From The Desk 1

I am a fan of the On The Desk, At Any Time blog by Kossy in Japan. Taking some inspiration from his blog, I am going to have some occassional brief postings on things “from the desk” (mine or yours).  It might be an item I am actually using, or something I want to post about but don't feel inspired to do a full post or review on, or..? Though many of the postings will not be about mechanical pencils, I hope that overall it will enhance rather than dilute this blog.
To kick off then, something from Kossy himself, a desk notepad that he sent me quite a long time ago. I sort of felt it was too good to use, but now I am going to start.

Presentation box and notepad. Cherry blossom I suppose?

Being Japanese the notepad cover opens “back to front”, i.e. left to right. The red cover is very thick cardboard with a very heavy 9mm (3/8th in.) thick baseboard. The pad is A6 size and comes with a small round wooden pencil. The back cover of the pad slides into a cover on the baseboard and is thus replaceable.

There is no branding discernable to my eyes, but I imagine this marking on the cover means something?

Not much else to say. As for the quality of the paper, etc well Kossy doesn’t speak much English but (with the help of Google translate?) he included this note, “I bought it a old shop. The shop is very famous in Japan. Because always the Royal Family of Japan chose it.” In a country like Japan, I figure that's a pretty solid endorsement and worth more than any comment I might make.

Thanks Kossy.