Special Edition Kyo No Oto Inks: Adzukiiro and Hisoku

We just received in two new beautiful special edition inks from Kyo No Oto in Japan. We heard rumblings about these colours for a while now - months! - and they've finally made their way across the ocean onto our shelves. I've long learned that my best strategy is to not spend too much time thinking about new and exciting things arriving, because when they arrive they're a complete surprise, and it's almost as though they've come early. (The only reason this works is because Jon is the one who organizes the shipments.) We currently have a very limited supply of these inks, as they're a special edition colour. This is a newish line of inks, the Kyo No Oto and Kyo Iro, so I'm not sure exactly how the supply will be. These inks are already flying off the shelves, as I think their reputation precedes their arrival. The first is Adzukiiro, No. 6, which means red bean in Japanese. Red bean or red bean paste is often used in Japanese or Chinese desserts, and as I kid I often remember red bean soup coming at the end of a meal. It's a warm reddish maroon colour, a great ink for this season - not TOO cheerful, but still festive. The second is Hisoku, No. 7, which means something along the lines of the mysterious or secret colour - what a delight! I thought for sure I would end up liking the Adzukiiro better - a rich, deep maroon in a wet pen (basically all of my pens) - but it turns out I really like the Hisoku. I'm not really a turquoise or teal ink person usually, but Hisoku is a dusky, smoky sort of sea glass colour, truly a mysterious colour. I know some people prefer white paper to cream, as it shows the colour of the ink in a truer way, but I think this ink is perfect for a textured, cream coloured paper for a letter. One of these would make a lovely Christmas gift for someone into fountain pens - it's new, so the recipient likely doesn't already have it, and a special edition, so something unique for this year. I suppose the problem is if you're reading the blog, you're probably the one into fountain pens, and the person who is supposed to be getting the fountain pen gift for you has no idea the blog exists, so the idea has no way to be planted into their heads. Oh, the conundrums of holiday gifting.

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Actually, I think a bottle of ink is a really wonderful Christmas gift - it's something that will last a long time, but something that will be used. For someone who already has a few bottles of ink, every time they fill up from the one they've received from you, they'll remember you. I still fight with my hoarding tendencies from time to time - oh, what will happen if I ever use up this bottle of discontinued ink?? - but I do truly feel like everything should be cherished and used. I hope all of your Christmas shopping is going well. It's still fairly early in December, but Time Marches On - obviously the capitalization is to indicate that the hands of time are not joking around when it comes to the countdown to Christmas morning. We don't often get Caleb too many toys, but once a year for Christmas we like to get him something special. I had shown Jon this brilliant idea I had for Caleb's gift: a wooden doll house. You can even get an Asian doll family! I mean really, how often does that happen. Although now that I'm thinking about it, I don't know if I should be worried about how Asianness will be depicted on such dolls. In any case. Jon was a bit worried about the whole concept of a doll house - Caleb is sort of more of a trucks tearing over "obstacles" like a sleeping dog, or build a block tower and then crash into it as hard as possible, or drive your car into garbage cans in the warehouse kind of kid - so we put the idea on hold. However, later, while I was doing some work on my laptop, Caleb looked up and saw an advertisement for the dollhouse in a sidebar, and he got so excited I had to close the screen and distract him with some snacks. Sometimes (all the time?) Big Brother Internet Advertising is a bit scary, but sometimes it just ruins everything you try to do to help Santa out.     Currently reading: The Interestings, by Meg Wolitzer Currently eating: grapes, although it's twice smelled like poutine in here from two different staff, and my strength is waning Currently writing: doodling on an A4 top-spiral dot pad, with a Parker Sonnet (Kyo No Oto Hisoku), Aurora Duofold (Kyo No Oto Adzukiiro), and a Lake Tahoe Blackwing Currently looking forward to: potentially poutine, but also the 16.2 Blackwings heading our way Latest heard from the mouth of babes (Caleb): "Are you a prince or a princess?" "I'm a firetruck."