A working subtitle of what follows below might be: goals achieved, opportunities missed, and assumptions confirmed. The next-level summary would then kick down to: families put up with a lot when you are exploring your own niche interests and hobbies. This perhaps adds further context to the tales below.

Along with my wife and our two adult children, I recently spent 11 days in Tokyo. Our initial seven nights being unavoidably extended after our return flight was cancelled due to a cyclone threatening our home city of Brisbane. A stressful hour or two ensued, changing flights and extending accommodation, before we realised the fantastic opportunity we had to spend another four nights in such an amazing location. We were indeed thankful all was okay when we returned home, though many weren’t so lucky with damage, flooding, and power losses from the cyclone.

Aims and Plans

I really had no great plans on the stationery front, other than perhaps a leaning towards obtaining a Plotter notebook set up and having a good look around. I’d taken in some “Stationery trip to Tokyo” blogs and YouTube videos before the trip, however as far as a shopping list was concerned, the Plotter was mostly it. That said, I was always going to add to my Traveler’s Notebook setup, and was excited to visit their locations around Tokyo.

On the flip side, I’d also considered what the stationery side of the trip wasn’t intended to be: a search at all costs tour for Japanese exclusives, fountain pens, or endless inks. When you are talking about a couple of hobbies like stationery and coffee, a trip can quickly turn into family members waiting around for you to sample things or satisfy curiosity. Don’t get me wrong — they’d do it every day of the week, however even for me, our family holidays are far more enjoyable without the pressure of me seeking niche, out of the way stationery stores or cafés.

If you have progressed in this hobby to being all-in on fountain pens, then this post will disappoint you. Yes, I still love mine. However, I am very fortunate to probably have enough, and most of my daily drivers are gel or ballpoint these days. With that in mind, you’ll still find plenty of fountain pens at many of the places listed below, although none returned home with me.

Stationery Places

Loft — Shibuya

One of the first shops tagged “stationery” on our Tripsy itinerary list, largely due to the proximity to our hotel in Shibuya, however once inside it quickly became apparent as to the magnitude of stationery in Japan. My family happily pointed out we spent a good couple of hours in the store, and I didn’t make it off the basement (aka stationery) level. To be clear, while there are seven floors in this behemoth, you’ll find stationery on the basement level, and I do recommend spending some time on the other floors — maybe for a few minutes before heading back to B1…

Checkout: Gel pens, a couple of Traveler’s Passport size refills and miscellaneous items (stickers, glue pen etc). Let’s call this an initial “recon” visit. Too many stores to come, and much of the time was spent on the Side-note below. On a return visit, I did pick up a bottle of Sailor ink to replace my ever dwindling Montblanc Daniel Defoe Palm Green. The Shikiori Rikyucha probably falls on the brown rather than green side of the ledger, though you get that with store lighting, aging vision, and looking at the small colour spot on the packaging. Nonetheless, I do like the colour.

The Lamy M17 Jetstream refill. I duly took my ticket from the display and lined up at the register to claim my “1 per customer” M17 refill. I ended up with the black fine (0.7 mm version). It’s a good writer and what you’d expect from the classic oil-based Jetstream ink. I’ve not yet compared it directly with the M16 refill, which incidentally I only have in medium.

Side-note: Plotter paralysis. A good part of that long stay on the stationery floor was spent at the Plotter display, musing on sizes (A5 was the plan before leaving home) and cover colour. I loved the orange, however wasn’t sure how that might play out in the office. The conclusion being: “think about it” and return another day.

Verdict: Like performing a Google search for “Japanese Stationery” and having the results presented to you in person. It’s vast, an assault on your stationery senses (in a good way) and I’m glad I had the benefit of checking out the other places below in the knowledge I’d easily return to Loft to fill in any gaps before we left.

Traveler’s Factory — Tokyo Station

A Traveler’s Notebook theme also heavily influenced the stationery itinerary of the trip (see also Starbuck’s Reserve and TN HQ below). I run a Bullet Journal type setup in my TN, and thought I might pick up some exclusives from the various TN locations we’d visit.

Checkout: A few inserts, stickers, postcards, and a good few minutes spent collecting various stamps from the store in a passport refill you can see on the left of the image. They also had a cool main stamp press which aligned your refills nicely and printed the red and green TN Tokyo Station stamp on the cover (far R in the image).

Verdict: Tokyo Station itself was an amazing building, and it was fantastic to be able to visit the Traveler’s Store. Being the first of a Traveler’s theme of stops, I was excited for what was to come. A quaint store and an enjoyable visit.

