Renjishi 連獅子, a scene from “Kabuki”

Ranjishi is one of the representive Nagauta pieces for the Kabuki dance drama. The theme is adapted from the Noh play "Shakkyo" by Kineya Shojiro, and is classified as a matsubame dancing; a dance that is performed before the symbolic backdrop of a large pine tree flanked by bamboo, which similar to the Noh play.

Not Your Usual Bamboo

Bamboo in the Chinese and Japanese culture had a similar meaning - strength of a character.

Whenever there is a storm, trees are broken, destroyed, no matter how big they are, bamboo will be able resist the force of the wind. Even the strongest trees are no match for the strong wind. It is like a toy unroot and tear apart by strong winds.

Yonex ... Not Badminton Racket, but Fountain Pen

Previously, we mentioned that Yonex-Sailor was only for the Japan domestic market. Sailor changed their mind. It is now available at our local retailer.

It come in 3 colours, black, green and Bordeaux. The pen doesn't come with any clip.

When we get to know about the Yonex and Sailor is working on this project in August, we were wondering how the pen is manufacture, and the structure of carbon fiber compound material lid and trunk.

Their very own ink ...

Unlike Japan, here in Singapore we only have a handful of good pens retailers. E&C is the only retailer who managed to get Namiki and Sailor to create pens just for them, design that is unique and available from their 2 stores. And they come in limited number (limited edition). Of course, all this "just for EC" design come with a premium.

As we are very late in the pen collection, and does have deep pocket, we can only affort a bottle of their "premium" E&C ink.

The picture on the box is Mr. Herman Chan (Owner of E&C) holding his son hand when he was small. Now, the little boy had grow up.

How good is the ink?

With the price we are paying, we perfer to buy a bottle of Sailor, Pilot, Namiki or Omas.

Rumours, Rumours ... Sailor Professional Gear Slim New Colours

Nowadays, we are spoiled with a wide range of colours by the pen manufacturers like Sailor. After much talk on the forum, the Sailor new range of metallic colour is now available at our local retailors. Hmmm... it seems that Sailors agent is rushing to push out new products range toward at the end of the year.

Pen Details:

Rumours, Rumours ... Sailor ProColour 500

Nowadays, fountain pen users not longer have to buy the boring black colour. Manufacturer like Sailor who understand the demand for colour had spoiled us with another budget range of colour pens.

The price of these fountain pens are easily on us, and give us the writing feelings of the Sailor Fountain Pen original charm. After a a few months wait, the Sailor ProColour 500 fountain pens is now available at our local retailors.

Pen Details:
Model Name: ProColour 500
Materials:
Lid and Barrel: AS resin/coloured
Section: PMMA resin/black.
Metallic part: Nickel chrome plating finish
Filling system: Converter & Cartridge type
Length: φ17×134mm
Weight: 12.2g

Available colours: Purple (as shown in picture), beige, red and turquoise(green).

Bull or No Bull ... Running for the Nude

Dervied from the Latin word for bull and the Greek word for battle, the Tauromaquia was widespred speatacle throughout the the Mediterranean during the second millenium BC and still taking places today in Spain, Mexico and Portugal.

The origins of the event are still debated today but most historians agree that games involving men and bulls were held in both Greece and ancient Rome.

Big Cat, Small Cat, Which is Your Prefer Cat?

Namiki and Sailor seems to like Cat this year. Both of them released Cat in 2009. Strangely, both fountain pen manufactorer uses the same Chinkin technique for their Cat pen. The major different is their chose of Cat, art work layout and the presentation.

Decling Populative ... Slowly turning Venice into a ghost city

There is no time better than now to pick up a good piece of collection regarding Venice. According to an Today newspaper article dated November 22, 2009 titled "Declining Population - Venice mourns its death", the population of the city is declined to at a alarming number of below 60,000.  The local feel like an endangered species and fear that the city into a ghost city in 30 years with no Venetians left.

During the transition between Richmont to Elmo Monegrappa, they introduced the limited edition City d'Arte Venezia. It helped to give the city the necessary attention from the fountain pen world.

The Art of Paper Folding - Origami

There are many saying about the origin of origami. Some say origami originated in China around 2000 years ago, and later developed as an art in Japan almost comp temporarily to the arrival of paper from China.

Others say origami originated from Japan in Heian era (741 – 1191). as a pastime for women and children.
The art of paper folding without any cutting was only developed in Muromachi Period (1338 – 1573).

