---
title: "Giving My Vortex POK3R Some Love: Japanese Keycaps on Cherry MX Reds"
description: "Giving my five-year daily-driver Vortex POK3R some love with a cyan-and-pink Japanese keycap set from KPRepublic on Cherry MX Reds, plus typing sounds."
author: "Romel Dris"
published: "2024-07-18T12:00:00.000Z"
last_updated: "2026-08-11T07:23:21.609Z"
canonical_url: "https://romeldris.ca/blog/vortex-pok3r-cherry-mx-red-japanese-keycaps"
markdown_url: "https://romeldris.ca/blog/vortex-pok3r-cherry-mx-red-japanese-keycaps.md"
categories: ["Keyboards","Gear","Tech"]
keywords: ["vortex pok3r","vortex poker 3","cherry mx red","japanese keycaps","kprepublic keycaps","hiragana keycaps","typing asmr"]
---

# Giving My Vortex POK3R Some Love: Japanese Keycaps on Cherry MX Reds

> Giving my five-year daily-driver Vortex POK3R some love with a cyan-and-pink Japanese keycap set from KPRepublic on Cherry MX Reds, plus typing sounds.

[Original video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36HW17eKqsU)

[YouTube embed](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36HW17eKqsU)

I'm showing my **Vortex POK3R** some much-needed love. This little 60% was my daily driver for gaming for about five years. I used to even program on it too, but since picking up my Anne Pro 2, I've leaned on that for typing and kept the POK3R with its **Cherry MX Reds** for gaming.

![POK3R keyboard before](https://images.ctfassets.net/pesmhg70nb3a/27EoybfsqjB3VuvcybP1Ad/419e920713bf8f41f06420b2cca505f7/image.png)

## THE NEW KEYCAPS

I always thought I'd grab a keycap set for this thing right away, but it's just one of those things I never got around to. Then I spotted a set on **KPRepublic** that I really liked: a cyan and pink colorway, with some of the keys carrying Japanese characters. I have no idea what they mean, but I thought they looked cool.

![japanese keycaps](https://images.ctfassets.net/pesmhg70nb3a/4w5yO8D5VxLmNuMa37U6Xm/03366d2a8f2d0b33a33b9587c78849c6/image.png)

I'll be honest, these feel pretty cheap, and they were cheap. The whole set ran about **$30 USD**. So down the road I plan to upgrade to something like an ePBT or GMK set. But for now, they look a whole lot better than the stock POK3R caps, and the cyan-and-pink theme gives the board real personality.

## WHY THE POK3R STILL EARNS ITS SPOT

Five years is a long time for any peripheral, and the POK3R has earned its keep. It's a compact 60% that's perfect for gaming, the Cherry MX Reds are light and fast, and the build has held up. Even as I move toward more custom boards, this one isn't going anywhere. A fresh set of keycaps was all it needed to feel new again.

![image](https://images.ctfassets.net/pesmhg70nb3a/2ll8TK0Ej8AbOCXuhYxIwe/0b5c53c099de52a3f6eb76eeebe98309/image.png)

## WHAT'S COMING

This little swap is actually the start of something bigger. I'm about to make a pretty large order on KBDfans, because I'm going to be building a number of keyboards with different switches and PCBs, and finally learning to use a soldering iron. I want to focus a lot more on keyboards going forward, alongside the usual tech reviews and some programming content, because the keeb hobby really does go hand-in-hand with all my other interests.

## TYPING SOUNDS

Of course, no keycap swap is complete without a typing test, so there's a sound test of the Cherry MX Reds with the new Japanese caps at the end of the video. For a cheap set, they sound pleasant, and the swap was a nice reminder of why I liked this board in the first place.

## FINAL THOUGHTS

A $30 keycap set isn't endgame, but it breathed new life into a five-year-old board, and that's the beauty of mechanical keyboards: a small, cheap change can make a faithful daily driver feel brand new. If you've got an older board gathering dust, a fresh set of caps might be all it takes.

Got a board you've been meaning to refresh? Let me know in the comments, and stick around, because a lot more keyboard content is on the way.