*This is a re-edit of Annen's Japanese Techo News from 2020.

Techo team member Annen uses the Cousin as her main techo, but she found it hard to make use of its weekly pages. This is because she used the calendar on her smartphone to track her daily schedules.

So, to find a fun way of making use of it, she started to keep a record of the snacks she ate!



Annen loves to eat sweet things but had never kept track of what exactly she ate every day, so in order not to forget the yummy memories, she started to keep a record.

The weekly pages have a timeline so it's perfect to write down what she ate around what time (she says the time she ate it isn't super accurate though)



Before, she often took photos of the snacks on her smartphone, but by actually writing and drawing it down in her techo, she finds it more fun to look back on and last in her memory better.


Memorable sweets, sweets she received from someone, and more

Being able to write about what it tasted like and what she liked about it is part of the fun of writing by hand.


She was eating chocolate biscuits while writing her article

After continuing to write every day, they turned out to be quite cheerful!



The weekly pages are a special feature to the Cousin, and Annen recommends not only tracking your weekly schedules but using them as freely as you like.

Hi everyone! Today, I’ll be sharing with you what Techo team Komata stores in her techo cover.
*This is a re-edit of Komata’s Japanese Techo News from 2020.

She says they’re all normal, nothing-special items, but will come in handy in various situations.



1. Hobonichi Store Exclusive 3-color ballpoint pen
It’s the perfect pen to carry around as it has 3 colors despite it being compact.

2. Memo pads
For times when she is out and about, or isn’t at her desk, Komata keeps 1-2 sheets of cute memo pads for when she wants to hand someone a quick note.

3. Stickers
Although not frequently, Komata often finds herself wanting to stick stickers, so she keeps it in her cover. On a side note, she finds Shinsuke Yoshitake’s stickers too cute to use so she actually hasn’t used a single piece yet! She sometimes takes it out of her cover to admire it, though.

4. Hobonichi Stencils (Schedule)
Komata uses this stencil in place of a ruler. Because it’s thin, it won’t get in the way even when stored in the cover.

5. Business cards
It’s reassuring to have several business cards with you as it’s not always the case that you carry your card holder with you.

6. 1,000 yen note
She always keeps either a 1,000 yen or 5,000 yen note in her techo cover. Not only does it come in handy when she doesn't have small change in her wallet, but it’s a lifesaver when she forgets her wallet at home, only to realize that at the train station.

7. Washi tape
Washi tapes are useful for pasting things in her techo. She wraps several of her favorite designs around laminated cardboard paper.

8. Sticky notes
Komata uses sticky notes to stick on pages in a book she finds important, or pass someone a short message. The Hobonichi Translucent Sticky Notes come in a case in the size of a card so it fits perfectly into the pockets.

9. Plasters
These are needed for blisters when wearing sandals during summer. She restocks it anytime she uses it.

These are the 9 items that Komata keeps in her techo! The items look like this when stored in the cover.




She likes how it looks smart even though it's packed in.

It looks compact even with the Weeks Mega slipped in.



The cover she uses is B JIRUSHI YOSHIDA's Passport Cover. She has been using her cover for two years, and she's become attached to it as it softened over the years.

So, this is how Komata has been utilizing her techo cover! I was surprised at how much could fit in a slim-looking Passport Cover. If you're a Weeks-user, or even if you're not, I hope her tips will come in handy!

Last week, I briefly talked about the area of Kanda, where the Hobonichi office moved to last year and made a theme for some of our techos this year. Today, I'll be talking about Omiya Yogashiten, a western sweets shop that we made techo covers and accessories with.



Omiya Yogashiten was already popular among Hobonichi staff members because of their delicious sweets, which feature fresh fruit and come in cute wrapping paper. During the lineup reveal event in Tobichi Tokyo that's also located in Kanda, I met several customers who told me their stories with Omiya Yogashiten. One customer told me that her family's birthday cakes are always from Omiya Yogashiten, and another customer said how her grandma always bought them cakes from Omiya Yogashiten when she visited her grandma who lives in Kanda. According to her, the package featuring the cute illustrations remained the same all the way from when she was a child up until now! I really felt how it's a shop loved by the community.



