Hobonichi 2022 Diary Unboxing

It's become a yearly tradition now for me to share the unboxing of my Hobonichi Diary for the next year -- and seeing as it's Spring, to do it outside on the grass!

I was very excited when I received my order! Unfortunately though, I have to report that I was pretty disappointed by the state it was in when it arrived. Usually the iconic Hobonichi box is enclosed in a paper bag, which keeps it safe while it travels from Japan. I (and I'm sure many others) like to keep the box to store stationery and other items in. This year though, the bag was dispensed with and the box was sent 'nude'. As you can see from the photos, it's covered in courier stickers and is very scuffed and a little crushed on the bottom.

The box such a gorgeous pink colour that I was particularly disappointed I won't be able to use it, and it's essentially 'just packaging' -- only fit for the bin now. But let's move away from the melodrama and see what's inside! As always, there is a quote on the inside flap of the box, and it's quite a nice one:

The first peek inside reveals the pencil board from the 'Standard Set' I ordered -- more on that later.

Underneath were the covers I ordered, and underneath that, some of the accessories. The Scary Bear spoon is one of this year's free items.

As always I ordered the Hobonichi Cousin, the A5 size book. I also got two covers, because I have a book from a couple of years ago that's still lacking a cover. The covers I chose were the plain colour in Lemon Squash yellow, and the "Shall We Have Some Tea?" Retro Cafe design.

I did a bit of a mix-and-match -- I ordered the Standard Set, which comes with the Hobonichi book, a plain cover (for me the Lemon Squash yellow), a clear cover-on-cover, and a pencil board. I plan to put the plain cover-on-cover over the Retro Cafe cover, and the Lemon Squash cover will serve as the base for the Season of Hope cover-on-cover that you can see below. I just can't decide which will go on my new Hobonichi and which will cover the old one!

As for the accessories, I purchased the matching folders for the "Shall We Have Some Tea?" set in both A5 and A6 size. To be honest, I don't have any particular plans for them, but I just love the designs so much that I couldn't help myself.

Here is the 2022 book with this year's free items: the usual tri-pen and the Scary Bear spoon. I just adore the colour of the pen barrel!

It again came with a fold-out booklet with information about the Hobonichi. It's a little smaller than in previous years, but it has a lovely illustration of cats in a park on the back, which I think I might even frame.

I got these animal stencils for no particular reason. They were reasonably priced, and I liked all of them, so I decided to get all four.

Likewise with these Pentel brush touch pens. I've seen other journallers use them in their Hobos without any bleed-through problems, so I indulged.

Lastly I purchased a few washi tapes. There is a larger range available in the Hobonichi store than there used to be, and more choice means more temptations! I couldn't help but get the matching washi tape from the "Shall We Have Some Tea?" range, as well as a few geometric edge-cut ones, which are a bit more unusual.

Aside from the disappointment with the box, which I'll admit was probably just due to high expectations, I'm very happy with my order. In fact, this was the first time there has been enough afordable choices in the A5 cover range that I had trouble deciding! It's a nice problem to have.

2021 Hobonichi Diary Unboxing

Normally I make this yearly post in September each year, when the Hobonichi diaries for the next year go on sale. The Hobonichi company have an order holding service, so this year, with the turbulence in the mail delivery system, I kept my order on hold for as long as I possibly could. After that, it arrived very fast, as it came by courier. 

I'll just show the unboxing photos without too much commentary, as I didn't order very many interesting things this year. 

The Etsy shop I bought my covers from last year was no longer open, sadly, but thankfully Hobonichi were offering one cover I really loved (both outside and inside!). It's by Aki Kondo, the same artist who invented Rilakkuma! 

 

I also ordered these cute Astroboy pencil boards for myself and Husband. They have a holographic effect!

This year's fold-out has a guide to uses for the Hobonichi with lots of ideas! It's in English as well as Japanese for the first time, though now I have a translation app on my phone I could read it. It's amazing to think that didn't exist a few years ago!

