Review: Pin Note, trading card holder x notebook by Iroha Publishing

It's another purchase from Bungu Joshi!

This is the Pin Note by Iroha publishing, a notebook with a trading card holder. 

I picked up the an A6 sized Pin note that was a Bungu Joshi exclusive. 

There is also an A5 version. 

The notebook includes a hard plastic sleeve as a cover, a design sheet in between the cover and the notepaper (this is the exclusive design for Bungu Joshi), 56 sheets of 3mm grid notepaper, 2 plastic pockets at the back of the notebook and a plastic film for you to decorate. 

The hard plastic sleeve cover fits a photocard or 2 and protects it well! 

I also like the special design backing sheet. 

If you have a small acrylic stand, that will fit as well! 

Binding wise, it's a typical wire binding. Unfortunately this means you can remove pages but not add to it. 

The paper is a 3mm grid, perfectly usable for everyday notetaking. 

Overall, if you're wanting to customise your notebook cover, the pin note is what you're looking for. 

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Review: Maruman Smart Review

 

I like the form factor of the Maruman mini ring notebook system, so when I saw these study aids, I decided to take a closer look. 

The binder itself is also a part of the Smart review system. 

It has been designed so the tabs are easy to see through the cover. 

The colour is not usually what I would purchase but the brighter the better when it comes to notes. 

I also like that the spine is the push open mechanism in plastic that is easy on the fingers, metal is fancy and all that but can pinch and that hurts. 

So yes, the binder comes with a set of colour coded dividers with laminated tabs. 

To write on the tabs, I recommend a permanent marker or some labels. 

The looseleaf refill set comes with 90 pages of 6mm spaced lined paper in 3 colours. 

Great for separating your notes visually. 

The vocabulary note set works with or without a card that allows for quick referencing and studying. 

The card is sold separately but even without it, the sheets are great listing and marking off things that you will or have already studied. 

How does the card work? 

It's red so whatever you write in red will disappear with the card over it. 

like so!

Very useful, first off, it's less effort than flipping pages or folding sheets and I think the red keeps you awake, I definitely need help in that department. 

A comparison of the mini binder next to the slim A5 binder. 

All in all, a very tidy study set from Maruman. 

I'm going to take my time filling these up but what do you think? Is this something you'd like to try? 

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2024 Diary First Impressions: Hobonichi A6 Almost Daily Notebook - Tomitaro Makino

 

Now that it's December, I thought I would write about the diary I'm planning to use for 2024. 

I haven't used a Hobonichi with quite a few years but these botanical illustrations by Tomitaro Makino are so pretty, I decided to give it a go again. 

I purchased the Japanese A6 version, it's a semi hard cover and comes with a pencil board with a pen holder, a Hobonichi brochure and a card with information about the illustrator. 

Since I last used hobonichi, they've made a few changes, the most important being thicker paper. 

I had a few issues with the paper being too thin last time so I'm looking forward to seeing if this improvement makes the Hobonichi a better notebook. 

The inside layout is very similar to previous iterations of the Hobonichi, but the paper definitely feels thicker. 

It's January start so no writing yet but let me know in the comments if you'd like a longer review. 

First impressions wise: 

I don't remember this spine coloring but it's very helpful! 

I wished the cover was a bit more hard cover than semi hard cover but I understand that contributes to weight. 

The illustrations are so pretty, I might have to put a plastic cover over it. 

and finally, I love the addition of clear pencil board, it's simple and pretty. 

I'm very excited to start using this notebook, what about you? 

What's your 2024 diary? 

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Review : DAISO Premium Notebook Series

Recently, Japanese store DAISO has been mentioned a lot on SNS because of their premium notebook series. Needless to say, we simply had to check it out for ourselves as well!

Here is what we got

The series has quite a big lineup.

There is 5mm grid, 5mm dot and 5mm lined and plain versions in 2 sizes A6 and B6.

This series is MADE IN JAPAN with a cover reminiscent of the expensive Japanese notebook brand NOBLE. The paper used is smooth to touch and slightly yellow.

We did a ink test on the paper using several different pens.

As you can see below, other than the copic pen and oil marker, the rest do not seep through the paper at all!

What do you think?

Have you tried this series?

