What Katie Kitamura Can’t Live Without

I’ve used this since I was a teenager. It’s a real ’90s object. I’ve used it so consistently that I think it’s no longer in fashion in any way, even though it seemed so deeply desirable and fashionable to me when I was younger. I still have a real attachment to it. They actually changed the format relatively recently. It used to be in this squeezy tube that was very teenage, in fact, and now it comes with a wand. It’s a little bit more sophisticated and a bit more labor intensive. To me, its ideal form is something you slather on almost as alip balm. But I have many of them, and they’re scattered across all of my purses and tote bags.

These are obscenely priced. They’re so expensive, but I have very slippery, thick straight hair. In many decades, I’ve never found a clip that will hold it up in a twist on top of my head. Usually it just tumbles down. My sister-in-law gave me these, and they really work. I think it’s because they have two sets of teeth. I wear them all the time. Sometimes it’s just nice to have your hair up. Also, if I put my hair up while it’s wet and then let it air-dry when I take it down, it gives me a nice kind of body to my hair.

I’ve had myrice cookerfor over 15 years. I grew up with these Zojirushi rice-makers, which is a pretty standard brand in Japan. To me, it’s the primary countertop appliance that I am attached to. I don’t have strong feelings abouttoastersorcoffee makers, but a rice cooker feels really essential to me. I think mine does have the possibility of making things like a cheesecake. I don’t understand how it would do that and have never tried, but I use it to make all kinds of rice you can make. When I was growing up, my mom used to make what she called tuna rice. You just mix a can of tuna and some soy sauce in with the uncooked rice, then put it in the cooker. It becomes this really delicious rice with fish that’s slightly caramelized from the soy. I use it for that and all sorts of rice, and it keeps it warm for 24 hours. You can have rice at dinner and then when you wake up in the morning, you can have rice then as well. They’re also very durable. There’s no planned obsolescence with these appliances. They persist for decades.

I drinkteafirst thing in the morning before I shower, almost before I slide my glasses onto my face. My husband always brings me a cup of tea while I’m still in bed. These tea bags make a really strong cup of tea that has a lot of caffeine in it. I’ve been drinking it for probably two decades now after discovering it while I was living in London. This is kind of the normal tea bag you’d find in the office break room. Now it’s become part of my morning ritual before I make the slide into coffee a little bit later in the morning.

A friend gave this to me. A friend who is very knowledgeable about food, and I’m not very knowledgeable about food. Cooking presents all kinds of challenges to me, but this is wonderful. I just put it on anything: vegetables, fish, eggs, popcorn. It makes it slightly nicer. I think it’s garlic and coriander maybe — and salt. It tastes a little bit like a flavored salt. It’s really great and versatile.

I eat kimchee a lot. It’s probably one of my favorite foods. I eat it in an omelet, on a rice bowl, with a grilled-cheese sandwich, or on top of a hot dog. I go through a lot of kimchee in an average week. I like Kimchi Kooks because it’s locally made but mostly because it comes in these enormous very pleasing, easy-to-reuse glass jars. As a family, I think we go through one of them every two weeks. And it’s a really good kimchee. I’m told it’s good for your microbiome, and my kids have convinced me that it counts as one of your daily-recommended servings of vegetables.

I love blue painter’s tape. I think it’s the most practical thing that I own. It has a lot of uses in my household. I use it to label pantry staples, to wrap gifts, to attach children’s artwork to the walls — all kinds of things. It comes in a range of colors, but this is a really lovely blue. It’s not too deep, not too light. It’s a perfect blue that I prefer. And it sticks very well, but it comes off very, very easily. It seems almost magical to me.

These have changed my life a little bit. I used to always go around in a state of mild anxiety, worrying about my phone battery running out while I was out. Now I just carry one of theseportable chargerswith me more or less everywhere I go. It has reduced the level of daily stress I have. I have to confess: I bought three or four of them, and they’re always charging somewhere in the house. When I go out, I make sure I have one. I think they have at least two full charges in each battery. They’re also kind of sleek. It’s nice to no longer be that person who turns up saying, “Can I use your phone charger?”

I have used the medium-format hardcover, unlinednotebooksfor about a decade. I have a shelf of them now. I don’t write fiction by hand, and I don’t journal. The notebooks mostly have a combination of notes and to-do lists — all the things that form a record of my daily life. I really love them. I don’t know that I have anything particularly special to say about them, but they’re really pleasing objects to me. I’ve used them for many years, but every time I unwrap a new one, it’s still a real pleasure.

These are my preferredpens. The mark that the ink leaves is very decisive and doesn’t require very much effort, but it also doesn’t bleed through the page. I order these in boxes. They’re also my son’s favorite pen, and he does a lot of fine-line drawing with them. We tussle over them in our household. Sometimes I have to go into his room and swipe them and put them back in my office again.

Rat Rule 79is technically achildren’s book, but it’s one of the most beautiful and imaginative books I’ve read in a very long time. It’s written by Rivka, an incredible novelist and writer forTheNew Yorker. I read it first quite a few years ago with my son when he was about 5, and both he and I loved it. It was one of the best reading experiences I’ve had with my children. It’s incredibly funny. It creates an entire world. I truly think it’s on par with something likeAlice in Wonderland.Since then, I always make sure I have a stack on hand for emergency birthday presents for children. I really think there’s no child who wouldn’t appreciate the humor and imagination of the book. And any grown-up who reads it will love the dexterity of language. She’s just an incredible writer.