Have you all started your back-to-school shopping yet? We have enjoyed our summer but I can’t wait to get back to the school routine (and have some peace and quiet in my house– ha!).
Something that (I feel) is far superior in Japan are school and office supplies. The pencils and erasers my kids use at their American school are always breaking/doesn’t erase well. We went to an office supply store while we were in Japan and I was in heaven! So many high quality supplies, and designed well too.
I came back to the U.S. and was pleasantly surprised that many Japanese school supplies are available on Amazon! And you can’t beat the free shipping. I gathered some of my favorite items into my Amazon store for you here. I’ll keep adding as I find more:
My 7-year old daughter and I highly recommend these MONO erasers. She chooses these over her cute, character-shaped erasers every time because they WORK!
My son would go crazy over this Yokai Watch Bento Box. I would buy this for him if I hadn’t just recently purchased a Super Mario one for him in Japan! (My kids are currently obsessed with this show… maybe I’ll write a post about it later).
And it’s time to kick it into high gear with our Japanese studies. I find that my kids’ Japanese gets worse once the school year begins because they are immersed in English so much of the day. Thankfully, there are now a lot of Japanese-language materials available online now, like this Hiragana Practice Board.
What back to school supplies do you like the most? Are you excited for your kids to go back, or do you wish summer could last a little longer?
Hiragana Mama 
Our school year here starts in January… but I so agree about the quality of Japanese stationery! My Wee Bird loves her Japanese treasures, and I dream of 100 yen shops. 😀 Daiso has opened up stores, so we stock up when we’re in the state capital.
Thanks for your tip about Youkai Watch. I put it on for my kids today and they’ve been binge watching it. They are hooked! I’m homeschooling my girls this year so I’ve decided to include Japanese language learning into our curriculum. I’m not fluent, but I can at least teach them the basics. Your tips are amazing and I know I’ll be on your site every day! So…thanks in advance!