California Pen Show 2024 Adventures
I ate, I shopped, I tired myself out
Oh boy, February had been A MONTH. With so many things going on in the world affecting my mental health significantly, work ramping up in preparation for events in California, and unexpected hurdles we’re jumping through, coming back to Substack felt like a sigh of relief.
Anyway, I’m back from Los Angeles and it’s been a blast. For some reason, I’m feeling extremely exhausted working this show compared to other events, but it was also a lot of fun. Not only did I get to meet a lot of fellow stationery friends, but we also hosted colleagues who flew out from Japan for the show and other events. To cap off the week-long trip with a reward, my colleagues and I even made it to Disneyland! I can confidently say that the California Pen Show kicked off a great start for the series of events I’ll be attending for the rest of this year.
California Pen Show 2024
Last year was the inaugural California Pen Show, designed to set itself apart from the infamous Los Angeles Pen Show despite being in the same location. However, last year, the show was scheduled for the same weekend as the Super Bowl, so I only had the chance to go on Friday and Saturday. This year, we partake in the entire weekend alongside my company PLOTTER USA, and TRAVELER’S COMPANY USA.
To add more excitement for what we had in store for the weekend, colleagues from PLOTTER Japan team flew over from Tokyo to help present special customization opportunities for fans. I fawned over the amazing selection of scratch-shoulder leather binders and still regretted that I didn’t get an orange one while I was at the show.
One inconvenience at the CA Pen Show was that we couldn’t set up on Thursday evening, or even move our boxes into the showroom. This resulted in a very early morning setup on Friday, and it was a little funny to see the whole team sweating and flustered around 9 am, just shortly before the show opened to the public. Probably due to its location, the CA Pen Show does get quite the crowd and the main ballroom stayed busy throughout the weekend.
The only thing that saved my wallet at shows was that I worked at the PLOTTER table for the entirety time. Only when I had the luxury of sneaking away towards the ends of Saturday and Sunday, did I do some slight damage with some stationery shopping.
TRAVELER’S COMPANY USA is swarmed, as they do. I do enjoy setting up the special coffee-themed corner which promotes some of the new collaboration with a coffee shop. I sometimes chuckle when I think about pen old-timers wondering why a table like TRC is selling such a variety of non-pen items. I picked up one of the new COFFEE TABLE TRIP Stainless Steel bottles, which came in super handy for the following week’s events.
This show contains a fair mix of vintage, modern, and maker pens, nib grinders from various countries, and hand-made and modern Japanese stationery brands like ourselves. I wish I had more time to go around and visit other tables. It was nice to see fellow vendor friends staying busy at their booths, too!
During this show, I barely had any energy to socialize in the after-dark scene at the hotel. Both nights, after satisfying dinners with colleagues and friends, I just wanted to fall back into bed to reset for the next day.
I don’t think I did too badly with my stationery haul from the show. A lot of my purchases fall within the $50~$100 price range. When I heard that Nagasawa brought special ink colors, I raced to their booth on my first bathroom break. For $25 a pop, I purchased two special inks: Kobe Wind Blue and Hankyu Maroon. I’m attracted not just to the colors, but also the exterior packaging design. They are more interesting than Nagasawa’s ordinary Kobe Ink lineup.
When day two rolled around, sightings of the LINE FRIENDS Brown and Sally Pro Gear Slim fountain pen started showing up around the room. Rumors have it that Sailor was getting rid of those pens at $99, a real steal. The next thing I noticed, my colleagues Job and Christina were walking back to the booth with yellow boxes in their hands (Sally, the duck character-themed pen), the picture of a walk of shame. I followed suit on the last day of the show, scoring the Brown character Sailor Pro Gear slim in M nib. I was very happy to ink it up with one of the inks I purchased from last year’s Japan.
I’ve also been meaning to purchase a nice leather case with dedicated pen sleeves for my fancy fountain pens, just to feel more sophisticated in the community. I stopped by Galen Leather (and indulged in one of their Turkish delights) to select a 5-pen Crazy horse green leather zip-around case. It was nice to see the folks again since DC and SF Pen Show last year. Yunus even stopped by our tables to pick out a customized PLOTTER too!
Finally, you can put a stationery girl like me in a large pen show, and she’ll still shop predominantly for washi tapes, stamps, and stickers. I enjoyed browsing the huge selection of Everyday Explorers Co, each icon and motif designed by Christine Herrin herself. I picked up a “California”-themed stamp set to document this trip, as well as a pen and stationery-themed set for everyday use. My remaining budget was all splurged at Paper Treats. Mai and her lovely Japanese stationery online shop is local to Los Angeles and she brought an adorable selection of washi tapes, letter sets, notepads, stickers, and more from her site.
I couldn’t resist picking up a few cherry blossom-themed BGM tapes I’ve been eyeing since she listed it on her site. I also enjoy reading the special newspaper highlighting the show, and other stores included in the issue. She’s a trooper, holding down her table by herself for the entire weekend. I hope a lot of people enjoyed shopping from her table during the show.
A special experience I got to try during this show was the Pilot Handwriting Analysis test. They had staff who flew from Japan with a special machine that could measure your grip and writing pressure. It was a brief session where you’d only have to write out your name as a test. I learned that my grip has a 7-degree inward angle, and I write at a 53-degree angle from the paper with a writing pressure of 100. Now I can proudly proclaim to strangers that my grip is twisted. I also had to admit to the Pilot staff that I own over 50 pens (in their after-service Q&A) and that I prefer Sailor fountain pen inks, haha!