Take a look at this article to read an interview with their 5th-generation shopkeeper, and to see the beautiful photos of their shop and their display cabinet!

They also have a bakery corner like you can see here (it's the last photo out of the 4. Written in Japanese).

I personally love their fruit punch (I ate it for my father's birthday) and the fruit cake which is buttery and moist, but had never tried their fresh cakes (in other words the cakes that are sold in the cabinet and needs to be kept at a low temperature) so I took this opportunity to try them out.


This is the package of their fruit punch


This is what the fruit punch looks like

Even the boxes have the cute illustration! The illustrations were drawn by a young woman who was a university art student at the time.



When you open the box . . .





it looks like this!

Because I had to take the cake home, I chose three cakes that were fairly easy to bring home without worrying about them smudging (like those with whipped cream): pumpkin pie, apple pie and baked cheesecake.



Their cakes have that classical taste, and because it's not too sweet, I felt like eating one more. (I had the pumpkin pie by the way)

I also tried out their strawberry milk. These were fresh and creamy, and I also love that they come in a glass bottle. The sticker that tells you the expiration date comes with other sweets too, and I find this super cute.



I would love to try out their strawberry shortcake one day.


The model is eating the strawberry shortcake

If you have purchased / are considering purchasing the Omiya Yogashiten covers, I hope it brings a smile to your face by looking at the calming pastel illustrations, as well as their yummy-looking sweets!

I'll finish off by showing you one of my favorite accessories from the series: the washi tape and paper envelope.

Omiya Yogashiten Washi Tape


What I love about this washi tape is that it's wrapped with a pink ribbon, just like the cakes of Omiya Yogashiten! The accent of the ribbon was what drew me into their packaging, so it made me happy to see it in washi tape size. The blue stripes are reminiscent of the bottom parchment paper of the shop's cheesecake. The wide washi tape would be perfect to fill up your techo if you have blank pages, or to decorate.

Omiya Yogashiten Decorative Paper Envelope


You might have seen small envelopes in this shape on our website. They are called "pochi bukuro" and are used when you hand money to someone (often from grandparents to their grandchildren on New Years). You might not encounter a situation where you want to hand over cash to someone using this, but it's perfect to store small bits and pieces and keep in the pocket of your techo!

So, that's it for today's news. I hope you look forward to next week's article too!

See the Omiya Yogashiten series lineup from here

Hi everyone! It’s been a week since the launch of the Hobonichi Techo 2022 lineup, but have you been able to find a techo that you want to spend your 2022 with?

This year's lineup includes a series of techos related to the town of Kanda, as the Hobonichi Office moved to Kanda last November. Having had our office in a different area for a long time, it was refreshing to move to a completely new area - the atmosphere is so different!

Check out this article to learn the three Kanda-related techos that we have brought out this year: the Omiya Yogashiten series, Taiyo Matsumoto’s “Cat Over Kanda,” and Weeks book “Wasshoi!”.


You can see a glimpse of what the Hobonichi Office in Kanda looks like now from this article.

Although it’s in Japanese, here’s a mini tour of the office.



Again, this is in Japanese (plus it might seem a bit chaotic) but here is an article where Hobonichi crew members explored the town of Kanda upon moving here. I hope the photos we took give you an idea of what Kanda is like!




The buttons at the top and bottom of the page allow you to go back and forth

Next week, I'll be talking about Omiya Yogashiten, a western sweets shop, in more detail. See you then!

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Kanda Techo

Omiya Yogashiten Series



Taiyo Matsumoto: Cat Over Kanda
A6 Size (fits Planner and Original)
A5 Size (fits Cousin)


Wasshoi!

