If you've ever traveled to Japan, you will know that everyday transactions come filled with paper based receipts, postcards, tickets, stickers, wrappers and more. 

What is unique about this ephemera is that even the most basic items can be a design masterpiece. Whether it's the paper chopstick wrapper or gallery entry pass, these small pieces tell the story of a culture obsessed with crafts, and of course how you spent your days. 

Teaming these scraps and souvenirs with beautiful Japanese stationery is an opportunity to create the ultimate travel memories through the process of 'junk journaling'. 

What is a Junk Journal?

Journaling takes discipline, habit and introspection. 

Junk journaling takes an eye for scraps of beauty, and a glue stick.

At its heart, junk journaling is the practice of collecting and arranging paper ephemera into a journal or notebook. The materials are often things that would otherwise be discarded:

• Train tickets
• Receipts
• Maps
• Museum passes
• Product packaging
• Postcards
• Stickers
• Vintage book pages
• Notes and letters
• Pressed flowers
• Fabric scraps

Unlike traditional scrapbooking, there are very few rules. Pages can be layered, stitched, stamped, painted, written on, folded or tucked into pockets. The goal isn't perfection. It's preservation, creativity and personal storytelling. 

It transforms the small fragments of everyday life into a living, tactile record of experiences, memories and creativity. Part scrapbook, part diary, part artist's book, a junk journal celebrates the beauty of the ordinary by giving discarded or overlooked materials a second life. 

Building your junk journaling toolkit

The beauty of the craft is that you can start with almost nothing.

However, a few thoughtfully chosen tools make the process even more enjoyable.

A beautiful notebook

A good notebook becomes the foundation of your journal.

Whether you prefer grid paper, blank pages or thicker mixed-media stock, choose something you'll enjoy returning to again and again.

Washi Tape

Perhaps no tool is more closely associated with Japanese paper craft.

Washi tape is perfect for:

• Attaching tickets
• Creating borders
• Layering backgrounds
• Adding colour and texture

Because it can be repositioned easily, it removes much of the pressure from page design.

Stickers and paper ephemera

Small stickers and decorative paper pieces help connect disparate elements into cohesive spreads.

Vintage-inspired labels, botanical motifs, postal themes and travel imagery all work beautifully.

Carved rubber stamps

Hand-carved and artisan rubber stamps bring warmth and personality to pages.

A single stamp repeated throughout a journal can become part of the story itself.

Quality ink ads

Beautiful inks add another layer of expression.

Soft greys, deep indigos, earthy browns and muted greens complement the restrained aesthetic often found in Japanese stationery.

Curated for slow creativity

At Mitsuya Home, we're drawn to objects that encourage slower, more intentional living.

Junk journaling embodies this perfectly.

Rather than creating for an audience, it invites you to create for yourself.

The process becomes less about documenting life and more about noticing it.

Our growing collection of junk journaling supplies includes:

• Curated junk journal kits
• Japanese washi tapes
• Decorative stickers
• Beautiful notebooks
• Carved rubber stamps
• Quality inks
• Stationery and paper goods designed to be used, collected and treasured

These pieces are chosen not simply for their practicality, but for the joy they bring to the creative process.

Gather those fragments. Open a notebook. Add a little washi tape, a favourite stamp, a brief note about the day.

You may be surprised how quickly a collection of small scraps becomes a story worth keeping.

Because sometimes the most meaningful memories are found in the things we almost discarded.