Itoya is the most awesome stationary store I have ever visited, period. Everything stationary you every thought about, have seen on the internet, all in one place. The Itoya store in Ginza is actually 2 buildings separated by an alley and Tiffany’s (English floor guide). One is called G.Itoya (13 floors) and the other is K.Itoya (7 floors). The G.Itoya is the fancier of the 2 stores, more like a department store feel, with a cafe, travel, gifts, etc. The most amount of fountain pens I have ever seen in one place is on the 3rd floor. Major major sensory overload. Fountain pens I have seen on manufacturer’s websites, all in person, all in one place. Not just Japanese fountain pens either, I have never seen so many Cross pens, or really any other brand I have ever heard of in one place. I can not understate the amount of fountain pens on display here as someone who is more used to either a Mont Blanc store in a fancy mall that sells mostly lifestyle accessories or the local Staples. Also ink, lots of ink, mostly in drawers. There is also a mini Mont Blanc store on the same floor. Fancy paper has its own floorin G.Itoya, and you can customize your notebooks on the 2nd floor of K.Itoya (also get your tax back if you have foreign passport).
K.Itoya is much more like an day to day art and stationary store with ballpoint, gel, and pens of every kind, staplers, cool paper clips. It is still 6 floors of stationary supplies. Including the most complete selection of Faber-Castell artist pens, it is like everything on their website in person. Including the Graf von Faber-Castell wooden pencil. The 1st floor is pretty much all pens, the great thing is that most of them had testers.
I ended up buying 2 bottles of Pilot iroshizuku, the Tokyo Limited Edition in fukagawa-nezu which is grey, and shimbashi-iro which is a light blue teal. 50ml bottle is ¥1500 each, or you can get a set of 3 smaller 15ml bottles for ¥2100. The one I didn’t get was the de-murasaki which is more of a purple. All of the pilot iroshizuku inks had testers in Pilot clear bodied Prera fountain pens. The more expensive fountain pens were all behind counters. The ¥1,000,000 Namiki appropriately behind a glass display.
Very much worth a visit for anyone who ever thought Staples should sell less electronics and more fountain pens.
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