The Japanese Pen Spinning Craze
Pen Spinning is a Fun, Virtually Free Hobby
Pen spinning is especially popular among the "ronins," which are recent high-school graduates who have taken a year off before starting college in order to discover who they are and what they want to do with their life. Pen spinning, like any other repetitive action, is no doubt conducive to the deep thought required at such a time in life.
What exactly is pen spinning? Pen spinning, also referred to as "pen tricks" is actually something you've probably done at some point in your life, perhaps when you were sitting in class bored. Consider it to be a variation on twiddling your thumbs, but with a lot more potential. Pen spinning is a form of contact juggling that simply involves moving a pen between the fingers and thumb, at an impressive rate of speed.
Before it had a name, and before it became a craze, it showed up in various movies such as Top Gun, most often as an idiosyncratic habit of one of the characters. There are the knuckle crackers, the thumb twiddlers, and yes, the pen spinners.
As an updated version of an old saying goes, a video is worth a million words, so the best way to get a glimpse of what the pen spinning craze is all about, take a look at this video.
Of course, Westerners don't want to be left out of any craze, so Bic ® has developed its very own "Pen Spinning Academy." You can visit their site here where you can learn the basics of pen spinning, watch demonstrations, and even learn pen spinning lingo such as, "cop" (center of pen), "fingerless" (tricks that don't use fingers, but only movement of the wrists to move the pen), and "cog" (center of gravity).
If you decide to take up pen spinning and want to converse with other pen spinners, you might want to check out this forum learn the ins and outs of this interesting "sport."
If you're looking for a new hobby, that won't cost you an arm or a leg and that you can do just about anywhere, consider developing the fine art of pen spinning.
Note: I was having trouble making links today. In case they don't work, I've included the URLS in the supporting links area.
Published by Rebecca Livermore - Featured Contributor in Travel and Lifestyle
Rebecca Livermore has been a freelance writer since 1993. Although she started off writing for print magazines, in recent years she has switched her focus to writing for the web. She writes on many subjects,... View profile
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22 Comments
Post a CommentGreat article :)
Haha.... funny article! It is pretty crazy how much people will take a simple distraction and make it an art, but I suppose that's probably how most arts started. Thanks for sharing! At least when I see kids doing this at school, I'll know they're participating in a worldwide challenge and not just wasting their time!
I had no idea. Thanks for sharing.
Folks, be sure to check out the video as this is such a perfect addition to this well-written article and really demonstrates that pen spinning isn't simple. Good one, Rebecca!
Oh no! This is bound to drive my teacher husband crazy when it catches on . . .ha! :)
I tried to comment on a few of your articles earlier and was unable. I tried to send private messages too, but they didn' t even show up in my "sent" file. The site must have had a few glitches. Anyway, this was a very creative idea, and I agree with Kassidy. What will they think of next? :-) Great article!
how very uhm unusual. I had never heard of this! :)
I also didn't know that this was a growing sport in Japan. Thanks for this information, Rebecca.
Sophie
Very interesting! I've never heard of this before. Great reporting of it.
I have been working to "catch up" reading/rating all of the articles by my "older" AC friends and my new Ac friends after getting way behind because of Christmas and being under the weather a bit in December. I took note of your articles on Microsoft One Note 2007-for the future. I really am partial to your faith articles-because that is where my treasure is. I was inspired by your commitment to write 15 min a day-you already outdo me and you have a fulltime job!I am caretaker to my elderly Mom-but at least I'm, at home during the day. Surely, I can commit to 15 min per day.And, of course, I loved the "Are We Too Sensitive article"! You were probably thinking you would never hear from me again! But I'm glad I subscribed & I'll try to do a better job of keeping up-Praying you have a great 2008 personally and on AC!