The Japan Book Edit
JULY & AUGUST BOX
JULY & AUGUST BOX
Couldn't load pickup availability
A curated box of Japan, delivered every two months.
One Japanese novel. A beautifully designed notebook. A handmade booklet. Each edition is put together with care โ the kind of box you open slowly, with a cup of something warm.
What's inside
Three things, chosen to be read, written in, and kept.
On the surface, Eriko has it all figured out โ a coveted role in the seafood division of one of Japan's biggest trading companies, doting parents, and an apartment kept immaculately in order. Her latest project, reviving the once-controversial Nile perch for the Japanese market, is ambitious even by her standards. Underneath it all, though, she's quietly, achingly lonely.
Then she discovers Shลko's blog: convenience-store dinners, a cluttered home, none of the polish Eriko is used to performing herself โ and she's instantly drawn in. When the two finally meet, an easy friendship begins to form. But as Eriko's fascination with Shลko deepens, the line between closeness and control starts to blur, pulling both women somewhere far more unsettling.
Sharp, unsettling, and impossible to put down, HOOKED is a story about hunger โ for food, for connection, for belonging โ and the standards women are quietly held to.
All current subscribers, plus the first 15 new sign-ups, will receive this edition's special collaboration cover โ the airplane-and-highway design created exclusively with illustrator Rie Shimada. After those 15 spots are filled, new subscribers will receive the notebook in the classic navy Rollbahn instead. Once they're gone, they're gone!
In Japan, Rollbahn isn't just a notebook โ it's practically a rite of passage. Since its launch in 2001, it's become one of the country's most recognisable pieces of stationery, with a following so devoted that entire shelves of stationery shops in Tokyo are dedicated to it alone. Ask any Japanese notebook lover and there's a good chance they own at least one โ usually several.
- Journaling
- Daily diary
- Reading log
- Travel notebook
- Gratitude notebook
- Idea notebook
- Recipe notes
- Everyday to-do lists
| Size | A5 โ 16.8 ร 21.6 cm |
| Pages | Approx. 160 pages, 5mm grid, cream fountain-pen-friendly paper |
| Binding | Spiral bound โ lies flat when open |
| Closure | Elastic band |
| Extras | 5 clear storage pockets, perforated pages for easy tear-out |
Born in 1994 and based in Tokyo, Rie completed her master's in architecture at Waseda University's Graduate School of Creative Science and Engineering in 2019. After working in architectural design, she moved into illustration full-time โ drawing quietly curious, understated cityscapes. Her work spans architectural renderings, book and booklet covers, illustrations, and visuals for advertising.
Every edition includes a short booklet I put together by hand, page by page โ why we chose this book, a little about the notebook and the person who designed it, and a few Japanese words worth knowing. It takes longer than printing one would, but that's kind of the point: I want this to feel like something someone made for you, not something that was mass-produced. A short read to go alongside the box.
HOOKED asks uncomfortable questions about hunger, appetite, and the standards women are held to โ and refuses to give easy answers. It's tense, clever, and hard to put down. We chose it for this edition because it pulls you in slowly and doesn't let go โ the kind of story you'll want to sit with, notebook close by, ready to jot down the lines that stay with you.
Orders close 15 August
Get the box โShare
