Last week I went to the mt tape expo in Shibuya. mt tape is a Japanese washi paper masking tape. It comes in a variety of colors and patterns and is delightful. At the expo, all of the walls and floors and windows were covered in masking tape. They hung pretty little globes from the pretty tape-covered ceiling.

I wandered through the expo then found myself at an impromptu craft party, sitting in the sunshine with strangers where we ooh-ed and nodded our approval of the evolving tape masterpieces around us. A few girls squealed the occasional “kawaii!” It was a charming afternoon.

I love mt tape, and am doing my part to keep this company in business. I walked away from the expo and pop-up shop with this haul:

What do you do with fancy masking tapes (and pudding stickers), you ask? Well, I tape stuff. I decorate packages (if you’ve ordered from my Etsy shop, you might have noticed). I tape up gifts, notebooks, pencils, my umbrella. I use it to say “hands off, this pen is mine!” I mark special dates on my calendar and embellish notes to friends. Sometimes I even use it to tape something to something else.