Itoya — Ginza

After my I-need-to-think-about-this moment from the Loft excursion, I received a unanimous vote of encouragement by my family: are-you-serious-absolutely-get-the-orange-Plotter before entering Itoya. That turned out pretty well, as you can see in the image.

Unlike Loft, Itoya’s many floors were all stationery (or at least adjacent), however each were smaller in area by comparison. This saw me a little calmer than in Loft, with things segmented floor by floor, thereby providing a little reset between them.

Checkout: Plotter A5 cover in orange “shrink” (pebbled) leather with an antique gold backplate, along with just about every refill I could get my hands on. Until I can convince my favourite pen shop here at home to bring them into the country, it will either be international shipping for refills or my Japan-based niece as a stationery mule whenever she visits us in Australia.

Side-note: The beginning of a theme and a little hilarity. Itoya was the first time the Uniball Zento caught my eye, by way of a small advertising display in an array of home office desk setups. The Signature Edition would be the perfect “unique find” to take home, given its design and magnetic cap system. Yes, a gel pen no less — and as you can gather, it was decidedly a non-fountain pen trip. Upon enquiring with one of the staff if any were in stock — the answer was a shake of the head and a “sold out everywhere”. It was the same in Loft and multiple Hands stores we visited along the way. Typical. I had set my sights on a pen that was probably the most popular thing to hit the shelves at that particular moment, with no way to get my hands on one before the end of the trip.

The hilarity of it all? Well, there are four variations of the Zento: the Basic, Standard, Flow, and Signature models. I wanted the Signature, which I’ll now be picking up online as they have just popped up locally on Bunbougu (well the lower tiers at least, the Signature model shows sold out — what a surprise). How’s the new “Zento” ink? Well, that I cannot tell you, as I was that obsessed with hunting the Signature model, I totally overlooked picking up a couple of the cheaper variants which were all available. Did someone say tunnel vision? Oh well, you live and learn.

Verdict: Itoya certainly was a joy to visit (along with the luxury shopping precinct that runs through Ginza) with many floors, lots of stationery, and a good deal more fountain pens. I did a quick whip around the fountain pen floor (well ok… perhaps a couple of laps) before moving onto more pressing Plotter purchasing matters at hand.

Starbucks Reserve Roastery — Meguro

Sure, if you were perhaps a coffee purist this mightn’t be the first stop on your list, however I’d argue it’s essential, simply for a look at the size, scale, and design of this place. I would also add it was here I had one of the best filter coffees of the trip (a Modbar brewed Colombian Pink Bourbon for anyone interested).

But we’re here to talk stationery, and this was peak collaboration time. Starbuck’s Reserve and Traveler’s Company do a fantastic job at providing for those at the intersection of coffee and stationery obsession, and I am certainly here for it.

Checkout: Fairly self-explanatory in the associated image, anchored by a passport sized Traveler’s Notebook and some charm/clip hardware, with some associated passport sized refills and various stickers.

Verdict: I love a good collab, and this one was made for me. If you are in the Meguro area, it’s honestly worth stopping by Starbucks Reserve, yes for a bit of stationery (in the corner to your right upon entering), and even if you’re not into coffee, one of those four floors is dedicated to tea. Something for everyone. Loved it.

But wait… there’s more. Adjacent to the roastery is the famous Meguro river, endless cherry blossoms when in season, and if you keep wandering further down a quiet little street, you’ll find…

Traveler’s Factory HQ — Nakameguro

Along with Loft, also an early entry on the stationery list when planning our trip. The Traveler’s HQ. The mothership. Or rather, the quaint little backstreet store that is symbolic of everything wonderful about Japan. There is a quiet hum of customers inside this store which belies the idyllic outer. We did visit on a fairly rainy day, so perhaps things in the surrounding streets were a bit quieter than they otherwise might be. Absolute bliss.

Checkout: Again, the image tells the story, and my favourites here were the selection of The Superior Labor bags and cases, along with the leather Traveler’s Factory coasters we now have on our side table at home. Some interesting looking refills and stickers were also added to the list — goes without saying.

Verdict: It was great to get along to both the HQ along and the Traveler’s at Tokyo Station. To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure whether I was buying store exclusives or not, and really just picked up what looked appealing. If you have a specific list when visiting, I’m sure you’d have no trouble filling it. An added bonus? Visiting both locations removed the need to look at the Traveler’s sections in the other stores, such as Hands and Loft.

