Tokyo has two fountain pen shows featuring vintage pens each year. One is the event sponsored by the club "Fuente" in October, and the other is the "Pen Trading Show in Tokyo" and is sponsored by the Pen Collectors of Japan. This is held every March in a building near Shirokanedai station. This year's Show was held from March 20 to March 21.

This year I went on the second day instead of the first, which was probably a mistake. Many of the pens had already been bought, and the crowd was thinner. A comparison with Eizo Fujji's photos of the same event on his Eurobox Web site will bear this out. Also I missed out on meeting Pentracer David Thompson. The next day several people asked me if I knew this huge foreigner who apparently lives in Tokyo and loves pens. I did meet Pentracer Lou Caccamo, and snapped his photo.

Although the goodies were not as plentiful as the first day, I bought 12 pens, all new old stock eyedropper pens, plus 6 more journals, made exclusively for the Pen Collectors of Japan, and illustrated by artist and pen collector Mr. Furuyama (pictured below). There was also free coffee, tea and senbei (rice crackers -- hey, this is Japan after all!), and lots of good conversation. There were probably no more than 20 people in the room at any given time, but this is still the big event in the small pen collecting community in Japan.

Click on any of the images below to see enlarged photos.

A shot of the entrance to the building	The poster at the entrance.	President of the Pen Collectors of Japan Mutsumi Mori holding his pen clinic.
Another shot of Mr. Mori. In the foreground on the left is "Debeso" Nakatani, president of Fuente.	Pentracer Eizo Fujii manning his table.	Another shot of Eizo Fujii.
Mr. Furuyama (left), well known artists who uses fountain pens in his illustrations -- as tools and sometimes as subjects!	Some samples of Mr. Furuyama's amazing art.	More Furuyama masterpieces of interest to pen lovers.
Pentracer Lou Caccamo pondering a purchase. (He eventually went with a different pen).	All the pen collectors know each other very well and have a good time together. That's "Debeso Nakatani" in the center.	Some of what was left on the second day!

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