Traveler's Times Issue 10 [Translated - Part 1]

           "Before you start:

- As we are not a professional nor certified translator, we are here to share our little bit of Japanese language knowledge and we hope we could help non-Japanese to understand more about Traveler's Notebook and Traveler's Times.

- Please forgive our not so well trained English/ grammar error.

- Despite heavy work load, we have put in many effort into this. We hope you can credit back to us whenever you share this post. Thank you :)"

Yen Fong & Lee Ming, Tabiyo Shop from Malaysia

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I like the little shop that can meet the owner in person, the shop that reflects the unique ambience of the local neighborhood, personality, and interest, and with products and space that full of love. That kind of shops, has usually taken rooted, and warmly welcome travelers. Both daily life of the local people and non-daily life of travelers mixed together pleasantly, that creates unique atmosphere. I would like to introduce some little shops in the world where you can find Traveler’s Notebook. If you have a chance to visit those places, please visit them.

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Tools To Liveby (Taipei, Taiwan)

In Taiwan, you cannot miss those cheap and delicious street food such as braised pork rice, dumpling (xiao long bao), mango ice and bubble tea. It is enjoyable to eat while walking around the streets, to explore some nice and small shops that have been growing in recent years.

As you walked into Anhe Road from the main street of the central part of Taipei city, it turns into a completely different atmosphere. Away from the lively and bustling street, walking through the quiet and calm residential area, you would find the garage of the little shop is under renovation.

When peeking into the inner part of the opened entrance where there is an antique letterpress printing machine, you could see stationery are lining up on the beautiful bookshelf and vintage table with rugged texture. The owner of the shop, Karen, also a designer, has been a stationery lover for a long time and finally launched the business with her friends.

The products line-up in the shops are based on the idea that fine and high quality tools would enrich our live such as the beautiful Germany made bottle that filled with glue; Czech Republic made pencil which gives rustic writing feel; simple and elegant Taiwan made scissor. All of them are bought from around the world by Karen.

Karen travels to many places due to her job. She came across to Traveler’s Notebook 5 years ago, now it becomes the must-have-thing for traveling. Traveler’s Notebook is just like a partner during the trip, the best place to record our memories of the trip. You can feel the love of the owner towards the Traveler’s Notebook that lined up in the shop.

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Oblation Papers and Press (Portland, Oregon, USA)

In 1988, Rich and his wife opened a paper-boutique-like shop in Portland. The original cards and notes in the shop are made by traditional manufacturing method, which you could feel the warmth of the paper.

You could find cards that letter-pressed with words quoted from lyric of rock song, notes with handmade cotton paper, almost all original products are made in Portland. Together with the original Portland made products, the paper products that collected from around the world by Rich and his wife are sold in the shop as well.

They first came across with Traveler’s Notebook in a selected shop, Merci. The appearance and texture of the cow-skin cover and paper, soon captured their attention. Then, they started looking for the way to purchase the products and tried to write comments via online to see if anyone can give a clue. However, surprisingly they got to know the way easily. This is because they met the staff from Designphil at an exhibition in New York few days later. It seems that Traveler’s Notebook became the starting point of their encounter in that trip.

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LUIBAN (Berlin, Germany)

This is about BAN and LUI, who launched their web shop in 2009. During that time, BAN was still working in a stationery shop and LUI was working as a web producer in an IT company.

Their business started getting on track as dealing in Japan made stationery such as Traveler’s Notebook. At first, they stuffed all the stock to the shelves at home. When their bedroom became fully packed with stock goods, they decided to resign their jobs and rented a warehouse as office, and started to concentrate to run the business. They have been moving for few times due to the growing of the business. Now, they are preparing to open a physical shop in Berlin.

The Traveler’s Notebook that they are using, recorded all of their business talk and ideas, how their shop is opened, what happened until now, and etc. They always bring the notebooks with them when they are traveling. Customers who come to the shop could read and feel their Traveler’s Notebook that depicts the story of them. It seems like they want people to imagine how a notebook could change a person through a notebook.

What the most appealing is Traveler’s Notebook comes in handy for any purpose or for anyone. When the customer comes here, they show us their Traveler’s Notebook and tell us about how and how long they have been using it, we could feel the notebook could tell about the personality of the owner.

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Miscellaneous (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Brigitta, the owner of the online shop started to sell Traveler’s Notebook in 2010. In 2013, a physical shop opened in Armsterdam. She selected some tools and furniture with her own unique taste in her shop that could deliver a more free and happier work life. Brigitta said that she enjoys talking to people who is using Traveler’s Notebook, meanwhile she feels even more excited to see someone that she does not know walks into the shop and explore more about Traveler’s Notebook. When the customer is trying to hold the notebook in their hands, she feels a bit jealous and happy at the same time. If you happen to go to Armsterdam, hope you will pay a visit to her shop.