Cult Pens 2022 Japanese Advent Calendar

You all seemed to like last year's Cult Pens Advent Calendar so much that we decided to do another one this year... Oh, no wait. Ah. Apparently we couldn't decide on the contents, so we've pushed the boat out and have TWO for you! Gosh. OK then, well this one focuses on a selection of stationery from Japan, a country synonymous with whimsy in terms of stuff you didn't know you needed until you did. So what's in it? Well... (look away now if you don't want to know)...

Erasers have but one function: to erase. And while this one doesn't do anything other than erase, it does give you five widths to achieve the perfect vanishing act.

Want to be subtle in your approach to highlighting? Then this is what you need. It's a much better fit for your pencil case than traditional highlighters and - being a Japanese innovation - it comes with a protective cap and integrated sharpener as well.

Pencil cases that hold all your stuff are great. Those that hold it all and stand up are even better. But those - like this one - that hold all your stuff, stand up and then make all your pens and pencils protrude handily from the top are the complete and utter Penguin (or badger as we say here in Devon).

It's a fineliner, with a superfine plastic tip. It has a pocket clip. It contains acid-free, smudge-resistant ink. What more can we say? It's Le Pen.

A small notebook for small notes. Things like 'buy milk' and 'ring Mum' but probably not for 'which one of you took the car last night and where have you put the keys???'

Reminders, a teaching aid, an emergency business card... flash cards have lots of uses. And these are just that little more interesting than your usual bit of white card. You're in duck!

Staplers are all very well. They do the job but they're not very interesting. Clips are better. Easier to remove, that's for sure, but when your clips look as 'dog'gone good as this you probably won't want to remove them.

Forever mislaying your pen or pencil? When you tuck it behind your ear does it just untuck itself? Have you poked it through your bun and then sent it flying when you shook out your crowning glory? Well, sounds like you need this. It works best if clipped onto the side of your notebook, where its accommodating spring can clutch a writing instrument tight and keep it safe.

There's something ridiculously satisfying about a sticker. Instant gratification for the impatient! A quick fix for the creatively-challenged! A certain smugness when perfectly applied.

Pretty tape is much the same. Instant border! Decorative highlighter capability! Liven up that boring shoe! (or something) A certain smugness when perfectly applied.

Annoying, isn't it, when you're on a real roll with your writing and you work up such a frenzy that your fingers slide ineluctably closer and closer to tip of the pen and end up slipping off altogether? Well that won't happen with this pen.

Yes, Pentel are Japanese. And this marker will work on pretty much any surface, including metal, glass and rubber. And it'll put up with a bit of abuse too, as the barrel is aluminium.

It looks like a fountain pen - but it isn't. It highlights stuff. And then, when you've run out of ink, you can refill it with Platinum fluorescent ink cartridges.

The perfect brush pen, developed in collaboration with Souun Takeda, one of Japan's foremost calligraphers.

Simple design, fine nib, semi-translucent barrel so your ink colour adds to the overall 'look'. No-nonsense, does what it says on the tin type of fountain pen. And you get two!

Wrestling with grip issues? Look no further - the clue's in the name. This is a mechanical pencil with a veritable sumo of a grip. It's fat. And sort of squashy. Perfect for whether you have aches and pains or just enjoy a writing instrument with a comfy grip.

Weeny (5mm diameter) sticky circles in yellow, green and blue. Lots of them. Prettify a plain notebook cover, mark something as yours, track progress... anything, really. Ideal for when you need a dot. They're made of Japanese washi tape, so they'll peel off easily and won't leave that annoying sort of tacky residue that only seems to come off with something you need to be over 18 in order to buy.

A wax-based coloured pencil in a very seasonal colour - Spruce! 'Irojiten' means 'colour encyclopaedia', so if you fancy some other colours as well, there's more where this one came from!

Glue tape is brilliant. No unwelcome globs of random glue, no tube-squeezing, no post-glueing clean-up operations. Just a simple swipe and a quick (powerful) stick of whatever it is you want stuck.

A spiral-bound notebook with a simple Kraft card cover that partially conceals the rings when closed, so there's less risk of things getting accidentally hooked onto a spiral. And even if that never happens to you (are you sure?) this is still a notebook worth having because it's filled with 100 sheets of great quality MD plain paper and has a polar bear embossed on the front!

A super-fine-tipped drawing pen filled with Super Ink - fadeproof, waterproof and tamper-resistant. And black.

A bullet-tipped marker pen filled with paint - marks most surfaces, can be made permanent. And white.

Emotts are fineliners with a simple, stylish livery - plain white barrels with an ink-colour band - and this is a set of 3, a variation on the common combination of red, green and blue. You'll get red, khaki and violet instead.

It's a highlighter, but it's not. Well, it does what a highlighter does, but mildly. That is, you can make words and passages stand out, but in a subtle way, a smoky blue kind of way. No need to whip out the sunglasses.