Behind the Shop

I’m sort of jumping around a bit as I backtrack from last summer’s trip but I’m still hoping to share more of these snippets of our adventure.

Happy New Year!

Another year in business. This was a year filled with adventure, growth, luck, some good, some less so, learning, slogging away, good books, mediocre books, huge moments, tiny moments, airplane rides and train rides and bus rides, new pens, surprises, hurdles, Google translate, diaper changes in unusual places, spilled ink, celebrations, reading lessons, waiting, finger crossing, coffee, good company, good customers, good staff, new relationships, changes, stickers, snacks, some relatively low level disasters, painting, and some pretty okay stationery.

The Traveler’s Notebook 2020 items are here, and are already flying off the shelves. In fact, many items went straight out of the boxes into smaller boxes for Canada Post or onto our holds shelf for people picking them up in store. It’s a crazy thing when I think back to our first days carrying Traveler’s Notebook and our teeny tiny display and its journey over the years.

In Tokyo, Japan, there are three Traveler’s Notebook Factories. The main Traveler’s Factory is located in a back alley in Nakameguro, a small district with many independent shops, studios and boutiques. We were fortunate enough to be able to visit and also meet with Iijima-san, the creator of the Traveler’s Notebook, and you can read more about that visit here.

Welcome to Part 2 of our visit to The Superior Labor in Okayama. You can find Part 1 here. For some background information, since it’s been some time since our travel posts, this past summer, we visited Japan and Hong Kong. I had thought I was going to blog on the road, but couldn’t keep up—so here I am catching up.

Of course (of course!) it goes without saying that we could not visit Japan without trying to see if we could visit The Superior Labor in Okayama. The Superior Labor studio, factory, shop and family home are located in Okayama prefecture, about an hour’s flight outside Tokyo.

Anyone who knows anything at all about Japanese culture knows how important fish is. It’s no surprise, given that Japan is an island nation, that fish feature prominently in much of their cuisine, and sushi is, of course, both popular everywhere and incredibly delicious.