Zebra Airfit Japan

It's sort of sad...I found this pen under my workbench in a box that I haven't gotten around to sorting or going through yet. Sad, because I have far too many boxes of pens stashed away that I need to get to.  I picked this thing up in the airport in Japan the end of last year and thought "Hey, this would be a good pen to review." and well, here we are.

I have seen other versions of this on Jetpens and around the different reviewers, but I never saw this version before. The colors and design are right in my wheelhouse.  The "JAPAN" on the clip seems a little touristy to me, but I don't mind it (and it was in an airport... so...)

So apparently,  this was 540 YEN which in today's dollars is under 5 bucks.  Good deal!  Whenever I pen shop in Japan it feels like fake dollars anyway. It's kinda like Monopoly money and I refuse to go into the higher end pen stores unless I am looking for something in particular.  I went back through my photos and dug this up from one of my trips:

This photo was taken INSIDE a Japanese version of a 7-11. It's sort of pen heaven. " Oh, hey, let me go and buy a coffee, sushi  AND a shit ton of amazing pens."  It's an issue for me.  My last trip, the Frixions were everywhere. And I bought them,

This thing is very similar in size and weight of a G-2 pro but the guts are completely different. Big pen, smaller tank of ink. 

The refills are not what I thought they would be and my Sarasa refills do not even come close to fitting.  I need to do some research to see if I can get better refills for this. It's middle of the road for me in terms of writing quality.... Not as dark as I would like it,  but the .5 is thin enough to make up for it. I swear all these .38 gel pens spoil me now. 

See,  sort of ball-pointy, more than Gell-y.  Bottom line,  I like the feel of it and I will probably throw it in my travel bag.  I don't see this one going into my daily rotation, just simply because of the ink,  but in a pinch, it's a solid pen. You can get a very similar version of this on Jetpens here if you so desire and crap! I just saw that they also make a mechanical pencil version of this.  Awesome.  I need to shop. 

Feeling the need for a fountain pen review or two,  let me look through my boxes....

S

Shinola Medium Hard Linen Journal

I have known about the Shinola for a few years but I didn't know that they made journals...I knew them for watches and leather goods and then they added bikes and other things to take my money and I kinda lost touch with them a few years ago.  Their story is a good one, they wanted to bring jobs to Detroit with American goods and I admire that idea... I happened to stop into my local art store I found this little A5 screaming to me to purchase it. 

I use a journal for my work/life to do's (not a "Dear Diary"kind of thing) and an A5 usually lasts me about 6 months until I get bored with it or find another one that I like. For me, filling a journal is rare and I am pretty sure if I stacked all of my journals in my house into a single pile, they would be taller than the average human. Someday I will test that out. Not today, I have laundry to fold...

My demands for a journal are simple: I prefer lined paper, a hard cover, as close to non-bleedy as possible just in case I do grab an EF fountain pen- and an A5 is usually right in my sweet spot to keep it portable for travel. As much as I love technology, I force myself to use a journal to keep my pen desires active. From a check box standpoint, this one hits all the major points. Picadilly is one of the other brands that I buy, mainly because Barnes and Nobles sells them cheap.  Although after a few trips, the Picadilly's tend to start showing wear. This one has been to Japan once and 3 trips across the country and looks almost brand new. 

I wasn't lying about the lined part. That's mandatory for me. I tried dots and plain paper and none of them keep my writing organized enough. By organized, I mean that can't achieve the  higher OCD levels that I have of writing in a straight line. No surprises here...Cream paper and divider, there is a nice nice pocket on the back and a page saver (which I almost always cut off.)  

The Sarasa (.4) works incredibly awesome here (no surprises) and so does the Pilot loaded up with some Noodlers Black. I think the journal was around $22 bucks or so. For an A5 is a little on the high end, but worth it. They make these in tons of fun colors (I chose black as a fun color.)    The Shinola page tells me the paper weight is 60 LB. with 192 pages that are acid free and archival quality. The Smyth sewn binding allows it to lie flat.  They make leather covers for these, but they are $195 and I need a new squash racquet, so that's not going to happen anytime soon. Anyway,  Nice journal, 8.5 out of 10 for me.

P.S. I am once again moving stuff around on the website,  Ignore all the dead links as I get sorted. Thanks- S-

Pen of the Day

Some days,  I try to stick with a pen or two rather than reaching into the pen cup for a new option every 5 minutes.  When I reach in the pen cup I can get EASILY distracted by a fountain pen that needs cleaning or spend 4 minutes sad with the pen choice that I made.  So grabbing a pen and sticking with it helps keep me focused a bit (P.C.P... Pen Choice Problems.) So,  this morning I reached in, grabbed an old Pilot Precise V5 Extra fine and was amazed that around noon eastern, I was still pretty happy with my choice.

When I popped over to Jetpens and Amazon and saw that they still sell these.  Pretty much with the same label.  By the way, Jetpens tells me that this is made from 89.2% recycled material and refills are available (so, why do I own so many of these?)

There's some ink creep on that needlepoint. (said no cool guy ever.) I probably have a dozen or so of these kicking around but I usually reach for the smaller points (.38 or .44) but for some reason,  I can still get away with this in my notebooks and am happy with the dark ink and for me it dries fast enough.   

Look,  I get it,  I know around 12:30 I will once again reach over into this mess (below) and forget about the V5 in a heartbeat.  But,  I still like this pen.

I should go through this

Here's where my hand goes by instinct whenever I need to write something.  I only stab myself with the dip pen 3 or 4 times a day.

The irony here is thick. (or it's not) Anyway,  I might do this again tomorrow. I miss you crazy people and thanks for all the readers that still ping me. You guys rock. 

S-