Now that we’re almost a week into the year, it about time I posted about my diary/journal of choice this year. OK, well I’ve ruined the surprise with the title – I’ve opted for the Hobonichi Planner for the 2nd year running. I did an update halfway through the year of my experience in 2014. At that point I was already failing to go back in and write on each page, so ended up using it much as I would use a normal appointment diary. For that reason, I wanted to try again!
Just after Christmas, this delightful box arrived! I decided to buy it directly from Japan. There are places in the UK that sell it, but I have only seen it for £35, whereas buying directly from the Hobonichi store, it cost me £25 including delivery. I guess I risked getting customs charges, but have so far managed to avoid this 2 years running…
Not a lot has changed, they’ve very much gone with the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” theory, and rightly so. If you haven’t used the Hobonichi Planner before, I’ll list some of the features below:
- It uses Tomoe River paper, which is incredibly thin but still manages most inks
- One page per day view
- 2 different kinds of monthly calendar, one list view, one grid
- Quotes at the bottom of every page
- Dot grid notes pages at the back
- Interesting information pages
On this last point, this year’s are particularly fun, with my favourite being this page, with random selection games from around the world (sorry for rubbish picture, I was seriously losing light at this point…).
The only real thing about the Hobonichi Planner that doesn’t work for me is that it doesn’t have a page marker included. This is because you’re mean to use the planner with a cover, which usually includes a page marker. I prefer not to use a cover as I use a small handbag and cover would bulk it up… This year I planned to make some clever thing out of string to be a marker, but then I remembered my glasses bookmark from Octaevo, and thought it would be perfect for this!
Well… I’ll let you know how I get on…
How exciting to be able to put them to use! Over the holiday period plenty of mini instax photos and doodles and prep notes (for Christmas lunch and new year’s party) filled it in. I used a delfonics ruler clip as my marker. Fun for grid drawings ; )
Cool! I really want an instax! Just not sure I can justify it… Gah
Oooh do it! eBay has decently priced film packs! Yes, packs.