Don't know what I love more - the walk arounds in Japan, the gorgeous inks, or the engrossing way in which you present them. Gimme more!

Woohoo! The Tokyo Ink Saga has begun. Your trip was far more stationery store intensive than mine was... super excited to see all your discoveries. Thank you for sharing!

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

My trip was a lot less stationery store intensive that I'd have liked, but still pretty good :-) Hope you found some good stuff anyway!

Ink-based travelogues like these are what make the Internet a great place. No - thank YOU! I'm glad you weren't traveling alone. It's depressing to see or experience something incredible, exclaim, "Did you see that, too?" - then remember you're alone. 😢 Best wishes from Vermont 🍁

I am astonished at how different the same ink can look on different paper. I know this can happen, but with the inks in this video the variations were extreme!

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

Yes, this was a pretty unusual collection of inks in that at least a couple of them were very different on Iroful (also on Tomoe River, though not shown in the video). That's why I test on so many papers 🙂

Another beautiful video - thank you. The colour variations for the same ink between different types of paper are really jaw-dropping. And I LOVE that there is a Japanese word or phrase that means both 'devotion' and 'heart trouble'.

So glad to see this new Japan series! Thanks for sharing your travels with us.

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

Thanks for following along! Hope you enjoy the videos 🙂

@yuklimka7251

Ай бұрын

It's such an amazing second round. I recommended last year's series to someone who was looking for info before their trip to Japan.

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

@@yuklimka7251 I hope that this second series matches the usefulness of the first, when it's all finished! :-)

@yuklimka7251

Ай бұрын

​@@thewetpen I just subscribed. And belated congratulations on the launch of your inks. I'll be watching the remainder of this series while taking notes.

Looking forward to more of this trip.

I'm always so happy when I see you've made another trip to Japan! These videos are even more exciting than the annual Christmas Diamine Inkvent videos! haha. Thank you so much for taking the time to show us all of the awesome inks you brought home with you.

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoy them 🙂

Hi, Matt! Looking forward to the rest of the series and to hearing more about your inks!

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

Thanks! Shouldn't be too long now before I have the new ones all ready.

Great Google Maps list! Tokyo is so deep.

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

Thanks! At one point, I started adding pen shops to it as well... but there were just so many, the whole thing became a mess. Maybe I'll add some favorites in the future, though.

@buck-pucker

Ай бұрын

@@thewetpen Sounds good!

thank you so much for sharing your Ink Map! my family plans to go on Japan next September, and I'm saving up money to buy atleast 1 pen and an exclusive ink or two to take home. I've been binging the videos you've made a year ago to take some knowledge when the time comes, and to have a new series come up is great timing!! safe travels to you!

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

Hope that the map is helpful! I'm going to add some of my favorite pen shops at some point, too... but there's no shortage of pen shops in Japan 🙂

This is great, thank you!! Thanks also for the incredible map and all the effort that went into creating it!

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

No problem :-) Hope that the map is helpful for you!

That ink store map is gold🌟! You videos are so original and I love seeing the swatches on all the different papers. Makes me want to expand my own swatching. Can’t wait for the next videos and inks.😊

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

Thank you :-) My series last year was maybe 6 or 7 videos, but this one could end up being even longer... we'll have to see whether I run out of patience for it, though :-)

The Sailor Eslite green is basically a variant of Sailor Shikiori Rikyucha. It a color Sailor has produced over 6or 7 times for various shops. All with subtle differences. I love this color ink. The stationery station ink reminds me of Sailor”s 2nd line of Yurameku inks. Thr “Gokoro” inks. The Kobe/Taiwan colab. ink is fascinating…since Sailor makes Kobe inks, and Kobe made it for this shop, interesting!

@ruths_youth

Ай бұрын

Same. Every time they remake this color I want another bottle. 😅

When I see a new video from the Wet Pen, I just HAVE TO WATCH. 👌

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

Thanks, Noah! Glad you're enjoying them 🙂

YES!! the video we've been waiting for!

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

I think that these videos should get better as I go along... it always takes me a while to settle in to making these 🙂

I am amazed how many different shades and color you get with the different cards. I really like the Sailor vase bottles. Pity they are not readily available. I am also very happy to see the different places in Tokyo. It reminds me of the time I visited and noticed a lot of changes in the landscape, yet still very familiar, if that makes any sense.

