Japanese Snoopy Calendar

On my recent trip to LA for SCBWI's Illustrator's Day, I made a stop at one of my favorite bookstores in LA, Kinokuniya Books. Located in Little Tokyo, it's the LA branch of a chain of bookstores in Japan.

They not only carry Japanese books and magazines, but a nice collection of English language books as well, especially art and design books. I like to browse their children's section as well, to get an idea of what's being published in Japan.

One of my favorite parts of the store is the large stationary section -- I'm a sucker for colorful pens, notebooks, etc. The pencil cups on my desk are filled with so many of them, many I'll probably never get around to using ... but I digress.

What I found on this trip was a small mini-calendar for 2010. The kind that comes in a case similar to a CD jewel case. It's only about 3 1/2 inches square, but it's a calendar with vintage Snoopy images! I'm kind of a Snoopy nut, so I was really excited to find this. Above are 4 pages from the calendar, one is for January, the other 3 are signs you can use to let co-workers know where you are.

Translated they say (from top right going clockwise):
I'm in a meeting
I've temporarily left my seat
I'm out of the office (he's literally out in the field!)

I thought these were really cute and sooooo Japanese. It'll sit on my desk for the next year and maybe beyond.