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2017 Hobonichi Techo ITOI

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Nozem

Member
The surprise Hobonichi for my GF arrived today. GF is over the moon with it. She immediately recognized the bag, due to watching too many unboxing videos.

Many thanks again for the OP, CheesecakeRecipe!
 

Betty

Banned
It's finally here. Customs took forever.

I got the Mother 2 cover, the english planner and the japanese avec planner which splits the year in two books. Haven't decided yet which one I will actually use but probably both in the end ;)

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I love the sticker.
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It was a hard choice between this and the Memories cover which I went for, the red is just perfect.
 
Ordered two, one for the wife, and one for my eldest daughter who is criminally disorganized, and a purple Metroolitan because why not.

Curse you Bagels, et al, for draining my wallet with delicious things!
 

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
Got mine awhile ago. No cover. My old cover felt too bulky.
 

Bagels

You got Moxie, kid!
Some Hobonichi comparison pictures:

L to R: 2015 Cousin, 2017 Avec Cousin, 2016 Techo
Bonus appearance by the latest Field Notes release, "Lunacy"!



A6 Techo vs. A5 Cousin. You can see that the Techo pages are half the size of the Cousin pages.

Cousin on the bottom, then avec Cousin, then Techo, then field Notes.


Books without covers.


Thickness comparison. The Techo appears a little slimmer than it actually is. It's as thick as the Cousin, on the bottom of the stack. The main thing to note is that each avec book really is half the size of the Cousin.


As for pen recommendations, you can try here or here. Fountain pen inks look amazing on Tomoe River paper!
 

Soulstar

Member
Just got my Hobonichi Techo in the mail. I chose to get the Monday start original with the Memories case and I have to say I am happy with it. This thing is really nice and amusingly enough even though I knew it was pretty small I was still surprised at how small it is.
 
Are there any other Cousin users on here (aside from Bagels) who like it? I don't *need* the extra size, currently, but my daily Techo usage is getting a little boring. I might force myself to get creative if I had something bigger.

I'll really miss being able to read quotes and back-of-book content, though. :/
 
Heads up Bay Area gaffers looking into getting a Hobonichi for 2017!

Was at Kinokuniya in San Jose, CA yesterday afternoon and saw that they were selling a couple of planner bundles (cover + English planner) for about $59 before tax. And last week, I saw that Maido (the stationary store) was also selling the standalone English planners as well. The cover choices were pretty limited as I only saw black, yellow, cherry pink & sherbet nylon covers for the planner bundles.

Not too sure about the other Kinokuniya bookstores or other Maido locations, but at least you have an option to buy in-store if you're looking to purchase.
 

xxracerxx

Don't worry, I'll vouch for them.
Ever since the first thread on these neat little books I have been very curious about them. I have never really used something like this but I would love to use one for just a day by day remembrance of what I did that day, even if it was little mundane things like fixing the fence or taking a walk with the wife.

The pages also look really great for doing very rough wireframing for websites, that is all I need to get started on new projects.

Enjoy your Hobos!
 
Reminder that I am giving away a Techo + cover! I was given a really really nice pen by a member of our community and I want to kind of pass the good vibes along.

I had given a vague "early October" end date. I'll go ahead and say that I'll pick a name on November 1st.
I was hesitant to put my name forward, because I live in Japan and it would be absolutely silly to have a planner shipped from Japan to the US and then back again. I don't know if it's possible to purchase a planner for Japan (on the Japanese site) from overseas.

If that's not an issue, I'll repeat what I posted when I linked this thread in the Learning Japanes OT:

So something I started doing this year was keeping a handwritten journal/diary in Japanese. In order to incentivize it a bit, I spent a bit of money to get a Hobonichi Techo (that's 手帳, or てちょう - not てこ) with a nifty Mother 2 (Earthbound) cover and some decent pens and stuff. It started off pretty strong in January and February with daily entries, tapered off through March and then had an extremely shameful dry spell from April through mid-August. I was absurdly busy during that time and instead of chronicling it, I just got lazy and didn't feel up to writing it all down. I'm really regretting it now, and I've committed to writing something down each day for the rest of the year - for real this time. I take it with me everywhere I go and jot a few words down whenever I have a gap in my day.