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Review: Rollbahn Flexible

 

Modular notebooks are great! If you're like me and constantly tearing pages out of notebooks, a modular system is easier to organise and use. 

The Rollbahn Flexible attracted me with it's hardcover notebook shell. 

I picked up the notebook shell, which comes with 40 sheets of grid layout paper and 1 notebook sleeve.

I also picked up a set of refill sheets in the grid layout and a set of 5 pockets. 

The Rollbahn Flexible system comes in 2 sizes, L and A5, and has quite a few options for refills. 

You can get a short width to do list, 4 section layout, lined layout and even a meeting layout. 

For accessories, there are the pockets, section dividers, shitajiki and a pocket with a zipper closure. 

There's also a file for archiving pages, that seems pretty handy!

Let's start with the cover, the front and back are hardcovers with a soft spine that holds the wire binder. 

There's also an elastic band for keeping the notebook closed which I find really helpful. 

Inside, there are 2 built in semi-opaque plastic sheets. As a default, these are placed before and after the paper but I'm sure you can move the paper around to utilise these are dividers. 

Unlike the refills, these are not removable. 

The refills are secured onto a partial wire spine, 4 rings and the top and bottom of the notebook. 

I found that this was a great idea as trying to fit paper into a fill wire spine seems pretty time consuming. 

The included pocket is also removable. 

The plastic is pretty thick and of good quality.

I can't believe I wrote all the above without mentioning the Rollbahn signature paper. 

It's a deeper cream than Midori so cream correction tape does not work well on Rollbahn paper. 

Rollbahn has their own correction tape so if it's something you use often, make sure to pick it up. 

Overall, I'm looking forward to using this modular notebook system, the paper is really nice and the inserts and details are well thought out.

I do wish the plastic divider was removable but that's a minor issue. 

What do you think of the Rollbahn Flexible? Is this a system you might invest in?

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Review: Notebooks from Standard Products by Daiso

 

Standard Products is a spin off brand from Daiso. 

 The brand's philosophy is "A little nice, goes the extra mile" 

Items are well designed, minimalist and clean looking but still affordable. 

I picked these notebooks up during my first visit to a Standard Products store. 

On the left is the ash notepad, it's A7 sized, 80 sheets of white paper in a 5mm grid layout

The other is a gray notebook, A6 sized, 64 sheets of cream paper in a 7mm ruled layout. 

The ash notepad is a great size for casual notetaking.

I was surprised by the paper quality, it feels coated and it's very smooth. 

The cream paper in the notebook feels reminiscent of Midori's cream paper but of course, Midori's paper can't be beat. 

Both the grid and ruled layouts are very functional, the printing is light but visible. 

Design wise, I think they are very pretty, they would look great even as table decoration. 

My only gripe is that the cover design on the notebook is a slipcover and I would've liked it if it was printed on instead. 

In conclusion, these notebooks are very affordable. So if you're looking for an aesthetic simple notebook/notepad, I recommend going to Standard Products and picking these up! 

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Review: Made of Tomorrow Notepad

 

Usually we blog about things we've purchased ourselves but today, I wanted to talk about this notepad I received as a gift. 

It's by a New Zealand brand called 'Made of Tomorrow', they make functional homewares and stationery and it's all made in New Zealand.

The notepad is a part of their paper goods lineup, it's 19 x 9cm, gold foil embossed cover and has 52 pages of 120gsm paper.

Having a look at their website, you can get it monogrammed too! 

Opening the notepad up, you get this page with their sustainability information. 

The illustrations are cute and I appreciated that it's made with recycled materials! 

Also good to note is that the notepads have no plastic laminate coating and 100% recyclable. 

The 52 pages are 1/2 blank and 1/2 lined which I feel is pretty unique.

I like lined sometimes, blank sometimes so it suits my use pretty well. 

I also think it's great the paper is 120gsm, oftentimes you get notebooks that have paper that is way too thin. 

The 120gsm here works well with the sign and brush pens as well as regular pens, no bleed and it's pretty smooth. It's no midori paper but I think it's better than most other notepads I've tried. 

If you're in New Zealand and happen to see this brand, you should check it out! 

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Midori Double Schedule 2023

 

It's time for the 2023 diary/journal releases.  

