My Current Favorites – [July 2025] – Japanese Stationery, Beads, Lipstick effect
Last month, I told you I brought back a lot of Vietnamese books. They are books about the Yi King, a very challenging subject, so I had to take out all the stationery I bought in Japan to highlight and annotate my books.
In Japan, they are so passionate about stationery that there is a lot of innovation and even a stationery fair that takes place in several major cities in Japan in June/July. They regularly make rankings. In Japan, they love rankings and have rankings for everything. For cosmetics, for example, there is the cosmeranking, which is very famous; that allowed me to buy without thinking, given the immense choice offered by Japanese stores.
My favorite place to buy stationery is the chain Hands. But there are more and more websites based in Japan that ship these products abroad for us. I have never been attracted to scrapbooking, calendars, or journaling, so we won’t talk about masking tapes, stickers, etc., just the tools I use for my books.
Why annotate books?
I know many people consider books sacred and don’t dare write in them. I never fold the corners of books, I turn pages carefully and respect the spine, but I do annotate because without it, I can’t retain the information. Additionally, I usually re-read books by just reading the highlighted passages – so if I don’t highlight or annotate, re-reading becomes painful. The only books I don’t damage are beautiful books, books for bibliophiles. In that case, I read the physical version but annotate the ebook.
How to buy?
I’ve included either Amazon France links or Amazon Japan links. For Amazon Japan, some products can be shipped to France (make sure they are sold by Amazon Japan and not a third-party seller), prices include customs. Otherwise, you can use package forwarding services like Shipito, which I talked about here. There are also websites that ship internationally like Bungu store but they take a big commission for customs & shipping.
Adhesive bookmarks
You know, on Kindle, you can add as many bookmarks as you want to an ebook, for important passages for example. A bookmark isn’t just for marking where you stopped reading. So I wanted to have that system for my paper books.
I discovered slightly transparent adhesive bookmarks in Japan. They are from the brand Coco fusen (Amazon Japan link) and since then I’m hooked. They are super expensive but the designs are cute and you can use them to mark chapters or highlight a title. The transparency is really nice. The system is ingenious, you can pick up each bookmark with great ease. You can also stick the stack of bookmarks on the book cover for better access.
I have the much cheaper Amazon version that also serves as a ruler / large bookmark (Amazon France link).
So this is what it looks like on my books. To re-read this book, it’s very simple: I either read the pages with a bookmark or read the highlighted passages. Re-reading will only take me 15 minutes.
It’s a bit tricky to write on these plastic bookmarks, but you can use an oil-based pen. Personally, I either use a Bic pen (and struggle) or my POSCA marker.
These stickers are super cute and look like a paint palette (Amazon Japan link).
Bookmarks
You have actual bookmarks to indicate where you stopped reading. For that, I have my paper bookmarks, butterfly-shaped. I find them very cute. I made them with my Silhouette cutting machine and the kids love this activity.
In South Korea, I found very thin metal bookmarks.
Highlighters
First, let’s talk about highlighters that don’t damage books. If you have transparent bookmarks, can you turn them into highlighters? That’s the idea behind the Hagaseru Film Tape Marker (Amazon Japan link). The idea is to unroll a transparent film to the desired length to “highlight” a passage. But you can also remove it anytime, without damaging the book, without leaving any sticky residue.
The idea is revolutionary and I brought it back from Japan. In reality, it takes forever to unroll the film and cut it: which slows down reading. And you use a lot. One roll allows you to annotate about one book. And given the cost (you need to count about €3 per refill roll), it really has to be a precious book.
I also bought a kind of transparent masking tape (Clear tape) to mark entire passages. It’s a bit restrictive because you have to use scissors every time, but it’s pretty. In Japan, there are tons of patterns.
Next, you have classic highlighters with two tips: highlighter + marker. That way, you can highlight and then annotate the book at the same time. For that, there are two models I use:
- Mildliner (Amazon Japan link): the leader in Japan, very appreciated for its modern colors and double tips. However, I find the highlighter tip too small; you have to be very careful when you want a straight line.
- Kire-na by Pilot (Amazon Japan link): voted the best highlighter in Japan this year, I opted for a set of 5 pastel colors and I absolutely love it! The tip is flexible and held in place by two plastic pieces, making it super easy to draw straight lines. You can also use it with a ruler without dirtying the ruler. Plus, the ink dries quickly, allowing for clean, precise highlighted passages. The marker is a plus, but I don’t use it much.
