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Several times a year in different locations around Japan, Sailor conducts an event where [one of their?] ink blenders camps out at a bungu store and receives requests from customers to create an ink to their individual specifications. I learned about this from the ladies at Shosaikan in Aoyama, when lamenting that they did not carry Noodler's Apache Sunset. "Why don't you go and see the ink blender, and have him make it for you?" Lower down in the post I will put a link from the Sailor web page that show when and where all the events are. Getting a ticket (a seiriken) for this event takes a bit of planning, as I learned from my first attempt to participate. Back in August I tried to go to one that was held at Maruzen in Kawasaki. I had no idea how popular this event was, and foolishly chose to arrive thirty minutes before the event start time on the second day, a Sunday. By the time I got there, a Sailor employee was explaining to those stills standing around that all of the seiriken were sold out. I ended up just watching a bit, and then left with my tail between my legs. Next time around the event was held at K Itoya in Ginza, and I did a little asking around to see how early I really needed to arrive to secure a spot. None of the clerks at stores where the event is held were willing to give me a concrete answer, most explaining that there is a difference, of course, in how many people show up based on the economy (many more people this year than last because the economy has improved) and what day of the week the event is held. Another important factor to take into consideration is how many doors there are to the stationary store. Unless you are attending an event at a place you have seen it conducted before, if there is more than one door to the store (such as the nihonbashi maruzen...), you would have no idea were to stand to line up. Fortunately K Itoya has only one entrance. I ended getting there a solid two hours prior, and at about the one hour prior mark, there was so many people in line that it was clear that no everyone was going to get a turn. Supposedly the blender can see about thirty people in one day. About thirty minutes prior, someone from the store starts handing out the seiriken, and from that point, you are free to go about as you wish, since your position is secure. Interestingly, there were about 85% women in line, and no other foreigners. I spoke with a couple of people in line, and it seems that many were return customers. The event has been written up in publications like Shumi no bungu bako (趣味の文具箱) so it's pretty clear that people know about this event and what they're going to get out of it. The ink blender is a long time sailor employee and has a chemistry background, so he has a wealth of knowledge, of course. He has also been doing the event for several years now, and keeps a notebook of all the inks he has made for people, so I think one can ask him for pretty much anything and he can address the request. I asked him to make something as close as possible to bung box sweet potato purple. He explained that he could not make exactly the same thing as any of the different store special inks, but as long as I was only asking for something "extremely similar," he could accommodate the request. l Apparently sweet potato purple was not only popular among foreigners, and he said he had recently made a batch for the particular store, so it took him all of five seconds to put together the test batch. Since I had never seen the ink in real life, I was unable to really know how similar it was to the "real thing," and just decided to take his word for it. I questioned whether I should be able to see the green and gold sheens, and he explained that it really depends on the pen and on the paper, and gave me a little bit of an explanation of the physics of colors, explaining how the paper can soak up the components that reflect the particular colors you're hoping to see. At the end he asked me what I wanted to call it, and wrote down my name and the name of the color in his log book. Each customer gets about fifteen minutes. Because I wasn't truly asking him for something new, our whole interaction took all of five minutes. Although I was disappointed initially not to be able to see the different color sheens at the store and on the papers I had at home, at the time, it wasn't until I purchased a notebook from Nagasawa bungu senta in Kobe made from their Graphilo that I really got to see what this ink is capable of. It is incredible. Unbelievable. Sometimes I just make scribbles and fill in shapes just to look at it from different angles under the light. The only thing I have in my collections that compares is J Herbin 1670 Emerald du Chivor. Here is a link to the sailor website with the event calendar. The ink blender event is called Ink Kobo (インク工房） https://www.sailor.co.jp/event There's a description of the even one screen down, and a picture of the blender. And the calendar below that. Next event is next weekend at the Tamagawa Itoya. I'll try again, this time if I am lucky enough to get a ticket, I will ask for something slimilar to Jentle Apricot, or the saffronish yellow that they do for Nagasawa. I will be putting up a post with a review of graphilo paper that will have pictures of what my purple and Emerald Du Chivor and several other intesting inks look like on that paper. STBY.