Wrapping up the show was fairly anti-climatic compared to setting up. Since this is our home show, we were able to stick around longer on Sunday since we ferry all our boxes to our warehouse by car. It was interesting to be part of the chaotic breakdown crowd at the pen show venue alongside other vendors.
And of course, as if working a three-day event isn’t enough, I dragged the PLOTTER team over to FLAX Pen to Paper on Monday to facilitate a mini pop-up! It was a much more casual environment where we got to spend more time talking to customers and sharing our stories. Too bad it rained the entire day.
All the things I ate
You all know that when I travel, I take eating very seriously. So seriously that I rebooked my plane ticket for an earlier flight so I could meet up with friends to enjoy authentic marinated crab at Korean town in Los Angeles. The well-marinated ganjang gejang (raw marinated crab) at Crab House was worth me getting up at 4 am to catch a 6 o’clock flight out of Seattle. Although the lack of sleep made my stomach quite queasy, my friend who picked me up suggested Randy’s donut as a temporary relief, which I gladly agreed to.
Korean raw marinated crab is an acquired taste, and thankfully I found such rare company in Job from jobsjournal and CY from tokyostationpens. It’s the kind of cuisine that you just have to don plastic gloves and dive straight in with your hands. The whole process also involves a lot of squeezing, suckling, slurping, and licking. My friends Jackie and Anabelle from stringsandpedals watched us devour the juicy, jelly-like delicacy from an uncomfortable distance.
But boy, it was amazing. Their “bossam” dish (a cabbage wrap with juicy steamed pork belly and kimchi radishes which I couldn’t photograph in my messy glove state) was also a grand slam. I wish I was back in meal number one of my CA trip and I’d eat it over and over again.
On that high, I didn’t have any expectations for whatever business dinner I had to attend on the same day. However, I was surprised by the variety of dishes at Ammatoli in downtown Long Beach.
They serve Levantine cuisine highlighting different styles from the Eastern Mediterranean area. The whipped and airy labneh was the perfect companion to a platter of grilled skewers ranging from seafood to lamb. It also felt quite special to try dishes inspired by the chef’s Levantine heritage in light of current events (Palestinian, Jordan, and Lebanese influences). I was devouring pita after pita, knowing at some point I must stop or I would collapse from carb-crash the night before the pen show.
My food adventure was off to a good start.
Throughout the show, eating is a tough task for vendors as they face customers and acquaintances throughout the day. Experienced show-goers knew to balance their time and make space for a quick bite or proper meal at the end of the day. In previous shows, we would always get a brown bag lunch with a salad or a sandwich.
However, this time, our team found solace in small and convenient triangular onigiri from the nearby Asian market. It is the utmost comfort food, with tasty meat or fish fillings surrounded by hearty rice, wrapped with crispy dried nori. It was a life-saver as we could easily wolf them down without getting our hands too messy.
Torrance has no shortage of delicious Asian cuisine, and the show hotel is in a prime position to find them. Throughout the three days, we had Korean dishes from Jang Su Jang, sukiyaki/hotpot all-you-can-eat from Momo Paradise, and finally Korean barbecue from Baekjeong . I also enjoyed picking up bubble tea and snacks from Daiso and 85C Bakery. They are the perfect snack as we wind down from each busy day.
Unpopular opinion: Disneyland is even better in the rain
Okay, maybe I was salty that of all the days we were in California, it rained on the day we were scheduled to go to Disneyland. For the entire three days, we were confined to the ballroom of Marriott Redondo Beach, it was sunny as all-get-out. Nevertheless, rain or shine, we’re determined to have a good time.
My colleagues and I braved Disneyland on a Tuesday lunchtime, anticipating a mediocre crowd despite the rain. We donned silly ponchos to keep ourselves dry and trooped along with other Disney fans who also made it to the park.
Going to Disneyland turned out to be a superb experience. Once we got used to the idea that we were just going to get rained on, we threw away all reservations and enjoyed the park as if we were all young and carefree.
The queues for rides were shorter than ever, and we were pleased to enjoy the special Star Wars scenes and rides alongside our Japanese colleagues. As if losing my voice from the pen show wasn’t enough, I continued to scream and yell like a kid when going on the rides.
My favorite ride ended up being one of the last ones we tried in the evening. Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway was such a delightful ride, with a little action and way too many interesting visuals to look at. It’s a ride that I need to revisit in the future.
Last year, when I visited Disneyland for the very first time I had unforgettable meals such as the Ronto-less wrap and Cold Brew Black Caf. It was lovely to revisit those bites and I helped myself to second servings of my favorite food.
I’m only slightly regretting that I didn’t order the beignets, but the powdered sugar probably won’t last long in the weather. However, churros and pretzels were consumed.
Although the rain kept me from urban sketching on outdoor benches, I still found some downtime to sketch the rainy scene from the safety of Rancho del Zocalo (the hot chocolate helped with the cold weather). With less crowd because of the rain, we were able to appreciate more of the designs and decor of the amusement park.
We tapped out by 9 pm that day. Disneyland took on a lovely glow at night, and we finally got a brief reprieve from the rain.
I made so many good memories with friends and colleagues in my week of California adventures. I’m grateful that I could enjoy such special experiences to start the year. I’m looking forward to more fun events for the rest of 2024!
And that’s a wrap!
Happy journaling, friends.
Lately, I’ve been obsessed with LE SSERAFIM’s “Easy”
Everything sounds like so much fun. I laughed at the part where you went to get ink instead of pee on your bathroom break 😂😂😂
What exciting adventures! I always wonder the pros and cons of you working in the industry that is also your hobby… seems like fun!