Mai Do - Fine Stationery & Goods - Santana Row - San Jose, California

Beth K.

The best stationery store in Silicon Valley. Excellent selection of Japanese products and more - notebooks, including traveler’s notebooks, washi tape, stickers, pens, pencils, ink, art supplies, rubber stamps, and gifts. It is a small but mighty shop. Gets crowded on the weekends.

Anne M. W.

Enchantingly overwhelming! As soon as I walked in, I felt like I was falling under a spell. I was completely dazed by the extensive number and variety of items for sale. The journals alone were worth the visit, but then there is every type of pen, ink, and accessories that you could imagine. I grabbed a few pens to try and emerged back into Santana Row wondering just how soon I could come back.

Harpo P.

Nice selection of Japanese stationery, but horribly overpriced. I'm talking 200-300% markup.
I wanted to see Stalogy and Midori notebooks in person. They had them, lovely.
But I checked the price and they were charging $36 for the full-year B6 Stalogy. Outrageous.
Then, I went to check out the pens and they had the uniball one P! I tested it out, loved it, checked the price, and for Christ's sake they were charging $15!
Shop mindfully!

Christine D.

Maido has always been my favorite place to shop for notebooks, cards, and Japanese gifts. I have found some of the greatest pens and art supplies here. On one visit I bought a kokeshi doll, another time I bought a Ramen squishmallow. Most recently, I bought beautiful scissors and a cute rolling stamp. To some, it may seem like I like to waste my money on trivial stuff; as a writer and creative, it inspires me to keep doing all the things that bring me happiness

Mya H.

Two weeks ago, my partner and I visited this store, hoping to buy some blind boxes. I found a blind bag on display that I wanted, and a male employee with longer hair offered to go see if they had any more boxes of that series in top stock, as there weren't any for sale near the entrance. Unfortunately, there were no more of the blind bags available to sell, but he offered to grab us another blind box from top stock, to which we chose a box from the HeyDolls KIKI Cat Condo series.

Though it was pretty expensive, sitting at $21.95 before tax, I was so happy with the purchase that I came back yesterday to purchase another. When I went to go look for an associate that could help me get another blind box, I saw two women behind the cash register that weren't working as cashier, sitting around. I asked one if she could help me get another blind box, and she rudely said, "Ugh, we're not allowed to sell those ones yet." So I responded, "But I got one here two weeks ago..." then she rolled her eyes and ignored me.

I'm not sure if she was just being lazy, preoccupied with another task on her laptop, or having a bad day. But seeing as we were able to get the blind box I requested a couple weeks ago, she was obviously lying to avoid getting on the ladder to grab me another blind box. I love this store and visit it rather often, so it hurts to be treated so poorly with no reason when I'm a somewhat regular customer.

zahra

tried asking the employees some questions and they gave me the worse possible energy; made me feel like the dumbest person alive for wanting to know more about the pens and inks. also went up to the front at another point to ask if i could grab an ink from the case and i stood there waiting for them and they looked at me but went back to talking to each other, they quite literally ignored me. said excuse me louder for them to hear bc they were chatting and then the person came to help me but, again, made me feel stupid for needing help. the vibes were terrible i never want to go to this maido location again.

Maddy W. G.

Cute store full of things that bring me joy. They have some JJK merch and when I walked in they were playing "blue bird" from Naruto which made my soul so happy. I got 3 really pretty vintage posters here for only $5.50 (each) as well as some adorable wooden octopus earrings and a penguin key cover.

Vipin K.

Exhaustive options with lovely staff. Frank is your man for fountain pens and ink. He is honest about the ink properties and how some pens behave. I called up, checked the availability and went over. They're happy to let you know if an item is in stock over the phone.
We bought a yellow platinum preppy (fairly inexpensive pen) which comes with a yellow cartridge but asked if they would swap out the yellow for a black cartridge. They let us keep the yellow cartridge and then gave us two additional black cartridges for free. We tipped a $1 more for the spare cartridges.