Happy Hari Raya Haji ... & Happy Thanks Giving ...

We wish all our muslim friends happy Hari Raya Haji.

We also wish all our American friends Happy Thanks Giving.

While our local pen craft magazine had sunset, it give rise to another pen magazine 'Pen Werke'. The first issue is below expectation. We hope the 2nd issue will be better, and as good as pen world and stylus magazine.

Check it out at the major local book stores.

All I want for Christmas ...

Christmas is exactly one month away. We have picked a few items that you might want to consider for your Christmas year. Top of the list is the latest a Lamborghini. This Lamborghini you can proudly carry in your pocket. It the latest creation from great company Omas and Automobili Lamborghini.

The “AUTOMOBILI LAMBORGHINI by OMAS” Limited Edition distinctive is its triangular shape aluminium barrel and cap coared with black PVD treatment, which is revolutionary and stylistic element of Omas’ lines. A clear reference to Automobili Lamborghini’s specific design and logo in a triangular shield with bull finely engraved on the top of the cap.

The shapes and the contrast between the shiny and matt trims of the stylistic details, embody elegance and perfectly translate the sporty design of the Automobili Lamborghini cars.

Rumours, Rumours ... Smoking Hot? Not!

The campaign Fresh Air for Woman (FAFW) is now in the 6th year since it was launch by the Health Promotion Board (HPB) to takle the increasing trend of smoking among women in Singapore.

According to the Natioanl Surveillance Survey, the number of simokers aged between 18 and 29 has risen from 3 fold (3% to 9%) in 2007.

This year HPB launched the campain with a pseudo cosmetics range of products. Unlike the other cosmetics products, this special products only come in strange dull and falt grey hues. This decidedly unattractive shade comes from the core ingredient - cigarette ash.

The purpose of us putting up this page as a alert to millions of woman out there, because we feel nothing quite alarms to our youthful women than the degeneration of their beauty. The thousands of dollars women spend on skincare and beauty products, a pack of cigarettes could easily and almost surely reverse those benefits.

We are sure no women will want to test the dirty grey makeup on their skin, or would they want to apply over hundreds and thousands of chemicals on their face. The question - why are the women doing it to their body.

Take the first step, quit smoking, stay young and pretty. The FAFW website, www.freshair.sg provides useful information, inspirational stories and practical advice for women.

We hope you will be as pretty and elegrance as one of our favour, Ingrid Bergman. The Academy Award and Tony Award winning actress, best known for her role in “Casablanca”, was a Hollywood icon whose fame spanned the globe.

Mont Blanc launched an edition under her name; Ingrid Bergman Edition. This pen is inspired by the sleek and cosmopolitan elegrance of the '40s. The beautiful mother-of-pearl lacquer cap design mirrors the iconic column dress with its narrow shape, richly drapped fabrics and thinly pleated materials and finished off with red gold plated fittings. It is also decorated with Ingrid Bergman´s signature.

Each pen is adorned with a brilliant royal-purple amethyst (approx. 0.25 ct) in the clip. The fountain pen features a hand finished solid 18kt. gold nib with heart-shaped hearthole.

Mont Blanc also launched "La Diva" Limited Edition 3 for different group of fountain pen users.

Sadly, it is a cartridge fountain pen, no converter. :-(

Another Pussy Cat On the Loose

Sailor seems to be hook on cat. After they crafred the beautiful Supreme Chinkin Cat & Kiku, they put another cat on the market this month (November, 2009). Using the Tenboni Chinkin techniques, the artisan craft the lively cat drawing on the King Of Pen (KOP). We are not sure which version of the KOP will be used for this chinkin pen. Our guess will be the ebnoite version.

The other thing that keep me curious is the presentation. The box that will come with the pen. We are wondering if it will come in a beautiful crafted Chinkin box just like the Supreme or the standard wooden box.

And the ink bottle, will it have a Chinkin cap, or just the standard cap.

???? more questions....

We only know this pen is released in a limited edition of 28 pieces worldwide with each pen individually number, and the price is half that of Supreme.

Sailor kept low profile on this pen, and keep us guessing on it details.

The thing I dislike about this pen is the clip. It is just in the way of the beauiful pen.

We will just have to wait for it to be available during Christmas.

If you are looking for a Christmas gift, you might want to consider this new Chinkin pen.