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

It amazes me how different Tokyo can look even when not much has really changed... depending on the season and the weather, the whole personality of the place can change. I suppose that's true of any city, but I really notice it there 🙂

This video was such a joy to come home from work to! You are one of a kind Matt! Thank you for bringing us along!

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

Thanks Dustin! I'm hoping that I can make more than one of these per week, or else I'll be making them throughout the whole summer about this one trip... but we'll see what I can manage :-)

Beautiful trip. maybe one day I could visit Japan.

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

It's definitely worth a visit, and with the US dollar exchange rate, it's an inexpensive time to visit, too!

walking into these stores feels like a theraphy

Great video thanks for sharing I envy you 😊

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

Thanks!

Hey Matthew! This was such a fun video! Thanks for taking us along for the ride. I was worried I had missed some videos because I've been swamped with work but happy to discover I wasn't as far behind as I thought. Love your content as always. Such cool finds! Fascinating inks & swatches - especially Devotion /Heart Trouble. Looking forward to the next! 😊 Oh and glad you & Chris made it through the interrogation! 😂

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

I've also been swamped with work (and catching up after the trip), so I have been slow getting to these :-) Those interrogations were brutal. Chris will never be the same.

@roxiesossa3210

Ай бұрын

@@thewetpen🤣Good stuff🤣 Glad you're back!

We're so spoiled to be getting a second series. I can't wait for the rest

I'll be travelling to Japan within the next couple of years and your videos are a real resource for me. Thanks!

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

I hope they turn out to be useful! :-) Good luck in your travels, when the time comes.

I can’t wait for the rest of this series. That 1st sailor ink from eslite was stunning.

Excellent video and thank you so much for the map links.

So happy to see part 1 of your Return to Japan ink pilgrimage. Thanks got the Google map. I’ll have to try a few more. Bungubox’s new location is a nice short walk from Tokyo’s antiquarian bookstore neighborhood of Kanda-Jimbocho. Well worth exploring on your next trip even if just window shopping. Maybe you’ve already been there…. Thanks again for the great video. You have me several destinations to plan on checking out.

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

Glad it's coming in useful :-) I didn't get a chance to visit the Kanda-Jonbocho area this time, though I've read about it and it's definitely on my list. I did visit some interesting and unusual places on this trip, but I'm going to have to go back for at least another month or two.

@AndrewWertheimer

Ай бұрын

@@thewetpen I really think that the best way to enjoy Japan is to go off the beaten path and to see little places where you can feel the uniqueness and little restaurants in an alley or cute neighborhood kissaten or izakaya rather than be in line with hundreds of tourists so your quest made a perfect plan.

Hi Matthew! I’ve been waiting for this video anxiously. Figured you have been busy with work. Thank you thank you for the guide for the shops! I need it for my trip next year. I watched your old videos and took notes on those places. I’m dedicating one suitcase for Japan stuff to bring home…lol! Actually my goal is to see some hard to find fountain pens. That blue Platinum #3776 pen is on my wishlist…you picked some great ink colors. That store with the inks from Taiwan is much appreciated also. That was great you got to go with your good friend. Super cute all the little kids were asking you questions. Thanks for taking the time to make a videos of Japan! It will help in trip planning. Take care!

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

Hi Arlene... glad you enjoyed the video :-) When I flew, I was on ANA, and the ticket includes two 50lb (or 23kg) suitcases... but I found that the best option for me was to take one hard-sided suitcase (only about half full... it's easiest to travel light for as long as possible), which I filled with ink and such as I went along. But since ink bottles are so heavy, it didn't take that long before I crossed the 50lb mark, so I also brought along a compact, packable duffel bag, and when I got to the airport to fly home, I moved my clothes into the soft bag to split the weight and kept all of the fragile stuff in the hard suitcase (with bubble wrap and ziplock bags). Have fun in Japan!

@arlenet.1520

Ай бұрын

@@thewetpenI always enjoy and appreciate your videos. Thank you so much for the response with extra tips. Have a great rest of the week!

This is incredible, thank you for this video! Eagerly waiting for part 2! I will be going to Tokyo this summer and will definitely refer to your videos for inspiration!

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

Thanks :-) I've just about finished part 2, but it's going to be slightly delayed because I've got a bit of a cold. Maybe later this week or early next. Don't forget to checkout the map!

