Exploring Taiwan’s Stationery Store Landscape | Part 1

A few of my favorite stationery stores in Taipei

The last time I wrote a guide about stationery stores in Taipei was in 2015. I was a budding stationery addict attempting to showcase the expanse of stationery coverage in Taipei before I moved to the United States. 8 years flew by, and I have many more places to recommend and introduce to readers. In the last few years, I’ve had the chance to visit home and explore more of these stationery stores in-depth. It still feels like a lot to cover in just one article, but I will try my best. 

Stationery is engrained into the culture of Taiwanese people. Taiwan has affordable and high-quality manufacturing and is largely influenced by stationery trends from Japan and Korea. This created a generation of Taiwanese creators and artists who interpret and create our ideal stationery and style that elevates your daily life. In Taiwan, I also cultivated my “cafe journaling” habit and started integrating all kinds of analog tools and accessories for my documenting process.

For such a small island, Taiwan sure has its fair amount of stationery stores for analog enthusiasts to explore. What’s even more amazing is that there are countless creators and brands that don’t sell through these stores but through their own platforms or other e-commerce websites like Pinkoi, and physical markets, such as Hello Studio, Ours Studio, A Kind of Cafe, Littlek9s, Mr. Eggplants, and more. 

In a separate post, I will summarize a list of stationery stores in Taiwan that I know of, including ones I’ve visited and some I hope to travel to someday. You can read it here. If you are visiting Taiwan on your next trip, I hope it will be helpful for you. 

And…here we go! 

Lovely Room 美好文具室

I’ll start with the stationery store in my neighborhood in Taipei, owned by a fellow stationery friend and enthusiast Rubie whom I met through a journaling meetup back in 2014. Lovely Room has a pink and dreamy decor which embodies the owner’s dream of all things cute and princess-like. Over the years, she had really transformed the shop to her vision. I admire her gusto and passion for stationery so much. 

What’s even cooler is that she also puts together annual exhibition-type events in her store which invites prominent journalers and fellow stationery store owners to showcase their planners and journals.

This store is also known for its amazing collaging expertise, and product samples were typically skillfully displayed along the shelves. Looking at her artistic journal spreads makes you want to buy a certain PET tape design or a colorful sticker sheet. You can tell that the owners themselves love stationery and enjoy using all the products they carry in their journals.

Risounoheya 理想的部屋

Risounoheya is tucked away in a maze-like neighborhood near National Taiwan University. However, the funny thing is that I don’t think their target audience is even the students. The entrance is surrounded by plants and pots, inviting you to enter this washi tape wonderland.

The small store is filled to the brim with imported stationery brands from Japan, specifically washi tapes and stamps (the tape on their store logo is a tell-tale sign). Decoration is not their top priority, and you’ll find merchandise stacked unceremoniously in all corners of the shop.

The owners travel to Japan frequently to seek out limited edition items, typically tapes, sticker sheets, stamps, and paper accessories. They visit stationery events throughout different regions of Japan such as Bungujoshi and Kamihaku. You can always find the latest and newest stationery for collaging and journaling in this small store. The entrance of the store also has a stamp station where you can collect stamp impressions to your heart’s desire. Just be careful of your wallet, you will not walk out empty-handed.

Molly Lifestyle 茉莉生活風格

This adorable stationery store proudly displays a lot of their wares through the glass windows of their storefront. The store not only has stationery, but it is also a great location for fountain pen and film camera enthusiasts. The owner is very knowledgeable about the latter two items and even releases their store-mixed inks periodically. 

I love that this store carries more functional stationery such as the newest MIDORI scissors, stamp sets, notebooks, and more.

However, the surprising thing is that they also source and sell many small Taiwanese artists’ stationery. I’ve had multiple occasions where I found special stamps made by small creators who typically only sell them at local creative markets. 

