San-x: Nyan Nyan Nyanko Nyankoland Notepad (2007)

In which I pull out some stationery and, as is typical, get all nostalgic.

I have never really liked being a collector of things. While I love surrounding myself with cute things, I like using them, and if something doesn’t “bring joy,” so to speak (I know that’s overused, but I do still like the idea of it), I generally rehome it or figure out something else. So what I like being is that person with the perfect pen, or notebook, or my very favorite figures lined up just so, or whatever, all the time, just for my own weird preferences.

It’s the same thing with stationery. Many times people who notice I like to buy a lot of cute stationery say they could never use those things if they bought them themselves — they’d feel like they were wasting them. But from my point of view stationery is meant to be used, so I try to enjoy things instead of hoarding them.

For those reasons, I don’t have a lot of old stationery to show here on this blog, except for what I buy now. But the other day Mr. B asked if I had some little notepads he could use — we’re both on a big let’s-pick-up-our-lives-and-get-organized-after-wallowing-too-long-in-COVID-misery effort right now — and I found this one from the San-x 2007 Nyankoland collection. With its paper supplies dwindling and officially now called into helping-Mr.-B-get-organized service, I thought the best way to memorialize it was a post here!

It’s comforting how little has changed in the world of San-x stationery even as everything else seems so crazy, you know? Just like the very recent Kokoroaraiguma notepads I posted, these similarly have four designs and are the same dimensions (about six inches high and four wide).

I don’t know if I’d say Nyan Nyan Nyanko is one of my very favorite San-x lines (I used to really like when they dressed up as sweets, but then it felt like a burger theme went on interminably and I sort of fell out of buying their stuff), but I do really like this collection. Amusement parks are cute, and extra cute when they overlap with some Halloween themes (a favorite of mine) in the Horror Nyanko House as pictured below!

I wanted to say something about the world of 2007 seeming simpler and like something I’d like to return to, but my neurotic self was stressing out in graduate school at the time and I’m sure I would have found a ton of things to complain about then too, so I’m trying to concentrate on giving my heart from today a wash instead of pining for the past.

Still, I was happy to run into these guys again, and even happier to find another notepad from the same time — but that’ll be coming up soon. ^ – ^