MUJI USA isn't shutting down. They've filed for Chapter 11, and this helps in restructuring the business and reshaping the organisation. Ryohin-Keikaku, the parent company is a much larger organisation with about 1000 stores around the world - who still stand strong and in support of MUJI USA. Most of the stores in the US too, will remain open, and you can still go buy your favourite stationery, explore the absolute beauty and the sheer brilliance of design in the products or simply take a stroll in the calming aesthetics of the lovely stores they've created. Just hold on until the local authorities allow reopening of stores and you'll have both - MUJI and your illusions back :)
My heart stopped a minute when I read RIP Muji -- I have loooved that store in every location I've found it (first Vancouver, then Portland OR, finally NYC), and everything I've ever purchased there, from pens and notebooks to my favorite navy sweater. Sad to realize it is no more! 100 percent with you on the balm of The Right Paper / Pen products and congrats on your book deal. I'm with Elisabeth on morning hours and putting the writing first when your brain is fresh. If there's a Kinokuniya near you, it's a close second for pens and paper.
For book completion: Just write every day. If you're a morning person, the first four hours of the day are nice. Leave everything else, even email, even organizing and color-coding, until after lunch.
Oh Sari, SOLIDARITY! I have spent the morning shuffling around index cards and obsessively combing my notebooks for snippets of sentences that I've been hoarding for months. We're in it to win it, sister. :)
Nooooo, I didn't know about Muji, truly my happy place as well. Only reason I could move from NY to LA is because they were building a ginormous Muji in Hollywood. Ugh!!
Bird By Bird, Sari! It’s nice knowing there’s a like-minded soul obsessed with Japanese stationery/gift shops. (RIP Muji) My memoir is still “in progress,” the first memories of inspiration—drunk postulating with a friend in the backseat of a Philippine taxi cab—now approaching twenty years! So I feel you on “marring” the beautiful notebook. How about thinking of how lonely it feels unused? How all the others contain stories, misshapen thoughts, words, and yet it sits alone with its beauty, too nice to even touch. As someone said to me yesterday and I to you today: don’t sell yourself short. You got it going on. I should know, I’ve got both of your NYC anthologies to prove it! Onward, woman, write!
MUJI USA isn't shutting down. They've filed for Chapter 11, and this helps in restructuring the business and reshaping the organisation. Ryohin-Keikaku, the parent company is a much larger organisation with about 1000 stores around the world - who still stand strong and in support of MUJI USA. Most of the stores in the US too, will remain open, and you can still go buy your favourite stationery, explore the absolute beauty and the sheer brilliance of design in the products or simply take a stroll in the calming aesthetics of the lovely stores they've created. Just hold on until the local authorities allow reopening of stores and you'll have both - MUJI and your illusions back :)
My heart stopped a minute when I read RIP Muji -- I have loooved that store in every location I've found it (first Vancouver, then Portland OR, finally NYC), and everything I've ever purchased there, from pens and notebooks to my favorite navy sweater. Sad to realize it is no more! 100 percent with you on the balm of The Right Paper / Pen products and congrats on your book deal. I'm with Elisabeth on morning hours and putting the writing first when your brain is fresh. If there's a Kinokuniya near you, it's a close second for pens and paper.
Thanks, Eileen! I love Kinokuniya, too. PS Have wasted many writing hours perusing stationery in the Times Square-area location!
Oh Muji. I love that location and have stopped there many times with similar intentions.
For book completion: Just write every day. If you're a morning person, the first four hours of the day are nice. Leave everything else, even email, even organizing and color-coding, until after lunch.
That makes great sense. Thank you!
I’ve finally realized I am my own art supply/stationary store
Lol. I am embarrassed by how much stationery I have stockpiled over the years, much of it never used.
Oh Sari, SOLIDARITY! I have spent the morning shuffling around index cards and obsessively combing my notebooks for snippets of sentences that I've been hoarding for months. We're in it to win it, sister. :)
Thank you, Leigh! Good to know you can identify!
Nooooo, I didn't know about Muji, truly my happy place as well. Only reason I could move from NY to LA is because they were building a ginormous Muji in Hollywood. Ugh!!
Bird By Bird, Sari! It’s nice knowing there’s a like-minded soul obsessed with Japanese stationery/gift shops. (RIP Muji) My memoir is still “in progress,” the first memories of inspiration—drunk postulating with a friend in the backseat of a Philippine taxi cab—now approaching twenty years! So I feel you on “marring” the beautiful notebook. How about thinking of how lonely it feels unused? How all the others contain stories, misshapen thoughts, words, and yet it sits alone with its beauty, too nice to even touch. As someone said to me yesterday and I to you today: don’t sell yourself short. You got it going on. I should know, I’ve got both of your NYC anthologies to prove it! Onward, woman, write!
Thank you for this, Shermaine. It's good to know you can relate. I appreciate your encouragement! <3