Review: Sailor Lecoule Tokyu Hands "Sun 02" Fountain Pen

The "Sun 02" is a special edition budget Sailor fountain pen exclusive to the Japanese retail store Tokyu Hands in Tokyo, Japan. During my trip to the country this past winter, I was lucky enough to stumble across this pen on sale while browsing the store and swiftly bought it.

Tokyu Hands is a retail chain in Japan that features plenty of different products ranging from gardener supplies to – you guessed it – fountain pens. They have some exclusive stationery in their store as well, including the Sailor Sun 02 I have here.

The fountain pen came in a sealed white, unassuming box. After opening the pen, you're greeted with the pen, ink, and a converter in fantastic packaging. The pen is 5,005 yen, or roughly $35. The presentation is very high quality, and for the low price, is pretty surprising.

This pen is a variant of the Sailot LeCoule fountain pen, a relatively low-priced pen with a plastic body and a steel nib. The sparkles on the pen's body are stunning and make it stand out amongst others. Unfortunately, the Sun 02 still takes a proprietary Sailor converter, which isn't exactly the best in terms of quality. Sailor converters are much worse in quality than Pilot's – they are too light and don't hold much ink. However, it's still usable.

The ink included in the set is gorgeous. It's a nice, lighter orange that writes well. It's a 20 mL bottle with "SUN 02" printed on its side, along with a white gradient that looks intriguing. Unfortunately, I don't know if this is a standard ink color, but if it is, I will be stocking my shelves with it – the included ink is so pretty!

The writing experience of this pen is pretty much expected of offerings around the $30 price point. It definitely can be smoother, but it's also not terrible to write with. I have had no issues with skipping during writing, and the pen is suitable for general use.

However, I find the pen's Medium-Fine nib closer to something alike a Lamy Extra-Fine nib. This does make sense – Sailor nibs tend to run finer, and Lamy nibs tend to run broader. The LeCoule follows this pattern.

The LeCoule's nib doesn't flex at all when writing. Normally, I find nibs to have a little flex after applying some force – even steel nibs offered by Lamy or Jowo. It's not the same with this pen. I don't have any problems with the nib, but it is stiff as a nail.

If you ever find yourself in Japan, I'd heavily recommend checking out Tokyu Hands – they have a huge selection, and you can easily spend your whole day in one of their bigger stores. There are many limited edition Zebra DelGuards and Pentels offered at Tokyu Hands, but I didn't pick any of them up as I got this pen instead. I'm also a broke high school student, so I couldn't afford to buy both.