This is Part 1 of a 2-part post. Because of the huge amount of photospams, I decided to break this post up into two. Don't worry though, I'll be posting both at the same time so you don't have to wait! Part 1 covers my purchase from the Hobonichi shop of the journal itself and accessories. Part 2 describes my experience with purchasing custom covers for my journals, and a comparison with the Hobonichi brand covers.
Once again, I purchased Hobonichi's Techo (journal) for next year. It seems to have become a yearly tradition for me. While I don't always fill out my diary entry every day, I always have my diary near me, and I use it for various other purposes as well. As per last year, the product onsales were staggered over a 3 day period, but all of the products I wanted went on sale on the first day, so I didn't have to bother myself with placing a hold on my order.
Postage time from Japan was about ten days, plus a couple of extra days until I was able to go to the post office and pick it up (always an impatient wait!). This year's box is a stunning lime green colour. The first couple of years I cut up my boxes to use the cardboard for displays, etc, but I think I'll keep this one to store things in. (My previous Hobos, for example?)
This year, the traditional quote on the box says:
Once, words were engraved in stones.
Once, words were exchanged from mouth to mouth.
I guess people could not help it,
because they were so precious.
We all want to keep words alive.
As per normal, everything inside was packed well.
The free gifts were the usual tri-pen, this time with a red barrel, and a pack of Hyakunin-isshu ("100 poets 100 poems") playing cards. The cards are illustrated by manga artist Radio Wada. Unfortunately I can't play the game as I can't read Japanese and the only poems I know are a small selection of haiku, but the cards themselves set my witchy heart a-fluttering. Can I turn them into a divination tool?
The Techo also came with a fold-out mini poster with a graphic story on it, which I also unfortunately can't read, but the illustrations are adorable and I will keep it as a memento. There was also a lovely card with a link to this website, which seems at first glance to be stories of Hobonichi users. Thank goodness for goog translate because otherwise I'd have no clue of anything whatsoever. I'll have a better look later after I've finished sharing my Hobonichi excitement!
Here are the accessories I purchased. I didn't get too much this year because of my circumstances, but I did get some sticky notes, washi tapes and stencils, plus the adorable Hobo rubber stamp. The two washi tapes are based on traditional Japanese lottery/divination systems so of course I had to get them.
Here is a better look at the stencils. They are much smaller than I thought they'd be. I think I'd need a fineliner to use them properly, but I'll experiment.
See here for Part 2, in which I review my custom covers purchase and compare them to Hobonichi brand covers!
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