Hi everyone! Today is finally the first launch date of the Hobonichi Techo 2022 lineup. Have you found a techo cover you like the look of?

If you’re new to the Hobonichi Techo, the launch date of the lineup here on the official website is split into 3 days: September 1, 2, and 3. (Some items are released in October) Check out the lineup page to see which items are released on which date.



For a general guide on how to shop on this website, check out the Shopping Instructions page.

Compare all the techo book types here to find your perfect match for 2022!

If you haven’t checked out the lineup for the covers yet, why not check out the Photobook? Here, you can flick through images of this year’s lineup and add a heart mark to those you like the look of for it to be listed in your “Favorites List.”



You can also read this article to learn more about each cover and their behind the scene stories. (There were so many things I wasn’t aware of until I read this)



Don’t forget about the accessories too! We have a bunch of cute items for 2022, like the Shinsuke Yoshitake stamp sets and Cover on Cover - Season of Hope.





If you’re a beginner and are overwhelmed by all the choices, the Starter Sets might be a good place to start.


Original (A6)


Cousin (A5)


Weeks

That was a quick summary of the basics of this website when you want to shop for the 2022 lineup. Happy shopping!

Hi everyone! Have you checked out the latest Stationery Club article? This time, stationery club members Komata, Annen and Ogawa turned simple-looking techo spreads into a more colorful one by using stickers. Stickers are such an easy way to change up the look of your techo without having to draw. (There’s also something therapeutic about sticking on stickers too...)



>Check out the article



Because all the usage examples in the article were written in Japanese, for today’s Techo News, I decided to make an English version.


This is the Japanese version of the spread I’m making today

I started out by using a 3-color Jetstream ballpoint pen to fill in my techo. I write down the weekly schedule at the start of the week on the left-hand side, and add the to-do check boxes on the right side as the week progresses. Although it looks clean, I do want to add a bit more color.



As my first step to make it look a bit more colorful, I used dot stickers, speech bubble stickers and frame stickers to make important parts stand out. (I have a vague rule of using blue-ish stickers for my personal life, and red-toned colors for work, but that’s not always the case to be honest…)



I finished off by filling up the empty spaces with even more stickers. This is the tricky part, because I lose track of where to stop! I always feel like it’s missing something, add a few stickers, and realize I’ve gone too far (plus, as I mentioned earlier, pasting stickers is so much fun). Which is why I find washi tapes useful because you can easily backtrack by peeling them off. (Hobonichi Frame Stickers and Speech Bubble stickers use tracing paper material so you can peel them off too! Having said that, you need to be careful of not going through the process of sticking and peeling too much because they end up curling up around the corners.)


The finished product!

Ever since making these usage examples, I have been on the hunt for cute stickers to paste in my techo. That’s the other thing - techo’s are a great outlet of pasting your stickers! When I was little, I used to collect lots of stickers and had exchanged my favorite stickers with friends to paste it my sticker notebook (is this a thing in other countries? I tried looking for mine to show you a picture but failed to find it…) but never ended up using them. The rare occasion I did so is when I wrote letters to my friends, but other than that, I felt that they were too precious to use.

However, as I grew older, I learned that it’s such a waste not to use them (the same goes with pens, notebooks and all kinds of stationery) but there was still a part of me that felt reluctant to use it. That’s why techo’s are the perfect outlet, because they’re something I’ll keep and look back on for a long time, so although I’ll have used my stickers, I’ll always be able to look at them. I also think that the stickers I choose reflect my personal likings of that time, so that’ll make it more fun to look back on.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for this week. I hope you have fun using your stickers on your techos, too! If you have any cool ways you use your techo, please share them with us through this page to be featured there.



I’ll see you next time!

Have you used a Drawer Pouch before? The Drawer Pouch is named after its role as a “drawer” you can carry around with you everywhere you go. It comes in a variety of sizes, and they’re all handy in their own way. Today, I’ll be showing you several articles that show how everyone is using theirs.
*Please note that some of the Drawer Pouches shown in the articles are currently not available for sale, or have gone out of stock. For the current lineup, please see this page.