Thank you for bringing us along with you!

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

The pleasure is all mine 🙂

Yippeee! More fantastic videos of Japan and inks. 🤤. Hope you are recuperating well from the trip, and we'll be patient for your next videos. Thanks so much.

You are such a great source of info on these inks! And it's worth watching to see how drastic the dried inks vary in color between the swatch brands. I want to buy the Iroful swatch cards and redo all my inks now.

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

Thanks :-) The Iroful paper behaves similar to Cosmo Air Light and Tomoe River, when it comes to color, usually... I might start adding Tomoe River swatch cards into the mix here, too. Fwiw, all of these swatch cards except for the Col O Ring are home-made with my favorite papers... I have an old video about making them here : kzread.info/dash/bejne/nXxhppWnac66k5s.html

saved as reference for my trip to japan :3 thank youuu

These videos are amazing

Great video 👍🏼. I am extremely surprised at the huge differences between the same inks on different papers.

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

Yes... there are often some noticeable differences between papers, but differences as dramatic as these are pretty rare! But of course, this is why I swatch on so many different papers 🙂

Thank you for a lovely video.

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

My pleasure! Thanks for taking the time to watch it 🙂

I appreciate your inspiring video! Next time in Japan, I will try to do some exclusive pen ink shopping too! Seeing the variations in the color range is both relaxing and fascinating ;)

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

Thanks Ana :-) For me, it's a great way to get out of the normal flow of tourist activities and go find things and meet people that I wouldn't otherwise. And there's some fun ink to be found 🙂

Clouds and rain...tee-hee.

I bookmarked every store mentioned 😅

Thanks for the vid! Could you use the next one soon, only have 3 more days in Tokyo!

Amazing! Although I'm also very interested in how did you package your inks on the trip back :). If I ever go I'll be sure to use your map thanks!

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

Pretty easy... these bottles are tough. I brought a length of bubble wrap along, just in case, and wrapped some of the boxes of ink together, and I put the bottles in some sturdy ziplock bags, just in case. These were all packed in the lid-side of my hard-sided suitcase (which I moved all of the clothes out of into a soft duffel bag, to make the airline weight limit). 🙂

Hey Matthew, I love the Tokyo series and am sooo tempted to ask you to get all the inks for me tooo ;) … I am in the Seattle area and would love to be a part of pen meetup to socialize with fellow pen collectors … any pointers would be helpful … waiting for the rest of the videos in the series …

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

I wish that I had had the luggage space to bring back inks for people... but of course, I probably would have just used the space to buy more inks. There is actually a Seattle fountain pen club, although I have never visited it myself, being somewhat solitary by choice, myself :-) There's also an official Seattle Pen Club KZread channel... kzread.info/dron/3ga5j9u7pAUQ06cl8ujRLQ.html

I admire your buying discipline; I’d approach everything you filmed like a pastry junkie at fine French bakery. That shading light brown and proprietary Sailor green were lovely. Anything new from Wet Pen inks in the works?

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

It was hard to not buy too much (and I frequently did). What I didn't realize before these trips to Japan is that ink bottles are actually very heavy... about a half pound each for most of the 50ml bottles... so almost every time I stopped in a pen shop, I was adding at least another pound to the weight of my suitcase. Not bad at first, but I quickly had an extra 10 pounds in an already heavy bag. This ended up being a bigger deterrent than space or cost, since I had to carry my suitcase up so many sets of stairs to get in and out of the subways and train platforms, etc. Anyway, my own inks are coming along... I have a few new colors that are simple but boring, so I'm working on making them more interesting. It's still hard for me to predict dye reactions, so progress is slow unless I stick with very typical stuff.

@edwardrutledge2765

Ай бұрын

@@thewetpen …we await your non typical creations. Getting back to Japan, TAG Stationery will sell to U.S. customers, they charge a flat DHL or equivalent transit cost, but their kyo-no-oto inks are much less $$ than buying here. My question; do you know of proprietary TAG inks that might be worth adding to the next TAG ink order? How about other Japanese shops that’ll honor online buying for U.S. ink delivery?

