Another must visit on my Japan stationery shopping list, was Loft.

This is part 3 of my Japan stationery shopping tour, don’t forget to read part 1, part 2 and part 4.

There’s a lot of photos in this post, so give the page a little time to load.

Loft (Shibuya – Tokyo)

Address: 21-1 Udagawacho, Shibuya City, Tokyo 150-0042, Japan (conveniently located near Shibuya train station)

Very similar to Tokyo Hands’ product selection, this is a department store with one floor focused on stationery and crafting.

Tucked down one of Tokyo’s many alleyways this small entryway opens into a huge stationery section that ended up being one of my favorite places to buy stationery in Japan!

The store was clean (like the rest of Japan), and the stationery section was well stocked and organized.

Some of the well known brands stocked at Loft:

• Uni Propus highlighters
• Tombow dot markers
• Tombow highlighters
• Firxion pens, highlighters and erasable self inking stamps
• Uni Propus highlighters
• Zebra Mildliner (original colours plus pastel sets)
• Zebra Clickart pens
• Zebra Sarasa
• Leuchtturm notebooks
• Moleskine notebooks
• Rollbahn notebooks
• Quo Vadis planners
• Wide range of Post It Sticky notes

Some other stationery that make visiting Loft worthwhile:

• Maru dot liners (individual and in packs)
• Dot e pens (highly recommend these if you like dot markers)
• Border pens (dashed lines, wavy lines)
• Edit notebooks (which was a brand I never saw in any other stationery store while in Japan)
• Mixline highlighters (2 colors in one – chisen and needle tip)
• Motion ball-liner (dual tip ballpoint pen and color marker)

It was at Loft that I first saw these square dot pens and these round Maru dot markers. I later found a pack of the square dot pens at another stationery shop. I swatched the dot e pens and maru liners in this post: Japanese stationery haul

The prices were very consistent for items that were stocked in multiple stationery stores. The going rate for individual pens and highlighters was about 150 – 250 Yen which I thought were very reasonable prices.

Japan definitely has the most options for pens, highlighters etc. for sale individually out of all the stationery shops I’ve been to on my travels – it’s the perfect place to visit if you want to try all the stationery!

I hadn’t seen these animal series Mildliners or the Sarasa x Mildliners highlighters before this trip. If you’re a fan of pastel there were plenty of colors to choose from.

I purchased the clickart pens and (spoiler) they were one of the my favorite pen purchases of the trip!

Read more:: Japanese stationery haul

I also really liked that there was always plenty of scratch paper so you could test all of the pens. But at the same time, none of the individual pens had tape around their seal or were marked as tester, so I did wonder how many other people had done the same thing before I bought them….

Japanese stationery seems to focus on simple plain cover designs (no patterns).

This store also had the most planner options. I even saw the Quo Vadis which was the first time in my travels that I’ve ever got to see them in person! I was very tempted… but they didn’t have the layout I was looking for in stock.

I also almost bought one of these Loft planners but I couldn’t get past the thin paper.

My rating: 5/5 

There’s another Loft store in Ginza near Itoya and Muji (plus another one in Kyoto) but I didn’t have time to visit all of them (and didn’t feel the need to after already going to the Shibuya and Osaka stores).

Loft – Shinjuku Station

Address: Japan, 〒160-0023 Tokyo, Shinjuku City, Nishishinjuku, 1 Chome−1−3 ６階

This store was so tiny it held barely any stock, it was not worth the hassle to find it and was a waste of time going there. It’s so easy to hop on the train from Shinjuku to Shibuya, that you may as well just go to Loft Shibuya.

My rating: 1/5

Loft Osaka

Address: 16-7 Chayamachi, Kita Ward, Osaka, 530-0013, Japan

Itoya, Seria and Daiso are within walking distance. mt lab. is a bit further away but still within walking distance (see the other posts in this series for my review of those stationery shops). NAGASAWA is further up the street but it looked like more expensive stationery (especially those expensive Parker style pens), so I gave NAGASAWA a miss.

I actually liked the Osaka Loft better than the one in Shibuya. I felt like it had a much bigger product range and way more washi tapes to choose from!