Drawer Pouch: Storage and Usage Answers


First up is an article that introduces you to the results of a Drawer Pouch Survey we did, alongside usage examples with photos that we received through the survey! It’s interesting to read what types of pouches everyone has been using, as well as knowing the top 5 items that they keep inside each size.






Ways to use the Drawer Pouch


Here’s an article about how Hobonichi crew members and other Drawer Pouch users use the Drawer Pouch! The way it's used is really varied, from those who pack in so much stationery that they chose not to close the zippers, to those who compactly store the bare minimum to make them feel at ease.






How about sending a Drawer Pouch as a gift for Father’s Day?

*This article was created in cooperation with those who participated in testing out the Drawer Pouch in February 2020.

Lastly, for this article, we talked to people who have sent the Drawer Pouch as a gift to their parents, and asked them why they decided to do so, and their reactions. It’s heartwarming to read their parents' reactions. With Father’s Day just around the corner, if you’ve been thinking of sending a Drawer Pouch to someone, take a look at this article!

We hope these articles give you inspiration on how to use yours! If you haven’t used a Drawer Pouch before and are interested in purchasing one, the Drawer Pouches will be available at a sale price for a limited amount of time, up until June 14, 2021 at 11 AM Japan time. However, this sale is part of the Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun’s 23rd anniversary “Nice To Meet You Sale!!”, and therefore the pages are only available in Japanese. It is available for international shipping, though, so I wrote a short guide on how you can purchase it through this page.

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How to purchase the Drawer Pouch through the Nice To Meet You Sale!!

Start off by accessing the Nice To Meet You Sale!! page.
*This link has been filtered to show the lineup of the Drawer Pouches.





Scroll through, and if you’ve found a product you like the look of, click on the red button shown in the image below. This button says “Add to cart.”




The Drawer Pouches on this page are assorted by the type of textile. For example, all the Liberty Fabrics: Peacock of Grantham Hall pouches, from the Small Drawer Pouch to the Drawer Pouch Container, are gathered into one page, so no matter which size you click on, if it's the same textile, it will lead to the same page.

Additionally, you can go to the Drawer Pouch lineup page , click on a product you like, and click on the link that’s written in red on the top of the page.




Once you’ve entered the product details page after clicking on the “Add to cart” button, choose a Drawer Pouch in your favorite size. They are lined up from top to bottom in the order of Small Drawer Pouch, Large Drawer Pouch, Drawer Pouch Ane, Drawer Pouch Pocket, Drawer Pouch Container and Drawer Pouch Dangle. Not all textiles are carried out in all sizes (in fact, there are only a few), but they are generally lined up in this order. See the image below to see what the Japanese characters read like.






After you’ve chosen a size, click on the red button as shown in the image below, which again, says “Add to cart.”



After that, you can proceed like your normal Hobonichi Store purchases! (Please note that some of the texts in the Hobonichi Store page will be written in Japanese)




*If you purchase the Drawer Pouch within the sale period, from May 30, 11 AM Japan time to June 14, 11 AM Japan time, the sale price will be applied even if orders are shipped after said period.

However, for items that you have ordered and put on shipping hold before the sale started on May 30, 11 AM Japan time, the sale price will not be applied, even during the sale period. Please cancel the order you have made with the usual price, and reorder the product offered at a sale price.

*We are unable to accept returns for personal reasons, or cancel your order after the sale has closed, for items offered through the Nice To Meet You Sale!!. We ask for your kind understanding.

Starting yesterday, June 1, the Hobonichi Techo July Start Avec book is available for sale! The Hobonichi Techo Avec is a daily planner that’s split into a 2-book set, with each book spanning 6 months. The July Start Avec spans from July-December, and you can buy it on it’s own!