One thing struck me upon visiting the store, and that was the feel of the craft and workmanship all around you. Sure, your larger players in the stationery realm have their place, however brands such as Traveler’s and Plotter have their cult followings for a reason (and it’s not just the plan-with-me videos on YouTube). There is a sense of the culture in these products. Everything I found wonderful in Japan is encapsulated by brands such as these. The experience was certainly far more valuable than what I brought back, but of course, we all need those little keepsake stationery souvenirs, am I right?

Hands — Shibuya & Shinjuku

If there was a stationery race on this trip (besides the frantic Zento search…), Hands would be the dark horse, and could rightly stake a claim to victory. Right around the corner from where we were staying, to boot.

For reference, most of what you’d find on the stationery floor in Loft was also available across three or four floors in Hands — minus the people. An easy way to pick up many of the gel pens, stickers, notebooks, and stationery — including Traveler’s and Plotter if you are so inclined. Fountain pens, yes, and a decent array of Pilot CH 912 nib variations if you were in the market.

Checkout: To be honest, I can’t quite remember, though a good few gel pens, the Zebra Clickart markers, and numerous stickers. A nice addition to the purchases was the Zebra bLen multi-pen, which I picked up in the 2 pen + pencil version. Interestingly I didn’t see many Energels around.

Verdict: Your friendly department store (with a wonderful array of stationery and other items) likely kept a secret by the locals so they can avoid the tourist crowds, yet still have just about everything available. We loved our local Shibuya store; however, others were just as impressive, and I picked up a great Apple Watch band at the store in Shinjuku. Definitely worth a look inside when you pass one.

Honourable mentions

7-Eleven — there are more Campus notebooks around Tokyo than I’ve ever seen, and you can easily pick one up at most 7-Eleven stores, along with a reasonable selection of gel pens.

Muji — I didn’t buy anything this trip, however, always good for some stationery basics and great paper in the notebooks.

Kiddyland — Jetstream x Miffy anyone? That and a lot more in here. Release your inner child. You won’t be sorry.

Starbucks — another Campus notebook collab in most neighbourhood stores, a lovely sakura design given they were beginning to blossom during our stay.

I’d also highly recommend travelling with a notebook of some sort, as many of the train stations have their own unique stamps which can be fun to collect along the way. Not to be confused with Goshuin shrine and temple stamps — for these you’ll need a specific notebook, or they can also be obtained on a loose-leaf sheet of paper. More details here.

No regrets, but perhaps I could have…

Taken more photos of the actual stores, although they will certainly live vividly in my mind. Pictures do speak louder than words. It would have been nice to provide you with some more here. Truth be told, I just don’t think to do it much when I’m deep in discovery or purchasing mode. I’m also a much happier explorer when I’m not thinking “I must take a photo of this for the blog”. In any event, I’m sure you’ll find things covered far better and in more detail elsewhere.

Spent more time buried in fountain pens and been more bullish on seeking those smaller boutique stores and manufacturers. Maybe, maybe not. I needed to get to the more well-known places to see for myself, and I’m certainly happy with what I ended up seeing and buying.

Visited in the summer of 2025, when the Plotter Flagship store opens in Harajuku.

Picked up a Zento in any of the other 3 variants — fool! (We all knew that one was coming, right?)

Signing Off

Glancing through my photos and the stationery items I’ve returned with brings a smile to my face. Sure, as with many trips, you could stay a month and still not get to everything. I had a pretty big list of saved stationery locations before we started, and I certainly didn’t get to them all, however somehow came back feeling as though I’d seen everything I wanted to. Perhaps when what you do see is so amazing, that’s how things turn out in your mind.

My advice? Do a bit of research, save all the locations before you go, and simply immerse yourself in whichever ones you make it to — they’re all fabulous. I don’t think you need to be overly strict or obsessed in finding every possible store, particularly on a family holiday anyway. Of course, that is just the opinion of someone who has been fortunate enough to go, and enjoyed every second.

It’s probably also worth noting that this trip was also about 5% stationery and 95% family fun times, which resulted in one of the most memorable trips I’ve taken. There really is nothing like getting out and walking around. Things are best summed up in the Editor’s Note from the Traveler’s Times I picked up at Traveler’s HQ:

There are many things that are being left behind because of the prioritisation of economic efficiency. However, Tokyo’s charm is hidden in places that might otherwise be lost.

If a trip to Tokyo is something you wish to do, then I hope you get there one day. It’s a fabulous place — stationery goals achieved or not.