Annotations
For annotations, I rather use pencils – so I can erase my mistakes anytime.
But since then, I’ve discovered transparent sticky notes (Amazon France link). You can write on them with oil-based ink pens. A Bic pen will also work, but sometimes you have to press hard. POSCA markers also work. You can remove them anytime without damaging the book. Another use for students is to use these sticky notes as tracing paper to copy a drawing and stick it in your notebook.
Turning pages
One of the reasons I don’t borrow books from the library is because of the bad habit some people have of moistening their fingers with a little saliva to turn pages. I hate that! The Japanese, even more so, because they invented a method to turn pages without resorting to that unhygienic method: with silicone finger protectors. I admit I use them to protect my fingers during saddle stitching (leatherworking), but I didn’t know those nubs were mainly for gripping pages and turning them (Amazon Japan link). There are also several sizes!
Pearls
Let’s stop talking about stationery and talk about pearls. According to Indian astrology, our life consists of several cycles (dasha). At each Dasha (about every 10 years), you need to wear a specific stone (at least 2 carats) to support a certain planet in your astrological chart (google “gemstones hindu astrology” to learn more), and it turns out I need pearls. I’ve never been truly attracted to pearls because, to get them, the mollusks have to suffer quite a bit. But I brought you some Akoya pearls sold by my jeweler and I found them very pretty.
I bought a strand of almost round freshwater pearls from a supplier, elastic thread, silver Pandora charms on Vinted, and I got two designs. For now, I’m sticking with the Snow White apple, but I think the shell will be more “on theme”. You can learn more about choosing pearls here and why suppliers sell strands of pearls.
Lately, I’ve been spending quite a bit of time exploring e-commerce sites looking for jewelry findings. But faced with the multitude of options available, I feel completely overwhelmed. I feel like I lack creativity: I see all these findings, but I can’t imagine how to combine them harmoniously. This abundance of options ends up blocking me rather than inspiring me. Faced with 20 clasps, which one to choose? What size?
These days, I’m reading works by great scholars, and it inspires deep humility in me. Every day, I feel more and more ignorant, but I still try to accomplish at least one small thing I’ve never done before.
Lipstick Effect
Recently, I’ve come across several videos talking about the “lipstick effect”, a concept coined by the CEO of Estée Lauder. He observed that lipstick sales increased during economic downturns. The current interest in micro-bags, charms or even figurines like the ugly Labubu seems to follow the same logic: faced with the impossibility of buying very expensive luxury items (like a Rolex watch), we turn to small purchases perceived as luxurious. Spending €95 on a bag charm or €100 on a lipstick is expensive, of course, but it’s still “reasonable” compared to a five-figure purchase. These are small, accessible pleasures that give us the illusion of treating ourselves to luxury, and pretending not to be in financial difficulty.
I’ve seen trends on TikTok about consuming less, no more nail polish, eating less—great for the planet, but I’m afraid it’s more about the recession than real minimalism.And when the economy picks up, we’ll all be back in front of our computers, consuming again.
Recently, I had a mild bout of indigestion, which forced me to eat only white rice for several days until I recovered. For a carnivore like me, that was quite exceptional! But, against all expectations, I found the experience quite pleasant. Eating so simply made me realize how much it lightens the daily load: less time spent grocery shopping, cooking, planning meals… and even eating. Reflecting on it, I think if someone has already paid off their house and saved a bit of money, they could easily achieve the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) lifestyle simply by reducing their needs and adopting a minimal diet. Limiting your desires really changes the game, and it’s recommended by all religions.
In one of my Vietnamese books, I read the following:
“The 64 hexagrams of the Former Heaven system of the I Ching are clearly divided into two distinct halves: The right half comprises 32 Yin hexagrams. The left half also comprises 32 Yang hexagrams.
The ‘Yin half’ corresponds to the first half of a person’s life (the first 50 years), a period during which one must fully engage with the world, fight, compete, build one’s career, home, and country.
The ‘Yang half’ represents the second half of life (the next 50 years), when the hair begins to gray. It’s the time to lay down one’s burdens, turn inward, cultivate the mind, with the hope of rising toward wisdom, becoming a Sage, an Immortal, or a Buddha.
According to Shao Yong, one must first traverse the Yin half—that is, immerse oneself in the material world, explore and understand it—and then take the Yang half, turning toward the roots of the soul. Only then does life become truly beautiful and fulfilled.”