Traditional Symbol of China

The history of peony goes back to thousands of years. It is not surprising there are many mythodlogy surrounding the origin of the flower. Of the legend tells of a story of a physician, who received the peony on Mount Olympus from the mother of Apollo. Another legend describe the same physician as someone who was recused from fate of dying by a immortal by turning him into a flower; the peony.

Rumours, Rumours ... Namiki New Nippon Art - Origami Series

Back in July, I was informed that Namiki retired all 4 pens of the Nippon Art Ukiyo-e series. The replacement of the retired Nippon Art series is called Origami.

We took the picture this evening in a rush and will retake the pictures of the pens when time allows. Here it is.

Model of the pens from left to right.

1. Kabuto
2. Crane
3. Rabbit
4. Goldfish
5. Pengiun

While this is not a limited edition, but it is a hot items. The local retailers are allocated very little pieces of each design. If you are keen, do visit Fook Hing Trading, Elephant & Coral and Aesthetic Bay early. These pens are also a good gift for Christmas.

A Pen for Writing Maronthon

Nowadays, there are all kinds of marathon ... Standard Chartered 42km marathon, movie marathan which movie buff watch movie non-stop for 3 days, Ramen marathon which particular are to continously eat Ramen till they give up( the record is 700 bowls), then there is the famous vertical marathon where people will climb up the stairs of Singapore tallest hotel, Swisotel, Canon photo taking marathon, Adidas Sundown marathon which is further divided into 4 categories (UltraMarathon 84.39kim, Marathon 42.195, Woman Marathon 10km, and Team Marathon 4x10km), LionCity Marathon and the list go on and on ... but there is no writing marathon... I would imagine such a marathon will be something like the fountain pen users will use their favored fountain pen to writing beautifully and continuously for 10,000. The first person to complete will be winner, and i dream the prize to be the Dunhill/Namiki King Fisher Limited Edition.

My take for the best fountain pen to be used is such a writing marathon must be ultra light and durable.

We are "almost" in luck!

For those sport men and women pen lovers, Sailor released a pen just about right for you to join the marathon ... Introducing the one and only in the world "Cabonfine". It is make from a "Carbon fiber", and it is lightweight and extremely strong. A joint development between Sailor Co. Japan and Yonex Japan.

Yonex Co. Ltd is well known for using high technology "carbon fiber" for their badminton and tennis racquets, as well as golf clubs.

The result of this joint effort is a very special and quality fountain pen made using Yonex high technology "cabon fiber". A pen with durable pen cap, barrel and excellent nib.

Earlier we mentioned we are "almost" in luck, because Sailor has no plan to sell the pen outside Japan. We hope our local retailors will bring it here for our foutain pen users, just like they did it for the Sailor Professional Gear Slim Hello Kitty Special Edition.

Penguin

This is the 5th part to the 10 part blogs of the Sailor Creatures of the Deep fountain pens collection. Previously, we wrote about clown fish, Hammerhead Shark, Whales and Octopus.


While we was trying to write about about Pengium, we by chance found this article
"Help save a penguin on your next vacation" by travel editor Peter Greenberg on MSNbc.com.

Volunteer vacations can be fun and exciting as you get to meet people from different walk of life, a chance to get close and personal with the wildlife and do something useful for our mother earth and wildlife.

Decemeber vacation is around the corner, when you are planning for your next vacation, you might want to consider a volunteer vacation.

Rumours, Rumours ... Marketplace News

Dear Friends and Readers,

We have updated our Marketplace with a Sailor Professional Gear.

Till date, we have 17 items posted for your consideration. For our friends and readers outside Singapore, if you are keen in any of item(s), or you have something that you would like to post it on the market place. Do write to us. We are sure to work out something that everybody will benefit.

Many thanks for visiting.

Namiki 2009 Limited Edition - Polar Bear

After looking at the Namiki 2009 Limited Edition on paper way back in September 2009, we have been wanting for the arrival of actual pen itself. In our option, Namiki has done something non-traditional, something colourful and contemporary. We believe they are trying to capture the market outside Asia.


After a long wait, the polar bear finally landed Singapore, and we managed to take a few pictures before the proud owner bring it home safely.

Here are a few pictures which we took. Engjoy!

DO IT RIGHT! ... Yellow Ribbon

The Yellow Ribbon symbol has various meaninging. They are mostly associated with those waiting for the return of a loved ones or of miltary troops who are temporaily unable to come home.

