Today I’m going to show y’all my recent order from Tokyo Pen Shop. This was my first time ever ordering from them and I was so impressed I decided to review their shop! I will also review each of the products I got because there are several new things to test out.
I stumbled upon Tokyo Pen Shop when I was looking for the new Zebra Mildliner Brush Pens. Yeah, you heard me right. Mildliners now have a brush pen version. They’re still kind of hard to find online, but Tokyo Pen Shop had them in stock! Once I was on their site I figured I’d check out what else they had to offer, and WOAH. I got so excited going through everything and adding stuff to my cart. Their whole thing is that they stock limited edition and hard to find pens. They have a lot of things that JetPens doesn’t have. I also love that you can buy individual colors of pens instead of having to buy whole sets/packs.
Selection
For the sake of making it into a doodle I ranked them out of five stars for a few different categories(just for fun). The selection of pens is amazing. Like I said, they have a lot of hard to find pens all in one place. The only reason I took off a half a star is because there were a bit of sold out colors for different pens, but that’s probably just the nature of the pens they sell.
Shipping
I gave five stars for shipping because I ordered on Wednesday night, it was shipped Thursday, and I received it on Saturday! Of course it will depend where you live on how long it’ll take to get to you, but the fact they had it shipped the next day was great. They offer free shipping on orders over $35 and $5 flat rate on everything else. According to their website, they also offer international shipping and they list out out the different prices for each country.
I also really like how they packaged everything. It’s probably hard when people are ordering a bunch of random loose pens, but they put them all into two different pen boxes (like mixed together) which I really liked. They also felt very secure in the envelope. So I wouldn’t worry if you’re ordering something more fragile like pencils.
Website
The website itself is really easy to use and understand. I love how they break down each category of pens on the side menu so you aren’t digging through hundreds at a time. My only small complaint is for the mobile version on the site. It’s kind of hard to pick the colors for individual pens because the drop-down menu covers the picture that actually shows the colors. It’s really not a big deal and is perfectly fine on the desktop version though! One thing I like better about their site, instead of Jet Pens, is that all the colors of one pen are in one listing instead of separate listings. It’s so easy to add a few different colors to your cart at once instead of having to go back and forth to different listings.
Customer Service
So I didn’t necessarily need to “use” customer service, but I truly don’t think you would have any problems. It seems like Kimberly and Frank put so much thought and care into their shop. They’re always posting new products on Instagram. There was a handwritten thank you on my invoice and my favorite personal touch was the strawberry Hi-Chew they included in my order(y’all know I love those).
Overall
I will definitely be ordering from Tokyo Pen Shop again! They just have so many fun pens. The shipping and customer service is great. I’m just mad I didn’t know about them before!
Now onto the pens!
Zebra Mildliners Brush Pens
The reason I ordered from Tokyo Pen Shop! Have y’all seen them popping up on the internet?? I haven’t really seen anyone in the bullet journal community using them yet, but I have a feeling they’re going to be VERY POPULAR. They are available in the same colors as the regular mildliners. One end is a brush tip and the other is a fine point marker (same as regular mildliners).
I was nervous about the brush tip, but I love it! It writes similar to a Tombow dual brush, but a little smaller and maybe slightly stiffer. I was able to maintain good control for lettering. It produces nice smooth lines. These definitely did not disappoint, and now that I know I like them I’ll be ordering more colors. These would be a great brush pen for beginners.
Kuretake Clean Color Real Brush Pens
I’ve seen these Clean Color Real Brush Pens on other blogs and Instagram before, but I’ve never really seen them when browsing online shops. I was definitely intrigued and I typically really like Kuretake brush pens so I ordered a couple. Well, they definitely mean REAL brushes. These are so hard to letter with. The brush is very sensitive and easily frays while writing. I’m sure a more talented handletterer would have better luck with these, but I’ll have to do quite a bit of practicing to make them usable. It’s a bit disappointing because I really love the colors I ordered! But I can still use them for accents and coloring in my journal. They do have a “faux brush” version that I might check out!
Kuretake Zig Brushables
These might be my new favorite brush pens! I picked up ONE from Kinokuniya Bookstore in Austin and once I used it I fell in love. I ordered 2 more colors from Tokyo Pen Shop (I would’ve ordered more but most of the colors I wanted were sold out). These brushes are very similar to Tombow Dual Brush pens, but I think I might like them more. I also like that both ends of the pen are brushes in different shades of the same colors (which is great for blending). The ink is also archival quality, waterproof, and fade proof (unlike Tombow’s water-based ink).
Zebra Click Art Pens
I had never seen these before I looked on Tokyo Pen Shop. And I’m going to be honest with you, I didn’t even know what kind of pen they were, but I loved the way they looked and the color selection. And surprisingly enough these might be my new favorite pen. I was really surprised that they had a felt tip! But they still manage to draw a fairly thin line.
Uni Kuru Toga .5 Mechanical Pencil
Okay, so I already use this mechanical pencil as my main pencil, but the Hello Kitty version was so cute. I was obsessed with Hello Kitty as a kid and I guess some things never change. I also “lose” my pencil all the time when I need it, so it’ll be nice to have two. If you don’t know, the Uni Kuru Toga is such a special mechanical pencil because it rotates the lead for you inside the pencil. You never end up with a dull edge and you don’t have to rotate the pencil yourself. I don’t ever want to use another lead pencil. I also ordered some of the Kuru Toga .5mm HB lead to go with it. “Mitsubishi basically flipped regular lead inside out by making the lead core hard and the outer part of the core soft, thereby making it easier to sculpt a point with the Kuru Toga Pencil.”
So that’s all for now! I tried to control myself and not order too much. I wanted to get a few colors of each pen I ordered to be able to fairly test them. The only thing I’m not thrilled with is the Kuretake Clean Color Brush Pens. What would y’all like me to order/test next? Let me know in the comments!
