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.
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.
