Plans Be Gone
Something I should mention that I didn’t in the first part of this series, is that we were only in Japan for one week and we ambitiously planned to visit three destinations: Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hakone. So I planned. I planned a lot. Unlike the serendipitous stumbling into interesting Japanese identity work, Japanese stationery was something I sought out. Like many of my experiences traveling, the most well laid plans turn out not be. I really should have learned that by now. Since much of our time was spent in Kyoto, and Tokyo is just so insanely big, I had planned to visit certain shops that specialized in papers and stationery while in Kyoto. The ones I found from books were probably the least exciting to me, but cool to check out nonetheless. It wasn’t until the trip progressed further that things got more interesting. Oh, and I lost that travel book on a bullet train. Best thing ever.
Paper
I enjoyed experiencing the color of the beautiful Washi (wa meaning Japanese and shi meaning paper) and learning more about this style of paper made from the gampi tree and other fibrous materials.
But, my stationery obsession came into full swing when I discovered the adorable graphic postcards and notecards for my kids that we happened upon when we were brush shopping for Daniel who does uses mostly ink and watercolor in his artwork. For what my husband does, Japan was his happy place.
Hand Lettering
In fact, each of the places we stayed had in-room stationery sets with a proper ink stick, stone, brush, and paper.
Letterpress
But perhaps the best stumble-upon happened while we were meandering down a side street in Kyoto. We had decided to skip a day trip to Nara, because we had already traveled so much and Kyoto was just really lovely. Before we arrived I had dreamed of having calling card made in Japan after having learned about the importance and significance of having business cards there. Since college I became intrigued by the custom of business cards when during an International Studies lecture at FIT my professor spoke in detail about business etiquette and the proper presentation of a business card in Japan. Anyway, I digress. For me to do what I do and for my husband to not have a business card is like the son of a dry cleaner wearing filthy clothes. The irony. So when we passed the window of this letterpress shop with this old Heidelburg in the window, we decided to come back when it opened and get the 411. Long story short, Daniel is having a card made on super fine paper and we are hoping that they show up in the next few weeks. It was fun to go through the design process with son of the owner of the shop, which has been open since the early 1950s. I hadn’t really thought about fonts as they relate to Kanji (characters used in Japanese writing) until then. I love what the three of us created together. We proofed it…let’s just say very carefully. I thought I was paranoid about proofing. This guy made us double check Daniel’s name 14 times. Loved that day. Putting myself in his shoes reminded me of a few times I’ve stared blankly at a Russian version of oil & gas brochure and just hoped that the translator was as picky as me. Ahhh, the good old days. Wink Wink.
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