I bring this up because I thought that some other people might be interested in doing something similar, and the 2017 Hobonichi Techos just went up for sale (English store || Japanese store). They're great little journals/day-planners with a ton of neat design features, plus they come with a little quotation or excerpt from something each day written in Japanese. We've got a thread for the planners on GAF, and it links to last year's (which links to 2015's) so you can take a look at why they're neat and what people do with them.

If you've never journaled in Japanese before, it's definitely worth doing. It's a great way to practice organizing your thoughts and forming nicer sentences, practice casual form and language that you don't get a chance to use in polite conversation, and generally just fool around with the language. If, like me, you've tried in the past and stalled out, perhaps the fact that you have this nifty little planner with nifty little tools that you spent a moderate sum on will motivate you to make more use of it. Or at the very least make you feel that much guiltier if you don't (again, like me).

I've been keeping up with my entries for the past month, and am feeling really excited for next year's planner, as I think I'll actually fill it this time, instead of having 6 months of shamefully blank space in the middle.

If it is indeed too much of a hassle then I'd definitely yield to another poster.
 

danthefan

Member
I'm definitely going to get one of these now along with a fountain pen. It's totally inspired by these threads started by Bagels so thank you for that. It's going to be immensely useful for me in work more than doing anything creative. I work in a data science role and do a lot of ad-hoc analyses for different departments in my company so for the first time I'm going to get myself a planner to keep all my projects organised. I also have to make various Tableau dashboards so I can also use the book for mock-ups to work from.

Not sure what cover I'll get, I'm fairly utilitarian by nature so I'm not sure if any of them are functional or just look good. Two things are really attracting me to this planner anyway are the paper quality and the fact it will lie flat when opened. I DESPISE the likes of ring bound pads that are hard to write on when the rings are on the right side of the page.

Still haven't decided which version to get, my understanding is the English planners are quite small? Would like a larger one but if it's only in Japanese then that doesn't help me too much.
 

Bagels

You got Moxie, kid!
broke down and ordered it with the memories cover even though I tried to ignore it for the past few years.

If you love pen and paper, it's something you have to try at least once! I write in mine first thing when I get to work each day and spending just a few minutes writing with different pens each day is a really wonderful ritual.
 
I bought some fountain pens but I seem to have a problem keeping the nibs neat. It seems like ink smears over the metal. Is that a common problem? Is there a way to alleviate it?
 

CheesecakeRecipe

Stormy Grey
I bought some fountain pens but I seem to have a problem keeping the nibs neat. It seems like ink smears over the metal. Is that a common problem? Is there a way to alleviate it?

This is actually extremely common! "Nib Creep" is just a side effect of the way some inks behave, and won't have any negative effects on your pen over time.
 
This is actually extremely common! "Nib Creep" is just a side effect of the way some inks behave, and won't have any negative effects on your pen over time.

Thank you for that! That's a relief.

I haven't purchased mine yet. I've been donating my spare/splurge money to the DAPL protestors. But I'm looking forward to it! I really want one hahaha
 
GAF, what have I done!? I just bought my first Hobonichi Planner ever. I can't believe I spent $47 dollars on a goddamn glorified notebook and its fancy cover. WHAT HAVE I DONE?
 

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
Mine has been stuck at the Heathrow Royal Mail distribution center for over a week.

sadface

At least it's got a couple bottles of J Herbin Anniversary in the package so it's not alone in the warehouse!
 

Erheller

Member
Whats so great about fountain pens and Hobonichis? All i hear about fountain pens are the leaking nightmares and the points being finicky. Cartridge this, inkwell that. It sounds incredibly inefficient and cumbersome.

You can take a look at Bagels' awesome fountain pen thread for a better explanation:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1179111

When I started college, I was dead set on using my computer to take notes. I hated handwriting. I had this really awful claw grip on my pens that made my hand hurt if I wrote too long. But it didn't take me long to figure out that I'm really bad at typing up notes, so I had to go back to handwriting them.

And then I was introduced to fountain pens. They're a joy to write with - fountain pen nibs don't require much pressure to write with, and they flow very smoothly. It sounds weird, but they make writing fun for me. Ever since I started using fountain pens, my handwriting has massively improved, and I really enjoy the act of physically writing things down. It's helped me become more organized, too: between a stack of sticky notes and the Techo, I handwrite reminders that are much more effective (for me, at least) at, well, reminding me to do certain things.

