Hello world! It is the blog How Unique Japan. We always share the features of Japan.
What comes today?
As you might know, Japan has unique and various products. Daily necessities, kitchen supplies, and stationery are no exception.
The last one is varied and would make your job or homework fun because it is good quality and sometimes funny.
So today, we will talk about some unique and popular stationery.
The Sharp Pencil (mechanical pencil)
Today, that writing instrument has become famous worldwide. This invention originated in the US around 1830 AD and was initially called the mechanical pencil.
After 1960, a Japanese company developed that pencil (and changed the name to Sharp pencil). It has a new system to knock a new pencil lead out.
Additionally, we have the option to select the width of the lead. It was a significant change because of the Japanese characters/letters.
We have an original language. Hiragana and Katakana are those. Additionally, we still use the Chinese characters Kanji.
Some Kanjis are complicated. We sometimes need to manage the left space of paper to write some perplexed characters due to the number of strokes.
Before the new mechanical pencil and sharp pen, we had only 1 mm width of the pencil lead.
It was a problem when someone with a perplexing name needed to write it down their name.
Yes. The old one with a 1 mm width lead is too thick.
Thus, the new invention contains variable widths. We now commonly have sizes of 0.3 mm, 0.5 mm, 0.7 mm, 0.9 mm, and 1.3 mm available.
Please wait. The invention of mechanical pencils is still ongoing.
Look at the picture.
It is called the Rocket Pencil.
So, for the sharp pencil, we already said we needed to knock the new pencil lead out when the previous area got dull.
However (for the rocket pencil), we can pick the old lead from the tip because each lead is separated by a small plastic body formed like a bullet. Then, we need to reload the old one from a hole in the end (bottom) of the pencil. So, a new bullet (pencil lead) comes out by pushing.
It looks cool.
Besides, this style has potential. Look at another photo.
It is a colored pencil that can stock various colored leads on its body. So, just one pencil can contain many different colors.
However, they have two tragic disadvantages.
First, it is surprisingly easy to lose each lead. If it happens, we will need
to push the new one out with thin things like a toothpick.
Not yet. It is tough to buy the extra leads of the rocket pencil because many stationary shops have the pencil but not such unique bullets.
Second, if we compare the two pencils (the sharp pencil and the rocket one), the cooler one has a ridiculously worse cost performance than the sharp pencil. Because some users would quickly reload to the new bullet when the previous one became dull.
So, a sharp pencil is still on the way to being better.
BTW, Japan has various colored pens.
One company produces over 180th variation. Awesome.
What is the next stationary item?
The Erasers
The eraser should be white and rectangle.
However, the Japanese one is something more. Look at the pictures.
It looks like delicious sushi!
But wait! They are the Erasers. (The green teas are also them.)
Yep, Japan has several styles. As you can see, they are sushi erasers.
On the other hand, we also have vehicles (cars, motorcycles, or airplanes), flowers, base/soccer balls, animals, and anime character shapes.
In simple terms, we can say that anything is possible.
Unbelievably, some erasers have various flavored smells – for example, vanilla, rose, or flute. Please do not try to eat.
It is a bit strange.
The Pen Case
Finally, we can discuss the unforgettable item: the pen case. This item helps us carry all kinds of stationery, including pencils, erasers, rulers, measuring tools, and sharpeners.
Wow. We were surprised by the amount of items needed for writing and completing homework.
OK. Why not combine them all into a pencil case? Yep. It is the Japanese mind to mix some other things (like religions).
So, some pencil cases consisted of several stationary. We call those the Multifunctional pencil case.
Surprisingly, some unique ones have all the equipment we said (rulers, measures, sharpeners). They are usually set into the case with buttons.
The Japanese kid loved those. It is cool. We can press a button to hop the item inside out of the case.
Umm. It is like a hero gadget.
If you plan to travel to Japan, these could be great souvenirs for your friends (for kids).
To close
As you may know, here are a few examples of stationery.
If you plan to travel to Japan, we recommend putting the schedule you are in a Japanese stationary shop.
It could be fun!
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We now have four categories: Japanese lifestyle, food, the Edo era, and religion.
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