In addition to all of the brands I listed earlier in this post, the Osaka store stocked some additional items:

• A variety of stickers
• Plenty of self inking and stamps to be used with an ink pad
• One of the best range of washi tapes of all the stationery shops I visited
• Pilot PlayBorder pens (the only stationery store in Japan where I found these)
• Film tape marker (like washi tape but more transparent so could be an alternative to highlighters)
• Kokoyu masking tape cutter
• Wide washi tape rolls (circa 1″ wide)
• Plenty of tab sticky notes

There were lots of nifty stationery at this store like these decorative tabs on a roll which I thought would be great for marking pages in a bullet journal.

Pastel colored stationery must be popular because I saw it in every stationery shop!

These Chameleon color changing pens were intriguing…

The coco fusen sticky notes. Not only were the a wide range of colors but there were rectangle options, flag bunting, large size, small size

A section for bullet journaling stickers – mini monthly calendars, goal planning, movies to watch, list labels, books to read and dot stickers in a range of colors – perfect for color coding.

This wasn’t even all of the washi tape! (was mostly mt lab, I actually thought this store had a better range of mt tape than the mt lab store nearby). Loft also had some nice rainbow washi packs which the mt lab store didn’t have.

There was a really good range of decorative washi tape, marble effect and solid colors you could mix and match to create your own set. The pastel colors looked like they’d pair well with the Zebra Mildliner limited edition colors also stocked in this shop.

Some of the washi tape brands:

• Mind wave
• World Craft
• mt lab.
• Plenty of brands that were in Japanese only and Google Translate app on my iPhone wouldn’t recognise them so you’ll have to make a trip to Japan to see for yourself!

If you need some accessories for your washi tape, Loft has washi tape cutters and dispensers.

A very pleasing rainbow display of frixion pens and highlighters in different pen tips sizes and types!

Only outdone by the huge display and range of options for the Sarasa, Staedtler and Hi-Tec-C!

The dot e markers and as was the case with all of the stationery shops in Japan, some Zebra mildliners. This store also had the Sarasa x Zebra collab.

The only store I found the filofax refillable notebook. The cover designs were so pretty!

They had the same icon stamps that would be great for checklists which I saw at Itoya.

The Top 2 rows in the photo below is Deco Rush tape which is similar to the Happy Planner deco pens. There were a mix of simple patterns like stripes and checks, nature (trees, flowers), everyday icons (like knives and forks for doing meal planning), books, birthday cakes and bunting.

They were about 320 Yen each which I thought was reasonabley priced. I would’ve bought one but the designs they had on offer don’t suit the way I plan (shame there was no checklist design!)

I the photo below are

• Coro re – pre-inked stamps
• Some more of the paintable stamps that were also stocked at Tokyo Hands
• Mini tab sticky notes (I bought these from another shop and recommend them for bullet journaling)
• And finally, some stencils! (I thought I would see more stencils in Japan but they were hard to find)
• Nifty pencil cases that wrap around your planner or bullet journal

All of the planners I saw had simple, minimalist layouts like this Loft branded diary.

If I recall correctly, this is the only stationery shop I went to that had the Frixion light highlighters in a pack instead of individually.

My rating: 5/5 

The Osaka Loft store was my favorite and had the best range of planner supplies from the 3 Loft stores I visited. There were plenty of products that were unique to this store that I didn’t find at Tokyo Hands, Itoya or other stationery stores. Definitely add the Loft Osaka store to your Japan itinerary!

If you need help getting started planning your trip, you can download a copy of my Japan itinerary in this post (it’s super detailed!)

Continue reading the rest of this series

This is part 3 of my Japan stationery shopping tour, don’t forget to read part 1, part 2 and part 4.

See what I bought from each of these stores in my Japanese stationery haul.

More stationery shopping around the world

• Favorite stationery shops in Paris
• Favorite Stationery Shops in Belgium (Brussels, Antwerp & Bruges)
• Favorite Stationery Shops in Germany

Planning tips

• 50 Category Ideas for Color Coding Your Planner
• How to use functional icon planner stickers
• 10 Planner supplies that will help you plan your week faster

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