And at the very least, they're a great accessory and conversation starter. People compliment me about my starter fountain pen and Techo all the time.

I don't think fountain pens are that difficult to take care of. I usually only have to refill my pen about once a week, unless I'm using it very heavily. And I've never had a major issue with leaks - you just keep the pen capped, nib-side up, and that will prevent 90% of leaks. I do keep an extra tissue or two in my bag just in case some ink gets on the nib or grip, but I rarely use them.
 

Bagels

You got Moxie, kid!
Whats so great about fountain pens and Hobonichis? All i hear about fountain pens are the leaking nightmares and the points being finicky. Cartridge this, inkwell that. It sounds incredibly inefficient and cumbersome.

There are several really compelling reasons to use a fountain pen! They are more comfortable to write with than other writing tools and allow for more expressive writing. You can find combinations of nib types, inks, and pen size&weight that work best for you. It's fun to feel how different pens write and to see how they change your writing.

There are all sorts of beautiful inks to write with! Fountain pen inks span a range of colors, shading, and other properties that you do not see in rollerball or ballpoint inks.

Cartridges and inkwells - you are looking at a handful of terms. It's not very complicated at all. Of course, you can get really into pens and go crazy with all the different nib types and stuff, but you can learn 90% of what you need to know in a few minutes.

I do end up with inky hands some days, but not really because of leaks. My pens get some rough use and I fiddle around with them a lot. If you grab a Pilot Vanishing Point, say, your hands will stay ink free!

If you like writing by hand, fountain pens make that experience way better. It's really as simple as that. Like any hobby, you can go nuts and spend tons of time and money on pens, but much of the fun and benefit is available in pens costing $15.
 

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
Whats so great about fountain pens and Hobonichis? All i hear about fountain pens are the leaking nightmares and the points being finicky. Cartridge this, inkwell that. It sounds incredibly inefficient and cumbersome.

They don't really leak anymore but they do tend to be more temperamental than biros.

The general advantage they havve over biros is that it's a much smoother writing experience since you apply none or veeery gentle pressure on it to write and you're riding on flowing ink instead of the gummy ink of biros. And of course you can customize your writing far beyond what a biro offers.

I personally use them amongst other things because they improve my handwriting - I have several bad habits with biros that I don't on fountain pens... but of course your mileage might vary in this aspect.
 

Etzer

Member
I got my Hobonichis today! I got both the Planner and the Cousin.

You could ignore dates if you wanted to and treat the book like a sketchbook or notebook if you wanted to! There's no hard and fast rules that force you to use the Hobonichi a certain way, and the pages are mostly an open grid to let you choose how to get the most out of it. If you're really sure that you want just a notebook with Tomoe River paper, there's always the Nanami Paper Seven Seas notebooks! They come in three styles-


  1. Writer, featuring lined paper.
  2. Standard, with blank pages.
  3. Crossfield, which uses a hybrid dot-grid/line grid style, seen below:


I have a second or third generation "Writer" notebook, which was the perfect companion to my Hobonichi. Since they're printed and cut into the A5 paper size, you could always buy a Hobonichi Cousin cover to add a little flavor to it, which is what I did! Nanami Paper's store is closed for another few weeks, but they have some Crossfield and Standard editions for sale through Amazon, if you don't want to keep waiting.

I'm just now seeing this post. I'm seriously considering getting the blank one and sticking it in my Hobonichi Cousin cover.
 

Ephidel

Member
Hello Hobonichi folks. I guess I've come to join you :)

I paged through the other threads after seeing this one go up earlier this year, and on Black Friday I finally gave in and treated myself.

It showed up today and I'm kind of excited, so I took some awful mobile phone pictures and thought I'd share them!
I ordered a pen at the same time, and some stickers and stuff I'm expecting to use to tape things into it at some point this year.
I ordered from The Journal Shop, so I was a little limited cover wise but the plain covers are pretty cool too. I'd been umm-ing and aah-ing between Cherry Pink and Sherbet for a while, but by the time the site loaded for me after the sale started the choice had been made for me. Cherry Pink it is :)
And once I put it together.
It's a lot lighter than I expected, actually. Now I need to spend some time planning out how to use my planner.

TJS were pretty great too. I picked free postage but they sent it tracked and signed for anyway. I get that they were probably doing it to cover their own backs more than anything else but I appreciated it and it meant I got it really fast :)

And a couple of pen pics too, just because.
 