Eslite Bookstore 誠品書局

Eslite is one of the iconic bookstores turned lifestyle department chains in Taiwan. How to properly pronounce the name is always a myth to me. Is it “S-Leet”? or is it “Elite”? It boasts a tasteful selection of books and also has a rich selection of stationery sourced locally and from other countries. The mission of this bookstore is to elevate the cultural lifestyle and introduce design-centric stores to the people of Taiwan. Their several-stories department stores include a bookstore section, stationery section, record/music section, and event souvenir and gifts section. 

You can count on this stationery store to have official Japanese brands such as MIDORI, TRAVELER’S COMPANY, MD, Kokuyo, Pilot, Sailor, Hightide, and more. Eslite also frequently hosts seasonal events that invite artists and authors to their stores, such as the annual Ideal Stationery Fair.

One of my favorite branches is the Eslite Spectrum Songyan Store, which is located at the Songshan Cultural Park filled with small shops to explore and cafes. I recommend this park also for weekend creative markets featuring local artists. 

Another recommended branch to visit is Eslite Spectrum Nanxi which also houses a pop-up market that features rotating local artists.

Eslite Xinyi Store is currently the largest hub of this chain but is closing at the end of 2023. Otherwise, they have a separate floor dedicated to fine-writing instruments and even sell Japanese PLOTTER brand. 

If you are visiting other regions of Taiwan, make sure to visit their local Eslite because each branch has interesting architectural designs that incorporate the special design elements of their respective town. 

Recently, Tsutaya Bookstore, a Japanese bookstore brand, started setting its footprint throughout Taiwan and also brought a good selection of Japanese stationery and even limited edition inks. TSUTAYA BOOKSTORE Songshan Station Store is located close to Raohe Night Market and would be a great one to visit if you want to have the best of both worlds (food and stationery). 

Vision Stationery 明進文具店 and Tools to Liveby 禮拜文房具

Vision Stationery is one of the first TRAVELER’S COMPANY Partner Shops in Taiwan alongside Tools to Liveby, which is located at the same MRT Station. These were two of the first stationery stores in Taiwan to carry TRAVELER’S notebooks, hence their reputation and journey to become TRC Partner Shops.

The owner still remembers me from my last purchase in 2015!

Vision Stationery has a clean interior with wooden shelves lined with notebooks and stationery accessories. The owners are passionate about TRAVELER’S notebooks and Japanese stationery and give great recommendations for what you are looking for. They are actually one of the first places where I bought TRAVELER’s notebook refills. They also carry a great selection of Taiwanese artists’ items. 

On the other hand, Tools to Liveby has a drastically different vibe - a vintage and classical look that is inspired by European and American retro apothecary styles. The small store features a letterpress machine, and all kinds of Western stationery are displayed tastefully on tapes and shelves.

They are also a design studio and make many of their own stationery lineups. One of their iconic stationery items is the rose gold and brass clips that many stationery enthusiasts favor. 

Another store that has TRC Partner Shop store status is Plain Stationery, which incorporates a small cafe element into its curation of stationery. Don’t forget to collect their TRC Partner Shop Stamps when you visit these stores!

Rikka Stationery 立夏手帳生活

Rikka Stationery is a relatively new store that opened in the old district of Taipei, Da Dao Cheng. This area is becoming hip and popular for tourists and locals’ affinity for re-discovering retro neighborhoods.

My mom and sister enjoying some relaxing time at one of the hip cafes while I cafe journaled.

This small store sells a lot of Taiwanese creator’s stamps and tape designs. They even have a “tape sample” table where you can choose to just buy a sample strip of tape design, instead of a full PET roll. The owners obviously cater to collaging enthusiasts and offer a table with free stamps and ephemera you can use to decorate your journals. 

Please look forward to my follow-up posts in this series. There are so many places that I’ve visited, and one post is too small to contain my review of all of them. I am excited to share the stationery gems of Taiwan with you, and please share what else you are looking forward to learning about!

P.S. This week, I’d like to share a vlog I filmed of my recent trip to Taiwan and my experience of Creative Expo 2023. It was a week-long event that featured the current creative talents of Taiwan, through art, architecture, and of course, stationery.