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Japan's Paper Culture

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Re: Japan's Paper Culture

#131

Post by criddell »

MomoXenosaga wrote: post #121
beermonster wrote: post #78

I should really buy something from jet pens. Not sure how how expensive they are for non-US international orders but I’ll have to check. It could potentially add quite a mark-up to a cheaper item such as the sampler packs someone else mentioned. But those packs look GREAT. You should check out the rest of their posts/articles. I’ve ended up on them before when trying to find out the difference in the types of inks an…

I struggle to think of any moment in someone's daily life where they have to write something down. You'd have to make an active decision to make your life more complicated! I noticed that even my mom who is 66 years old has terrible handwriting while it used to be quite pretty.

I don't want to alarm you, but changes in handwriting are something that's worth discussing with your doctor, especially as you age.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/978111954448...

Re: Japan's Paper Culture

#132

Post by yurishimo »

bmitc wrote: post #61
xt00 wrote: post #11

If you go to Japan, check out a place called Tokyu Hands.. tons of paper notebooks, pens, pencils, pencil organizer pouches, tons of awesome stuff..

Muji has several stores in the U.S. and ships within the U.S., and they have really good paper, notebooks, and pens.

Kinokuniya[0] has plenty of locations in the US if you're around a major city. The one nearest to me is a small shop within an asian grocery store, but the selection seemed pretty good for how small the store was.

0: https://usa.kinokuniya.com/

Re: Japan's Paper Culture

#133

Post by olah_1 »

> YAMAMOTO PAPER told us that they believe paper selection will be more limited in the near future as manufacturing becomes more streamlined and people move to digital tools. Their hope is that people will get to know Japanese paper culture as it is now before it permanently changes.

Do Japanese paper companies make much use of recycled paper?

Re: Japan's Paper Culture

#134

Post by kixiQu »

dan-robertson wrote: post #85

For a slightly contrarian opinion: I just use printer-paper (for a laser printer). It works fine with ballpoint or fountain pens (some notebook papers don’t work well with fountain pens and people think they need special expensive paper). Obviously it doesn’t come in a neat book. I just used plastic document sleeves for the first level of organisation (one could then view more than two pages at once too) and box file…

I also use laser paper for my fountain pen scratch stuff! The premium laser stuff has a nice enough surface, but it's quite thick/heavy once you get multiple sheets together. The benefit for the special expensive paper is that you can have the same nice usable writing surface, but many, many, many more sheets in something thin and light enough to carry around (as in a notebook) or mail (as in letter paper). One big difference between Japanese and non-Asian paper cultures that I've found is that there's much less loyalty in Japan to the [brick-like codex aesthetic], so there's more design consideration placed into keeping things convenient to carry around -- textbooks split into thin volumes, notebooks tending toward copybook length even when of luxurious quality, etc. (Also may have something to do with diff. writing system facilitating info density on pages, etc. but that would need more expertise to weigh in on) If you're working at a desk, all that doesn't matter, and it sounds like you have a great system for your setup.

[brick-like codex aesthetic]: https://www.nerdforge.academy/fantasy-bookbinding-course , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_Wor...

Re: Japan's Paper Culture

#135

Post by beermonster »

sheppard wrote: post #119
beermonster wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a shame. I got through to payment and I am presented with ‘Due to recent changes in United Kingdom's tax laws, we can only accept orders over $200 USD to the United Kingdom at this time.’ Wonder what recent tax law changes they’re referring to?

It's to do with the recent changes to VAT e-commerce rules: https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/ioss_en

Thanks!

Re: Japan's Paper Culture

#136

Post by GuB-42 »

Stationary from Japan is really something else. Notebooks, pens, scissors, etc... They feel great, look great. Even the cheap stuff you get from convenience stores is nice.

Many innovative pens and art supply you can find in the west came from Japan too.

Re: Japan's Paper Culture

#137

Post by rayiner »

unmole wrote: post #117
rayiner wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hong Kong was long a British colony. Taiwan and Singapore are tiny island nations, with founding generations small enough to retool the culture and institutions. The founder of modern Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, was deliberate about reshaping the country’s culture because he was adamant that “culture is destiny.” https://paulbacon.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/zakaria_lee.pd...

And Japan is an American protectorate whose constitution was written by foreigners. So, what?

So was Afghanistan. But a short duration of military dominance and writing words in paper can’t change the culture of the people. Colonization, as with Hong Kong, or a generation of top-down rule over a small population, as with Taiwan and Singapore, can. Again, read Yew. He was deliberate and methodical about all this, and has written and spoken widely about what he did to transform Singapore.

Re: Japan's Paper Culture

#138

Post by woolion »

dan-robertson wrote: post #85

For a slightly contrarian opinion: I just use printer-paper (for a laser printer). It works fine with ballpoint or fountain pens (some notebook papers don’t work well with fountain pens and people think they need special expensive paper). Obviously it doesn’t come in a neat book. I just used plastic document sleeves for the first level of organisation (one could then view more than two pages at once too) and box file…

I'm a big fan of Feng Zhu, and he often recalls asking his class "how many of you have a Moleskine notebook? Almost all raise hands. How many of you have filled them? And almost nobody raise their hands. So, just take a stack of printer paper, staple it, and that will be your notebook". With great paper comes great expectations, and that prevents you from using it. I was gifted a Moleskine notebook, tried to make a drawing on one page, it was pretty bad, and I never opened it again. I got the cheapest work notebook, and I actually filled it with great city drawings during my travels, interspersed with some ideas about probabilistic descriptive complexity and other stuff I was working on.

Re: Japan's Paper Culture

#139

Post by whoevercares »

eru wrote: post #63
moogleii wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree constraints can generate creativity, but is there evidence that constraints generate more of it? It seems like no. This is all difficult to quantify, but if I were to attempt to paraphrase history and try to quantify anyway, at least from a Western perspective, it seems like the cultural output of free "Westernized" countries vastly exceeds those from restricted places (Russia, China, etc), or it could simply…

> Granted it was the olden times, so there were more things to be discovered, but it seemed like China back in the day was on a roll (off the top of my head, movable type, paper, matcha, bonsai, porcelain, celadon, silk, gunpowder) You seem to be throwing together all of pre-PRC China into one big blender? There have been lots of different dynasties and long stretches when China was not unified. Many of these dynasti…

Well even in PRC it’s widely recognized that we saw a boom of high quality cultural work in early 90s - peak of Chinese rock band, movies from the fifth generation Chinese directors, mainland/HK/Taiwan music. This time coincide with the time CCP’s control is loosen

Re: Japan's Paper Culture

#140

Post by chupy »

criddell wrote: post #131
MomoXenosaga wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I struggle to think of any moment in someone's daily life where they have to write something down. You'd have to make an active decision to make your life more complicated! I noticed that even my mom who is 66 years old has terrible handwriting while it used to be quite pretty.

I don't want to alarm you, but changes in handwriting are something that's worth discussing with your doctor, especially as you age. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/978111954448...

Is it not also true that if you do not practice at all this skill you lose it?
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