Osaka Interlude : Brush Pen information and Buffet Breakfasts

A sketch and helpful info on brush pens, which were done in between our trips to Nara and Kobe.  Above you can see some notes on the different brush pens and fountain pens I bought at a Daiso 100 Yen store in Nara.  I almost went nuts when i saw their selection of cheap brush pens, and felt a little bad I’d spent so much on the pen from the old man in Nara.  After opening up all of my goodies and testing them out it turns out the old man’s pen was a pretty good deal.

Any brush pen that is 150 Yen or below is more likely to be a “brush marker”, in that the “brush” is made of the same material as a marker but shaped to a finer tip, in order to simulate a brush.  When using it, I find it very hard to distinguish between it and a regular marker.  Two of the brush pens I bought were like that.

I was also interested in getting fountain pens, because my own fountain pen was running out of ink and I forgot to bring along spare cartridges. The Riviere fountain pen is quite a deal at this price, as it replaced my more expensive Parker fountain Pen (bought for 700 pesos, as opposed to the Riviere’s 60 pesos when roughly converted to pesos) quite admirably.  It has a tendency to leak though, so I didn’t get any more cartridges for it and will probably go back to the Parker.

The most interesting pen of the bunch was also a “brush marker” but it was different because it had gray ink.  This worked out surprisingly well in my future sketches, adding a bit more depth to my ink drawings.  Ultimately the pen I bought from the old man in Nara was the better deal.  I never was able to find that brand of pen again, so if we ever get to go back I will definitely look him up again.

This sketch was done while having a buffet breakfast in the New Oriental Hotel.  My review of the New Oriental Hotel has yet to be published in Tripadvisor, but if you’re going to be in Osaka and on a budget, it’s hard to beat NOH’s sub 5000 Yen price tag for a room with ensuite bathrooms and a buffet breakfast.  Anyway, the man on the lower left corner caught my eye because he reminded me of a stereotypical beatnik (turtleneck, manicured goatee and mustache, round glasses).  I don’t know why, but feel like I have a memory of this look being trendy in Japan a few years back, but for the life of me I can’t figure out why I’d know that.