I got my royalty check in so I can FINALLY order my hobonichi. Everytime I tried to order it something else came up and ate that money. ;_;

Is there anyone on IG that's worth following? I want inspiration for organization. I've gone through the tag search but it's a little inconsistent in results.
 

outsidah

Member
Hey Hobonichi team,

I acquired one of these for my SO for Christmas and would really like to compliment it with a nice pen and/or set of markers (something to draw with).

I am not artistic at all and my SO loves to draw. She does not like fountain pens but does seem to like gel pens. I suck at anything that involves drawing so I know nothing.

Can you guys/gals recommend any items to go with it I might be able to get for her that she would like? I know some of these can get pretty pricey but I'd be willing to go from $50-$100 depending on what kind of items we're talking about.
 

NervousXtian

Thought Emoji Movie was good. Take that as you will.
Ordered one of these for my wife for her Birthday that's coming up.

What's a good fountain pen to use?
 
I'm really looking forward to start using this in a few days. And as if my exitment couldn't get any bigger I just got this for Christmas.

Omg I have the exact same camera, color scheme and all! I ADORE it. It's so much more fun to take pictures with it.
 
Hello Hobonichi folks. I guess I've come to join you :)

I paged through the other threads after seeing this one go up earlier this year, and on Black Friday I finally gave in and treated myself.

It showed up today and I'm kind of excited, so I took some awful mobile phone pictures and thought I'd share them!

I ordered a pen at the same time, and some stickers and stuff I'm expecting to use to tape things into it at some point this year.
I ordered from The Journal Shop, so I was a little limited cover wise but the plain covers are pretty cool too. I'd been umm-ing and aah-ing between Cherry Pink and Sherbet for a while, but by the time the site loaded for me after the sale started the choice had been made for me. Cherry Pink it is :)

And once I put it together.

It's a lot lighter than I expected, actually. Now I need to spend some time planning out how to use my planner.

TJS were pretty great too. I picked free postage but they sent it tracked and signed for anyway. I get that they were probably doing it to cover their own backs more than anything else but I appreciated it and it meant I got it really fast :)

And a couple of pen pics too, just because.

Great post! Enjoy the upcoming year.
 

gaiages

Banned
Less than one week to the new year, yay! Can't wait to finally use my Hobonichi properly.

I tried out the pen they gave me on one of the blank pages before the new year begins... it works nicely enough. I have all sorts of fun things to use in the pages for 2017 :3
 

ilikeme

Member
I just ordered my first Hobonichi. It will probably arrive a bit after the new year has begun, but I'm fine with that. Ordered the Mother 2 Memories one. It looks so good! :D

I'm very excited. I love taking notes and scribbling about the daily life. This will get so much use during 2017. Looking forward to sharing some of it with you guys too!
 

Akim

Banned
So I bought one off Amazon that should be here by the 31st, which is perfect. I was looking for a hobby and this might be something nice for me to do.

Do you guys usually have things that you put in it every day? Or do you just jot down random things?

I also impulse bought an instax camera thanks to the poster a couple of posts up......and a fountain pen. My impulse control isn't great.
 

aett

Member
I ordered my first Techo (with the Mother 2 Memories cover) a couple of days ago after flip-flopping on the idea for over a week. Of course, as soon as I place the order, I see that orders on or after Dec 27 won't be fulfilled until January 6. D'oh!

I also bought an inexpensive-but-recommended mechanical pencil, and I'm thinking of getting a pen, but being left-handed... it's hard to find something I like that doesn't smear (much).
 
This will be my third year using it, and my 2017 copy is scheduled for delivery today thanks to BTA, whose extra copy I bought earlier in the thread.

I thought being year three it would just be business as usual switching to the new year, but now that it's actually time I'm suddenly excited as hell! I wound up using it daily this past year, but most of the time just as a daily, running to do list, bullet style. Sometimes, I'll journal what happened at the end of the day or draw some sketches, but usually not. This year, I want to do that more for sure.

Also, there's certain information I copied over in the back pages from 2015 to 2016. I'm actually excited to do that stuff again with my new 2017 book.
 

kiri

Member
Everyone ready to start their 2017 Techos? I have an obscene number of Instax films and washi tape - ready to go!
 
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