In the '80, Philippines opposition leader used the symbol, and the most remember event was the 1986 People Power Revolution led by Nonoy and Cory Aquino. They led a series of non-violent and prayful mass street demostrations, which toppled the authoritian regime chair by a strongman Fredinard Marcos. Cory Aquino became the 11th President of the Philippines and the first woman to hold that office.

Meow, Meow ... I am a (nicer) Cat

"不管 黑猫白猫，抓住耗子就是好猫！ "邓小平

Cats are among the most common pets in the world. The man and cat relationship can be dated back to 8000 years ago.

During the Pharaohs day, cats freely roamed the land at will. Laws were created at that time to protect cats. In fact, it was considered a capital crime to kill or injure a cat, even if the cat died through an unfortunate accident.

An good example would be, if a house caught fire, people are first to recuse the cat before human. The rule stated something like this—cats first, humans second.

If a cat should die of natural causes the entire household went into elaborate mourning with chanting and pounding of chests as an outward sign of grief. The body of the cat had to be wrapped in linen and delivered to the priest who inspected the cat's body to be certain the cat had died a natural death.

What is your lucky number?

Here is an interesting piece of numerologiical trivia: way back in year 2004, China Sichuan Airlines spent more than a quarter of a million yuan to purchase a telephone number. That is quite of pile of yuan (the highest denomination of yuan is 100). The executives were confident that travelers won't simply dial the number for flight times details, but felt that by dialing the number, it will also give the travelers a very special feeling of happiness.

Are you able to guess what that special telephone number is?

Numerological symbolism plays a key role in our society. For example, the Chinese believe that it it important not to schedule any important invitation on the 4th day of the month. The AMO may ask "why not?"

The is because the "four" and "death" are thought to be equivalents by the Japanese and Chinese. These two words are homonyms in Chinese. Both are pronounced as 'si'.

Namiki Yakuri Morning Glory

Buy a morning glory at Hop(e)Marketplace to brighten up your day.

Imagine one fine Sunday morning you wake up and look out the window, you see a beautiful pink flower open up, giving you the feeling that the flower is waving at you saying "Good morning Lee, a sunny day for you to get out of the house and do the ..."


As the names goes, morning glory, saucer-shaped flowers and vines which open only in the morning time. Morning glory, in the family convolulaceae contains at least 50 genera and more than 1000 species, is well known to be the best flowers to decorate the our fences and walls.

Guess Who I am? Part 2

New items added at Hope(e)Marketplace

Hello there, here is another masked picture.

Are you closer now to guess which pen is in there?

Click here for previous pictures.

Rumours, Rumours ... Marketplace is here

Finally, the marketplace is ready. We have posted a few items for your consideration. Do have a look when you visit us.

Many thanks to our readers and friends who provided us their valuable feedback.

You can click here, or the Hop(e) Marketplace picture on the top right corner.

Same, same but different ...

Pilot Custom 823, a pen that need no introduction. Well known for it unique filling system and ink level. Each Custom 823 is fitted with a vacuum filling system, thereby storing a large amount of ink. Its finely crafted 14kt gold nib is a true pleasure to write with, offering consistent flow every stroke of the word.


Pilot had repackage it Custom 823 clear demo fountain pen. Instead of just the pen and the standard box, the new package come with a 50ml Iroshizuku bottle ink.

And the price is also different. You pay for the pen, ink and box.

Hmmmm... What can I do with the box? Any recommendation?

Did you manage to guess which manufacturer pen is in the box which I posted on Oct 21, 2009?

More items added at Hop(e)Marketplace... check it out.

Guess Who I am?

New items added at Hope(e)Marketplace

A very beautify pen set landed on my lap yesterday afternoon. Are you able to guess which pen is it?


Here is a hint. A masked picture of the ink bottle that come with it?

S.T. Dupont - Shanghai 中国上海

Shanghai had always been a major city in the past. During the First Opium War, it was occupied by the British till the signing of the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing, which open it ports for international trade.

It then follow by the signing of the Treaty of the Bogus in 1843 and the Sino-American Treaty of Wangsia in 1844. It is the start of foreign nations achieve extraterritoriality on Chinese soil ...


... the start of the foreign concessions ... 2009 Shanghai is known as the Peral of the Orient, a city not only well know for it rich history, and collection of buildings and structures of various architectural styles, but also well know as the center of finance and trade in mainland China.