is so easy to use unlike a previous tape that I tried, where the highlighter colour would not stick on to the paper easily. 

The Quiera works smooth and adheres properly. 

I also did not expect the colour to be that pigmented but it looks like or even better than a marker type highlighter. 

The colours work well when used on top of writing or even when you've applied the colour before writing. Having the option to use it whenever you need to is a great feature.

You can also layer the colours and create a third colour, i.e blue and yellow makes green and you can create emphasis by layering on several of the same colour. 

This is now my new favourite highlighter and is definitely staying on  my desk from now on. 

What do you think? Does the highlighter tape concept appeal to you? 

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Review: 3Coins Hot Spring Notes

 

Japanese lifestyle brand introduced a series of Hot Springs themed items recently. And amongst the usual towels and bath bags, there is also a Hot Spring Notes!

It is designed to help one keep track of the hot springs they have visited.

It comes with 40 cards inside of it.

One side of the card has a questionnaire for you to fill out and the other has blue ruled lines.

The questionnaire is in Japanese and includes things like date, name of onsen, facility name, cost etc etc.

The card is fairly sturdy so you can easily just bring one card on your trip rather than the whole file. Most ryokans [onsen hotels] have a stamp so you can also use it in the card on the memo page or the back of it.

Measuring around A6 in size [16cm x 12cm x 2cm], it is very portable as a whole as well. The grey elastic keeps everything shut and the gray blue color with white onsen motif makes it very stylish looking.

What do you think? Would you get this?

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Kingjim Minis

 

It's another miniature! 

This time I picked up these Kingjim box file. 

How cute are they?!

They each came with instructions for assembly. 

They are the perfect size for cards. 

I tried it with some photocards and some notecards and I think it works so well. 

I bought 2 colours are they look so cute next to each other. 

Easy storage, mini versions, what's not to like! 

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February 2025 Printable

 Love is in the air! 

Happy February ^^

Download here: PDF

For ibon/netprint information, please see our instagram post.

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January 2025 Printable

 

January 2025 Printable 

Feeling the breeze, go with the flow~

Download here: Link

For netprint and ibon information, please see our instagram.

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Review: Zebra Pitan Gel Ink Rollerball Pen with Magnetic Holder

I'm reviewing the Pitan gel ink rollerball pen by Zebra. 

Oh no, another pen I hear you say? 

There's a twist, stay tuned. 

Out of the package, you get a backing card with instructions, a metal piece and a pen. 

The metal piece is a pen holder that you can attach to your notebook. 

It's long and flat because it's magnetic, the pen is meant to snap to it with magnets. 

It reminds of the apple pencil, how cool is that? 

The pen is of course, magnetic, and it's also retractable with a cute little loop on the top.

It also comes in a very aesthetic minimalist white colour, which I'm really into lately. 

 

The holder clips onto your notebook cover, but as I found it, it doesn't work for cloth/leather covers or covers that are too thick. 

On my delfonics notebook, I clipped it to the plastic divider at the back for the notebook and it is very secure. I don't think it would ever come loose or drop out. 

The holder is designed well. The pen snaps onto the holder easily and is secure.

The pen itself is a standard gel pen by Zebra, I like that they chose to make it retractable so I don't have deal with pen covers. It writes nicely and is pigmented, a very good everyday pen. 

I'm going to leave this setup on my notebook and see how it goes, if you would like to an update, let me know in the comments. 

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Review: Paperian Make-a-memo memo pad

I picked up these notepads on my last trip to Seoul from a bookstore at Yongsan station. 

I like little notepads like these, they're easy to pick up and use in my daily life. 

These notepads are by a brand called paperian. 

I picked up 3, Today's expenses, Recipe, and To do list. 

To do list and today's expenses are quite self explanatory and I think the small form factor is great for writing daily lists. 

Recipe is a nice yellow and I've been saving a lot of instagram recipes so having somewhere to jot them down is so useful. 

 The paper is a good thickness, no bleeding and ink dries quickly. 

There were no issues with using highlighters too. 

If you spot these in Korea, I recommend you give them a try!

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December 2024 Printable

 The year is coming to an end so lets get started on getting ready with this printable~

Featuring some holiday colors and neutrals, its bound to work in all layouts!

Download here: PDF

For ibon/netprint information, please see our instagram post.

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Review: Toyo dotdot glue tape

Toyo is a Singapore brand that has been around since 1994. 

They're a staple in all school shops, neighbourhood stationery stores and even supermarkets. 

My favourite glue tape is actually the Tombow Pit Air series but supply of the refills can be a bit spotty so I picked up the dotdot glue tape during a time when I was worried I would run out of glue tape. 

It's 6mm wide and there's 6m of product in a clear tinted plastic body, which makes it easy to see when you've run out. 

 

It's a bit smaller and lighter than the tombow which makes it more portable.

Both glue tapes have a roller mechanism, I found the Toyo felt lighter and a bit flimsy and once you got the hang of it, it was easy to use. Unfortunately, unlike the Tombow, the only indicator that you're using it the right way up is a little bit of grip stopper on one side, so I ended up trying to use the wrong side quite often. 

The most important test, how is the adhesiveness. 

I adhered 2 pieces of paper and then removed them. 

The Toyo was easier to remove and did not remove too much product from the adhered piece. 

So at the end of the day, the Tombow is still the better glue tape, however, the Toyo is a very budget friendly version so if you're a power user, definitely go with the Toyo. 

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Review: DAISO Safety Cutter

About a year ago we reviewed the precision cutter from DAISO featuring a compact stylish pen that had a sharp metal nib for cutting. Recently we found a new updated version from DAISO.

Safety Cutter

Whilst it looks similar in that it is also a pen sized item. There are several key differences.

Unlike the previous version, it features a retractable nib instead of a cap.

And there is no metal tip. Instead there is a ceramic knife tip.

The ceramic knife tip is very sharp despite how it looks and is able to cut very fine details!

It comes in two clear colors [greyish beige or navy]

Being a fan of monotone shades, I picked up the grey.What do you think of this handy item?

Is it better than the version before?

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