Starbucks Reserve Roastery Tokyo

Unless you've been living under a rock, you must have heard of the latest Starbucks Roastery store in Tokyo.

It is a brand new type of Starbucks store, of which there are currently only 5 (including Tokyo).

The Tokyo store, located in the Meguro area, is the biggest, comprising of 4 floors and a dedicated Teavana tea bar. 

Since it's a new store, there were reports of really long queues of people wanting to visit.  

I visited 2 months after the opening and decided to give it a try. 

The queue process was relatively simple and easy. 

1. I arrived around 11.30am and headed to the building next to the main Starbucks building where I received a queue number. 
2. When my number was called on a screen, I entered a queue in this small building where I waited to be moved to another queue of about 10 people in the front of the small building.
3. When it's time, 2 staff members would escort this smaller queue to the entrance of Starbucks roastery.

I spent about 30mins doing the above 3 steps. Keep in mind that the queue later in the day is longer. 

Also, once you enter the building, the queues do not end. There are queues for food, drink and merchandise so budget your time accordingly. 

The good news is that the number of people allowed in the building at one time is restricted so even though I had to queue for my food/drink. I didn't have a problem locating a seat/table. 

The kind of good available include pastries, sandwiches and pizzas and it all comes out of an in-house bakery.
There are also an assortment of desserts and a drinks menu that is exclusive to the store.

I had a pepperoni sandwich and a cream macchiato and it was both very delicious. 

Overall, I feel it is worth a visit but get there early and be prepared to spend a few hours there.

If the queue numbers are too far from the front of the queue, there is a Don Quixote on the main street or the area is also known for it's cute stores.  

Now, on to the merchandise. 

As is with everything exclusive, Starbucks Roastery Japan has it's own range of merchandise that is only found in their store. Not just designed by Starbucks but also in collaboration with other brands. 

The obvious one is Travelers Factory. 

The collaboration goods included covers, inserts, stickers, masking tape and pens. 

Starbucks' own merchandise.

Gorgeous limited edition cards.

Other brands that have made exclusive goods for the store include Baggu, BEAMS, Tokyobike amongst other local and international brands. 

Lots of great products to look at and bring back as souvenirs. 

Note that there might a limit per person on the number of items you are allowed to buy. 

But other than that, happy shopping!

If you made it this far:

We have brought back some inserts to be added to our store soon. Stay tuned! 

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May 2019 Printable

Hello May! We're almost halfway through with the year, where did the time go?

We're always into constellations and galaxies so we hope you'll enjoy May's printable.

Download here!

Don't forget to tag us if you feature the printable in any of your instagram posts.

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Travel Folder Part One : Set Up

One of our favorite ways to chronicle our travels is to save ephemeral we encounter each day. However sometimes it can be hard to remember what day we collected each item. To help with that, I've begun using a travel folder and today's blog post will be about how I have set mine up!

 To start, here is the folder I have used. Its about A6 size with 12 sections inside. 

To personalize it, I have used a gold transfer sticker on it as a decoration.

I have also added numbers to each pocket tab by using my trusty labeler. 

Each pocket will be used for each day of the trip but I have also included some items which I find useful to bring along on trips.  

These include

1. sticky memo paper

2. small stickers

3. Junpakushi paper for stamping on

4. grid paper for writing daily thoughts/snippets

5. Sticker Release Paper for stickers/labels I collect along the way (Buy Here)

6. Pen 

To see it in action, do look out for Part 2 where I will show you how I used it on a trip! 

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Review: Daiso Korea Calligraphy Pens

We really enjoy reviewing Daiso Japan stationery, they've always got a great selection of items for a great price. 

But did you know Daiso Korea is slightly different from Daiso Japan?

They carry a similar range but with variations. They also have their own specific to Daiso Korea product lines and the prices are not fixed though it is within a reasonable range. 

We went to Seoul recently and picked up a lot of cool stationery so there might a few posts like this. 

What did I pick up? Calligraphy pens. 

It comes in 3 different sets of varying colours and the pens are dual tip. One side is a 3mm brush pen, the other is a 2.2mm flat tip marker. 

Each pen has a 'whiteman' brand and states that it is archival quality, water based, odorless and xylene free. 

It is also made in Korea and each set costs 2000won which is roughly USD1.80, a really good price for 4 pens I have to say. 

The first set includes a black, a blue, a red and a green. Colours that remind you on a typical school or office environment. 

The second set includes a bright green, bright orange, bright yellow that is almost highlighter-like and a bright pink. A very summery neon set. 

The final set consists of a light blue, a purple, a muted orange and a muted pink. 

Out of the 3 sets, this is my favourite. I feel the colours are more unique, the muted orange really speaks to me. 

In terms of use, the brush is shorter than a Tombow brush pen but just as flexible. 

I'm no lettering specialist but I could create the same type of lettering as I would with a Tombow brush pen. Which would make this a good choice for a beginner but don't quote me on that. 

The flat tip is not something I'm used to but I found it easy to use as well. 