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

@@edwardrutledge2765 I haven't done much in the way of ordering from Japan... it's hard to make up the cost of shipping with lower prices when it comes to ink, though easier with pens. Tag inks are about $20 here and $10 in Japan, so more than a couple of bottles would probably be worth it. Generally, the proprietary inks are not available online, or if they are, it's only from the partner website... Shoseikan, for example, offers their Tag ink on their website, but I don't see it on the Tag site. You might want to try pen-house.net for ink... their Pent inks are good (Sailor), and they also sell other Japanese inks.... 50ml Pilot Iroshizuku bottles are currently about $9.50 each.

Anyone else notice the tomoegawa tomoe river paper pad?

This is really cool. I am wondering though - how do you know which inks are store exclusives and which are not? Does it say on the bottle/box?

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

Part of the way that I know is by knowing all of the inks that are NOT exclusive (I'm pretty familiar with the standard lines of ink from the major brands), so when I see something new, it stands out... but yes, most of the store exclusive inks are identified in the shops with the English word "Original" on the label somewhere. So, for example, if you look at the website of the Stationery Station, their listings look like: "STAs original Bottle 40ml TAG STATIONERY 4th piece -Yonmaime-"

@cuptea4me

Ай бұрын

@@thewetpen That is really good to know - thanks for the explanation!

I was starting on making my own watercolors, and my current experiments in ink got me experimenting with mixing inks. I'm curious to know how you'd go about making your own ink (like how you get the dyes, mixing ratios, do you use additives to the water, etc)

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

There's no simple answer to this question, unfortunately... there are lots of different recipes for fountain pen inks, and most of them are pretty closely guarded secrets (including mine). In general, dye fountain pen ink is : water, dye, surfactant, humectant, and often a biocide or two, but then there are other chemicals required depending on the dye used (some are only stable at certain pH levels, and it's all different for iron gall inks and other reactive dyes). I'm only a novice myself, so I don't know all the details, but most of the dyes used for fountain pen inks are acid dyes, and you'd get them from commercial dye suppliers, but you don't want dyes that are pre-mixed for dying cloth and also contain various salts and components to make them stain... just pure dye. Good luck!

@stormycatmink

Ай бұрын

@@thewetpen Sounds fairly similar to watercolor, save dye rather than pigment, and no gum arabic. But also a little more complex in balancing the dye chemistry. Pigments are (usually) simpler, since they're just particles suspended, rather than chemicals mixed in. Watercolors are basically water, gum arabic, surfactant (to taste) humectant, biocides, and often some polymerizers and lubricants, as well as .. I forget the term, but stuff that causes colloids to clump a bit. Most of those also to taste. And finally, the pigments. So much of it is dependent on the precise qualities you're looking for in the behavior of the watercolor.. only recipes seem to be more widely shared than inks.

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

@@stormycatmink Yes, does sound pretty similar. You can look up old patents and current datasheets for inks to get an idea of proportions and components, and it's not too hard to work from there.

I've been to Japan many times but I've never sought out exclusive inks like this. The Sailor vase bottles are the same as, what is probably my rarest ink, Pen Land Cafe "Utsurigi" from Nagoya, made for them by Sailor. That was going on 10 years ago. I wonder if Pen Land Cafe is still in business? The internet doesn't seem to have any recent info.

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

If you look up my Japan series from last year and my visit to Nagoya, you'll get an answer :-) Pen Land Cafe is still running, but there's no Cafe, now... just a pen shop. I didn't make it to Nagoya this time.

@r.w.sinclair8363

Ай бұрын

@@thewetpen Cool. I just learned about your channel and have subscribed. Looking forward to catching up!

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

@@r.w.sinclair8363 I didn't make a very good ink choice, there, but they had a really nice collection of inks in vase bottles, even last year. Very cool.

Try DAYTONE indian ink that has good price to performance ratio and has lot more colour option

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

I have 15 of the Daytone Extra Fine inks, and will make a video about them at some point in the future, too!

Nice to see you back with another video! ❤

@thewetpen

Ай бұрын

One of my next two videos (not sure which I'll finish first) will be about an Indian fountain pen... and then I have another Indian pen to review, and then I have 5 more coming in the mail (I hope). So hopefully I'll be able to work all of them in while I'm making this Japan series, so that everyone doesn't have to wait!

@kkkall02

Ай бұрын

@@thewetpen that's wonderful news for your Indian fans including me as well. Waiting for the upcoming videos eagerly!