Today’s daily photo is a simple snapshot of my Sony headphones and my Hobonichi. That reflection coming off the Tomie illustration is pretty cool though, right?

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Three months into my Hobonichi Techo A6 and still really enjoying it.

Writing small has been a challenge, but I’ve slowed down and started paying more attention to how I form my letters. It’s a different kind of writing than my morning pages, which stay big and loose since that’s all about getting thoughts down fast.

The slow, deliberate approach has been a nice surprise. Turns out I like it a lot.

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I finally settled into a journaling layout that feels right. The left side tracks the day’s timeline, the right side gets a few short notes. Top left is for the day’s high and low temps, and top right has a checklist for tracking my language learning.

I keep tweaking things here and there, adding icons with a stencil or pasting in little bits of ephemera. I’m having a lot of fun with it!

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We spent the day shopping in Umeda, Osaka, and it was a really good time.

First stop was the Nintendo Store. We were in there for a while, just soaking it all in. I’m a big Splatoon fan, so I picked up a keychain and a notebook. I had my eye on a mini skateboard too, but no luck on that front.

From there we headed to Loft, where I found exactly what I was looking for: the Tomie A6 Hobonichi cover! Just the cover by itself, which was perfect since I can swap it right onto my current setup. Yatta! I also grabbed a Tomie Weeks (March start), which is super cool. I’ll use it for Japanese vocabulary notes. I still need a pencil board and an A5 cover to complete my Tomie Hobonichi collection, so the hunt continues.

The last stop was Tsutaya Books, and wow, what a place. The layout is circular, so you just browse in one direction and loop back to where you started. They had an amazing wall of fancy fountain pens, a solid selection of more affordable pens, and even a camera section where I checked out the latest Fujifilm and Sony gear. Highly recommend if you ever find yourself in Umeda.

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January finally started so I have officially begun my first Hobonichi Techo. As you may know, I went with the original A6 size because it is so compact. But maybe I should have gone with the A5 cousin since I naturally write kind of large. Oh well. I’ll give the smaller format a go!

I also bought a Canon SEPLHY CP1500 printer, which is really fun to use. I’m looking forward to see how my journal turns out.

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Today my 2026 Hobonichi Techo finally arrived, and I am ridiculously excited about it. This is my very first Hobonichi, and I already have big ideas for how I want to use it. Of course, I have no idea how those plans will actually shake out, but that is part of the fun. I am really looking forward to discovering my own rhythm with it.

My goal is to use it more as a journal than a forward-looking planner. I want it to become a record of my days, a place for memories, thoughts, and little notes rather than just a list of future tasks.

To go along with it, I also picked up a Pilot Frixion pen with erasable ink. I have a feeling that is going to be a lifesaver while I am still figuring out how I like to use the Hobonichi. Now I just have to wait for 2026 to arrive. I cannot wait to begin.

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