Little Tokyo Fountain Pen Shop for Click Pens: Kinokuniya

Kinokuniya's Los Angeles flagship reopened in June 2026 on the ground floor of the Kajima Building at 101 San Pedro Street, and it is now the biggest place in Little Tokyo to try a Japanese fountain pen in person. It opens 11 am to 8 pm every day. On the pen side, Kinokuniya's own listings put a Platinum Prefonte at $15.95, a retractable Platinum Curidas at $99.45 and a Sailor 1911 Large with a 21K nib at $395.

Kinokuniya's first store outside Japan opened in San Francisco in 1969, and in 1977 the company opened its second American location here in Little Tokyo. That first store sat inside a hotel before moving to Weller Court, where it stayed until July 2025. The company announced the new flagship in May 2026 and described it as roughly 14,000 square feet, more than double the old Weller Court floor.

The Rafu Shimpo covered the celebration in its August 1 edition. A reception on July 1 at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center included a kagami-wari sake-barrel ceremony with Kinokuniya chairman Masashi Takai, Kodansha president Yoshinobu Noma and Consul General Kosei Murota. Takai used the moment to count 57 years since the company entered the American market, and he pledged that the store would grow with the neighborhood.

During the gap year, Kinokuniya ran a temporary shop at The Bloc on West 7th Street downtown, which opened in August 2025. That space did not close when the flagship returned. It now operates as a separate store called Los Angeles The Bloc, with English books, stationery and gifts, so downtown office workers have a second, smaller pen stop a short Metro ride away.

Be clear about what this store is. The company's own announcement led with books: one of the largest selections of translated manga in California, an expanded English section built around translated Japanese fiction, Japanese-language titles, a dedicated Studio Ghibli corner and products sold only at this location. Japanese stationery is part of that list, not the headline, so plan to walk past a great deal of manga to reach the pens.

That trade-off is worth it for anyone who wants Japanese pens in hand rather than in a shipping box. Platinum is the deepest line on Kinokuniya's listings. The Preppy Wa series, printed with motifs such as koi climbing a waterfall or a morning glory, costs $20.95. The Plaisir, an aluminum pen with a slip-and-seal cap, starts at $24.95, and the Procyon in Shadow Mica runs $85.95.

The Curidas is the one pen here that most people have never held. It is a retractable fountain pen, so the nib clicks out like a ballpoint, and Kinokuniya lists colors like Gran Red, Abyss Blue and Prism Crystal at $99.45. If you take notes standing up, at a museum or a lecture, the Curidas solves the lost-cap problem. If you write mostly at a desk, skip it and buy a Procyon.

Sailor covers the gold-nib shelf. The Professional Gear Slim with a 14K fine nib is listed at $275, and the 1911 Large with a 21K medium nib at $395. Pilot's Kakuno, at $19.95, is the gift pick for children or anyone nervous about fountain pens, with a hexagonal grip that guides the fingers and a smiling face engraved on the steel nib.

Diamine's 30ml bottles are the bargain in the ink section at $7.95, in blues like Midnight, Twilight and Oxford Blue. For Sailor pens, a twelve-pack of Jentle cartridges is $6.95 in black or blue and $7.95 in blue-black. Platinum's silver converter costs $13.95 and its basic converter $9.95. Pilot's CON-40 twist converter is $6.99, which turns a Kakuno into a bottle-fed pen for a few dollars more.

Match the cartridge to the pen brand before you pay. Pilot, Platinum and Sailor each use proprietary cartridges, and none of them fits another brand's pen. If you buy a Preppy as a gift, add a converter so the recipient can use any bottled ink rather than hunting down Platinum cartridges later. A pen with no spare ink in the box usually ends up in a drawer.

Doors open at 11 am every day and close at 8 pm, including weekends, which makes this a good evening stop before dinner in the neighborhood. Little Tokyo fills up on weekends and around festival dates such as Nisei Week in August, so if you want room to compare nib sizes, come on a weekday shortly after the doors open.

If the flagship does not have it, The Bloc store downtown carries stationery too, and shoppers who want Western brands like Pelikan or Visconti will do better at a dedicated pen counter. Kinokuniya is the place for Japanese models, not for vintage pens or nib work.

Step out onto First Street and walk to the Japanese American National Museum, a few minutes east, whose permanent exhibition tells the story of Japanese American life including wartime incarceration. The Go For Broke Monument, honoring Japanese American soldiers of World War II, stands in the plaza nearby. Both make a sober counterweight to an afternoon spent choosing ink colors.

For something lighter, Japanese Village Plaza is a short walk away, a pedestrian lane of shops and snack stalls under a fire lookout tower. It is a fine place to sit with a new pen and a notebook. The Little Tokyo/Arts District Metro station, served by the A and E lines, is around the corner if you came by train, and the Arts District lies just east.

Kinokuniya Los Angeles is at 101 San Pedro Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012, on the ground floor of the Kajima Building in Little Tokyo. Hours are 11 am to 8 pm daily, Monday through Sunday. The pen prices above come from Kinokuniya's US web store listings for the same products.

Metro's A and E lines stop at Little Tokyo/Arts District, a short walk from San Pedro Street, and paid parking structures surround the Japanese Village Plaza area. For a ramen counter nearby, a quiet cafe to break in a new nib or another stationery stop downtown, ask Karpo in the Karpo APP and it will plan the walk from the Kajima Building.