I used the same one from Midori for the last 2 years but I’ve changed my workflow recently so I decided it would be time to try something new. 

 I wanted something smaller, lighter and I didn't need a weekly layout anymore. 

The Midori double schedule seemed to fit those needs and it had an October start so I picked it up. 

The double schedule refers to a Monthly appointments layout and a Monthly To Do layout. 

The notebook is B6 sized, comes with a plastic cover (which is always appreciated) and has it's title in simple gold printing on the front.

I should mention that the title is on the plastic cover and not the notebook itself. 

Inside is a page explaining the suggested use for the to-do layout, which is the unique selling point of this notebook. 

Also, there is a ribbon bookmark, I like that this is a standard item in all planners/diaries. 

First up, we have the monthly appointments page layout. 

This has the month set out on 2 pages, it's meant to be an overview for your month, a quick way to see what's going on. Other than a title, it's a bit difficult to write descriptions or even time but I definitely appreciate being able to see everything happening in the month. 

After the monthly layout is the to do layout. 

It is also monthly set out in 2 pages but the month is set out on the top in a linear view. 

Above that are 2 lines with check boxes, these are your goals for the month. 

The linear month view is more suited to the Japanese language or similar languages where vertical writing can be used. It's a bit awkward to write english vertically but if you use abbreviations, it's definitely usable. 

Under each week is a column for to do items, this is my favourite part. 

I write constant lists, I use so many list apps and I need them to function. 

Separating the to do lists into weeks makes it easier for me to make sure things get done, planned, or scheduled.

The check boxes can be used in a bullet journal type situation, using symbols to mark items as in progress, done or to be moved to the following week. As a former bullet journal user, I took to this really quickly. 

My one gripe is that the spaces are a bit small which has meant I have had to write smaller and learn to use less information.  

Finally, there are 16 blank lined pages at the back for random note-taking, I've started using this feature more and more over the years because I don't like carrying too many notebooks. 

Midori even thought about how to separate the 2 layouts and there are notches in the pages so it's easier to flip between the monthly appointments and monthly to do pages.  

I really appreciate this feature although it might take me some time to get used to. 

As this is a notebook without a weekly layout, it is pretty thin, which makes carrying around in my bag pretty easy. 

I added a Leuchtturm1917 adhesive pen holder and it perfectly holds my pen. 

Together with my pen, the notebook weighs 137grams. Nice and light. 

Overall, I am extremely happy with this purchase, if you like bullet journalling but don't have time to set up the layouts every month or just need a basic monthly and to do list layout. This is a great notebook. 

Also, this uses Midori's classic creamy paper, which means less bleed and easy writing, the yellow paper is also easy on the eyes. 

If you're looking for a new journal/diary for 2023, definitely check this out! 

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Review: OURS Studio Weekly Journal

I’ve been using the OURS weekly journal since January and since they’ve announced the 2023 edition, I’ve decided to do a quick review of the 2022 edition. 

OURS is a small design studio from Taiwan, they have a wide variety of beautiful stickers, tape, stamps and other journalling supplies. 

The journal is A5 size and comes complete with a notebook protector.  

The paper is nice and thick and the spine is lay flat, which is very useful for journalling! 

Inside, there are monthly overview pages. 

But the main journal is a weekly layout over 2 pages. 

Each week starts with a question and a section for you to fill up. 

The questions are simple like ‘what is the most surprising thing that happened’ or ‘find something green!’ Helpful for if you can’t think of anything to write about. 

Each weekly layout also comes with a colour palette. It’s more of a suggestion but I’ve been following it religiously, I find it challenging and fun to follow. 

An example of a weekly layout. Honestly, it’s a great way to use up journalling supplies. 

The journal also includes a bunch of extras at the back. 

From top left (clockwise): Recipe cards, location cards, research pages and photo pages. 

Unfortunately, I forgot about them and haven’t used any of the extra pages but I will try to for 2023!

A layout with text, the weekly layout was never one I was fond of but with the colour palette, I have been enjoying it and discovering new colour combinations! 

Also, there are cute additions like this text/colours/line/measurement reference sheet on the inside of the back cover. 

The 2023 journal launches at the end of the month, look out for it on  Instagram.

What do you think? Is this something you might look into buying? What other design studios would you recommend we look at? 

 

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