Hello world! It is the blog How Unique Japan. We always share the features of Japan.
What comes today?
As you may know, Japan has a wide range of unique products. Daily necessities, kitchen supplies, and stationery are no exception.
The last one is varied and would make your job or homework more enjoyable because it is of good quality and sometimes humorous.
Indeed. For this time, we will talk about some unique and popular stationery.
The Sharp Pencil (mechanical pencil)
That writing instrument is recognized and celebrated by all around the world. 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 its name to the Sharp pencil). It has a new system. It is to knock a new pencil lead out.
Additionally, we have the option to select the width of the lead. It was a significant change due to the Japanese characters/letters.
We have an original language. Hiragana and Katakana are those. Additionally, we still use the Chinese characters, Kanji.
Some letters of Kanji are complicated.
Thus, we sometimes need to manage the left space of the paper to write some perplexing characters due to the number of strokes.
Before the advanced mechanical pencil and sharp pen, we had only a 1 mm width of pencil lead.
It was a problem when someone with a perplexing name needed to write down their name.
Yes. The old one with a one mm-width lead is too thick.
Hence, the new invention contains variable widths.
We now have sizes available in 0.3 mm, 0.5 mm, 0.7 mm, 0.9 mm, and 1.3 mm.
Please wait. The invention of mechanical pencils is still on.
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/shortened.
However, for the rocket pencil, we can pick the old lead from the tip because each lead has 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 store various colored leads on its body. So, just one pencil can contain many different colors.
But they have two tragic disadvantages.
First, we usually 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, because many stationery shops have that 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 more capable than those.
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 rectangular in shape.
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, flowers, soccer balls, animals, and anime character shapes.
In simple terms, we can say that anything is possible to be the erasers.
Surprisingly, some erasers have different scents, such as vanilla, rose, or mint. Please do not attempt to eat them.
It is a bit strange.
The Pen Case
Finally, we can discuss the unforgettable item: the pen case. This item helps us carry all stationery, including pencils, erasers, rulers, measuring tools, and sharpeners.
Wow. We were surprised by the number of items needed for writing and completing homework.
OK. Why not combine all into a pencil case? Yep. It is the Japanese mind to mix some other things (like religions).
Some pencil cases consist of several items of stationery. We call those the Multifunctional pencil case.
Surprisingly, they contain all the necessary equipment, including rulers, measuring tools, and sharpeners with buttons.
The Japanese kid loved those. It is cool. We can press a button to flip 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 are planning to travel to Japan, we recommend creating a schedule to visit a Japanese stationery shop.
It could be fun!
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