The ink runs thru the pen well and the colour is sharp and beautiful. 

It is indeed odorless as stated as well. 

Overall, the pens are great value for money. If you're into brush pens, I recommend you pick these up if you're near a Daiso in Korea! 

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Review: Typo Cable Tidy

Happy Friday! It's another Typo review. This time I picked up the cable tidy. 

You must be thinking that's weird, that's obviously a tech item, why is it on a stationery blog?

However, if you look carefully at the packaging, it claims to also be a pen loop. 

That's genius. So I bought it! 

The cable tidy is made of silicone and uses magnets to secure things. 

It comes in few designs including marble and a stone print. 

The recommended uses for the cable tidy are cable tidy, pen loop, earphone organiser and paper clip. 

It works really well as a cable tidy! 

As a pen loop, it worked a lot better than I thought it would.

It stayed even when I placed the notebook in my bag and brought it around. 

You can even use it on the back cover so the loop is discreet. 

However, because it's magnetic, it would probably not be effective on a hardcover notebook.

So in conclusion, if you're looking for a nicely designed pen loop/cable tidy, this is worth picking up. 

Hope you found this review useful. 

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April 2019 Printable

Its April! That means we are almost done with the 1st quarter of the year!

We added a little twist to our usual date printables by adding some handy labels as well!

As always, tag us #TN5Cprintable on instagram to show us your pages! 

Download our free printable here. 

p.s If you are thinking about printing this on sticker paper. Check out all the new additions to our Etsy store. We have lots in stock including printable washi sticker paper ! Do check it out here!

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Review: Typo A5 Notebook Pencil Case

Typo is a great place to buy stationery. 

There's always a cute design or something you can pick up quickly as a gift for someone.

I was doing just that and spotted some cool new stuff, like this A5 Notebook pencil case.

It was S$11.99 and came in 2 colours, this peach/black and a black/red. 

To be honest, neither colour was particularly interesting to me but I really wanted to try it out. 

I decided to try it on 2 different A5 notebooks. 

First, the Filofax Clipbook. 

It works well around the entire thickness of the notebook but unfortunately did not work if you only wanted to keep it on the book cover. but to be fair, it could be because the elastic is new and therefore would loosen over time. 

Next, I put it on a hardcover notebook. 

It worked well on both the full thickness and just the cover. 

The final test, however, is the most important test. 

What will it fit? 

Unfortunately, this is where it disappoints. The pouch is not the full height of an A5 notebook so not all pens will fit. It also will not fit anything that isn't in the shape of a pen, such as corrector tape. 

Therefore, if you only need a pouch for your roughly 3 pens, this is perfect. 

Otherwise, I would suggest an actual pencil case.

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Himekuri Desktop Calendar

HIMEKURI is a new type of desktop calendar available in Japan. They come in several designs/themes and each contain 7 stacks of sticky notes.

Each sticky note has the day/date on it and you can peel it off as each day passes by. 

Each day has a different drawing (according to theme) and each week has identical colors so you know how the week progresses.

The stickers peeled off can also be used to decorate one's journal.

They also look good inside of our favorite traveler notebooks! 

Website : https://kambevisual.co.jp/himekuri2019.html

Have you tried these out? What do you think of them?

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March 2019 Printable

Sakura season is here again! We’ve gone full pink and there are 31 different designs plus a bonus design for planning your month. Perfect for bullet journals.

Download here.

Above printed on our Washi sticker paper: buy here.

Remember to tag us if you use the printable!

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Washi Tape Hack : Making coordinating stickers

Here at TN5C we love our washi tape! And we use it quite generously in our journals and many other areas. But sometimes finding coordinating elements like stickers can be difficult so if you face the same problem, we have a hack for you!

Make your own coordinating stickers out of the washi tape you own with craft punches!

Simply stick the tape on some wax paper [we used sticker release paper, which you can buy at our store here] and punch the shapes out~!

The result? Perfectly matching stickers!

Till next time!

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Fusen Hack #2

Hope you enjoyed the first Fusen hack last week!

This week’s fusen hack is also super simple! We’re basically turning fusen into reusable planner entries, for actions/events that are recurring.

You’ll need

• Fusen, paper or plastic it’s up to you. You can use this method with tabs or other stickers too!

• Label printing machine

Use a clear label to retain the fusen pattern/colour, or one with a white base for darker coloured fusen or ones that have a busy pattern.

Create your labels, apply to your fusen and you’re done. I used mine in my bullet journal.

It’s useful for remembering recurring events or to do items.

Hope you found this useful. Do tag us if you’ve used this in your planner!

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Fusen Hack #1

Fusen aka post it notes come is all shapes, sizes, colours and materials. There are many ways to use them that are obvious but not really at the same time.

In this blogpost, I will show you a quick trick to turn regular fusen into cute index markers.

First up, you will need fusen, paper or film, and some deco rush, I used the petit series, which is mostly used for planners. You can also use stickers.

Next, just pick your favourite design and apply it on the fusen. Done, cute index stickers!

Stay tuned for the next fusen hack!

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