See Details for A6 size

See Details for A5 size


If you’ve started writing in your techo but feel that it isn’t going quite right, or you’ve been using the Day-Free but want to give the page-per-day type techo a go, this is the perfect opportunity!

What might not be known that much is that although the Avec book is thin, it fits comfortably in the normal techo covers without it being too loose. You can get a gist from the images below - the ones on the right (with the pink cover) is the Avec.






If it’s your first time tackling a page-per-day techo, see the article below for tips on how to continue using it (although, as the article says, blank pages are totally fine and is a reflection of your day too).




Easy to start, easy to continue! 12 tips for keeping up with your techo


If you want to read about someone who has been writing in their techo for a while for inspiration, there’s an interview with illustrator Sayaka Yokomine, who has been uploading illustrations from her Hobonichi Techo that chronicle her life with her two children. Today’s upload is about how she feels that she’s a manager of her family, and how her techo is like a secretary for the whole family!


Yokomine’s Home Secretary Techo

We hope you give these articles a read if you're interested!

Hi everyone. Today's Techo News is about how Techo team member Iwakuro reflects on how he used his techo as a picture diary in 2020.

Iwakuro chose the A6 size Original as a techo to use as a picture book at home, and a Weeks for his work techo to carry around.



He started to write a diary last April because of the spread of the coronavirus (he started off with the April-start techo), and has continued since. At the beginning of 2021, he switched to the Sunny Days cover.





More than half of its contents are about his children and family. Up until July last year, he colored in what he had drawn with a fountain pen, but after realizing how hard it is to define a shape of something with just one line, and to minimize the effort needed to draw everyday, he switched to make use of the lines he drew in pencil as a draft.



























His normal style is to draw based on the photos he took, but by looking back at it with the sentences he has written alongside it, it reminds him of so many things in detail and has surprised him. He wants to continue writing this diary, hoping that it would turn into something meaningful for his family.



For his work techo, he uses a Weeks Mega with the Parachute cover. It's not too heavy even if he puts in some stationery, and is easy to carry around.

Hi! For today's "Discover the charms of the Hobonichi Techo Cover," Techo team member Marutani shows us an easy way to customize your cover.

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Marutani

I'm currently using Tembea's Zippers cover Tote Book (Tomato) for the techo I use at home.



I'm enjoying the simple cotton canvas surface accented by the red piping. Most of all, I love how it's durable enough to be used casually and roughly throughout the year.

A charm of the Zippers cover is how much you can store in it. Even if I pack in a lot, it closes securely with a zip, and I also don't have to worry about the contents scattering around in my bag.


I've put in a few things in the pockets. I've pasted a coffee motif adhesive patch where I've marked with an arrow.

Also, although I do love the simplicity of this Tote Book, I started to feel I want to add a bit of a personal touch as I continued to use it. That's why I currently paste an adhesive patch like this. Because it's a sticker-type, I can peel it off whenever I grow tired of it, so it's easy to change up my techo cover every once in a while.


This "omurice" adhesive patch is one of my favorites.


I've pasted a curry rice on the back.

It's easy to add arrangements to a simple cover. Talking of simple arrangements, another way you can change things up is to use a Cover on Cover.

You can purchase a Cover on Cover with a slightly reduced price through the Discover! Sale that's open until tomorrow, May 12 at 11 AM Japan time. Why not use it for your cover and spruce it up a bit? It will prevent your cover from wear and tear too!


Cover on Cover "Stripes" for A6 Size

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This was the last Techo news for the "Discover the charms of the Hobonichi Techo Cover How did you find it? I hope you were able to find something new about the techo covers!


Hobonichi Techo Discover! Sale Ends Tomorrow!

The Hobonichi Techo Official Site is holding sale for a limited period. A variety of techo covers and standard Hobonichi Original stationery are offered at 30% off. Orders made during this period comes with a sheet of stickers.

Period: Until tomorrow, May 12 at 11:00 AM Japan time

Go to Discover! Sale page