Hirayama Mannendo is often mentioned when people planning a trip to Japan ask about must-visit stationery stores. It’s located in the city of Hirosaki in Aomori prefecture on Honshu. That’s 9 hours by bus or 4.5 hours by train from Tokyo, so what makes it so special? They (and many other small pen and ink shops around Japan) offer popular store-exclusive inks that are unavailable online or in other shops. (There’s no website, but they do have an IG account @hirayama_mannendo.) In particular, their Hirosaki series (first released in 2018 or 2019) includes a couple of very popular inks. The inks are from Sailor and come in the iconic Sailor vase bottles.