After graduating from my degree earlier this year, my family decided to go to Osaka, Japan! So I googled a few places that may have craft stores that would interest me and started planning with my family for the 8-day trip in Osaka! I ended up finding two crafts stores that may have papercrafts and art tools I would like: U-Art and Tokyu Hands!
I didn’t find much at Tokyu Hands as it was more on travel journaling. But at U-Arts, I was pleasantly surprised with the ambience that the humble three-floor craft store has.
As you can see from the picture, it’s a relatively small and almost unnoticeable if you are well distracted by the food stalls and the crowd at Namba Street. The first floor is mainly on travel journal, stamps, ink pads, embossing powder, pens, brushes, watercolorsss, watercolor pads, colouring kits etc etc etc. Yup. That explains how two hours somehow disappeared while I was well distracted by the stationeries. I met a lot of artists in the store. One of them was a modestly-dressed elderly man who was having a serious discussion with the store salesgirl about the brushes (the man in a hat standing behind me on the top right picture). There was also an American couple who asked for my help to translate the labels on the type of brushes they have (from fox hair, horse hair, squirrel hair to even..whale hair?). I truly enjoyed every moment of my time in there! *Craft nerd with Anime bopping heart-shaped eyes*
I’d emailed Mr Masato from U-Arts, a few months before my trip to ask about their watercolour products which I have been doing some research on ($$$). I asked on a few brands I was interested in: Gansai Tambi, Winsor Newton, and Holbein. I was so glad to be able to meet him in person! He seemed really excited in the email but was pretty humble and strict in person, yet really kind in helping me out on watercolour and products in the store!
I bought a few jewels from the store after careful thought on what to buy (limited budget issues). I have regrets on not buying more but oh wells… HAHA. Perhaps someday I’ll return again! 🙂
Oh yes, I bought Holbeins (48 colours) instead! Its colours are more vibrant and it reacts smoothly and really well with water, I LOVE IT!
At Tokyu Hands, I bought some pretty awesome notebooks that are helpful to practice writing with calligraphy pens, glue tapes, and an adorable bunny rubber stamp!!
After the Japan trip was the very exciting Summer-themed market organised by a local craft society in Miri—Miri Artisan Market (MAM)! MAM has some of the best craft makers of all kinds, from baskets, paintings, drawings, beads, necklaces, notebooks, plushies, soaps, to loaves of bread! Will be blogging about it next on the blog! Alrighty, goodnight! 🙂