Here is the page I did in this year's Hobonichi to celebrate the arrival of next years', and also the backlog of stationery packs from my Rainbowholic Patreon subscription. They were being held until the post could get through again, and I received 5 months' worth at once! I felt like a (stationery) queen!

My January

January has been a typical one, weather-wise -- days of searing heat mixed with stormy downpours and sticky humidity. I was still recovering from my surgery, but got the go-ahead to resume normal activities in the third week of the month. I still find myself very tired though, and I find I need to either have a nap mid-afternoon, or go to bed very early. In some ways it's like being a two-year-old!


What I've been harvesting ...
The plums were ready to harvest this month. The harvest was about half what it was last year -- but I wasn't complaining. There were just too many for us to handle. This year, there was enough to fill about 4-5 plastic takeaway boxes once stewed. I just didn't have the energy to go to the bother of making jam (sterilising jars, etc) so I stewed them, packed them into boxes and stored them in the freezer.

Aside from that, most of my time in the garden has been employed in watering the plants, trying to keep them alive in the heat.

What I've been painting ...
I painted a landscape for a bushfire fundraiser exhibition/auction. This photo shows it still in progress. It's a bit different to my normal style: I was trying to be more realistic and make something that someone might want to buy.

What I've been journalling ...
I decided to do Rainbowholic's New Year 2020 Kawaii Journalling challenge. I've done 3 so far, not including the intro/title page. Here is my first page:

What I've been doing ...
I went for a walk in the park.

What I've been eating ...
After a trip to the dentist I went to a place I remembered from where I used to work over 10 years ago, which sold delicious French baguettes. It was still there! Emmenthal cheese, salami, whole gherkins and mustard -- just how I like it!

What I've been playing ...
Husband and I played Tsuro: Phoenix Rising, a variation on the popular Tsuro game. I think I enjoyed it even more than the original. I won't write any more now; I'm planning a full post in the near future.

What I've been reading ...
I've joined two readathons this year already! The first was Bout of Books, which went for a week. I managed to finish 4 books, one of which I'd had on my Currently Reading list for a year. That felt good. Currently I'm doing Pondathon, which is a story-based, co-operative reading challenge organised by CW from The Quiet Pond blog. Readers earn points for every page they read, and they affect the outcome of the story as its revealed over the 6 weeks of the challenge. There are cute characters, stamps to collect and, of course, books to read! Here's my character card with my first stamp:

My September

For a short month, it seemed like so much was packed into this September. And yet, it seemed like nothing much happened at all. I was still very sick for most of the month, due to a sort-of-new, sort-of-ongoing health issue (yeah, my health is complicated lately!), and wasn't able to leave the house. Finally in the last week, I was given some medication which has let me live a bit more normally again. However, I'll need to have an operation to fix it permanently, hopefully in a couple of months. That's left me in a strange limbo where I'm well enough to work, but there's probably no point in getting a job until after I've recovered from the operation. Oh well, may as well take advantage of the situation.

Let the art and craft commence! (Or continue, really...)


What I've been reading ...
I completed my personal September reading challenge very successfully, in my opinion! I read several short books and stories, and discovered some new authors that I'd like to follow up on in future. I've decided that for the month of October, I'm not setting myself a formal reading challenge. I'm still planning on reading, but some other things have piqued my interest lately as well, and I want to make sure I have enough time for everything.

What I've been showing ...
I seem to have neglected to mention it here, but I had a piece in an exhibition called Fat Feminism at NOIR Darkroom (actually it's still on until 6th October 2019!). I'm too shy to show my piece, so here's a photo of some of the other amazing art from NOIR's website:

What I've been drawing ...
After procrastinating for months, I finally started to draw a little bit again. I created a Terrible Drawing Challenge, in the hope that it would be less pressure, and I think this reverse psychology worked ... some days, anyway.

Here I copied a picture from the Voynich Manuscript. This mysterious book in an undeciphered script has been endlessly fascinating to me lately. The original is on the left and my drawing is on the right.

A Terrible Drawing of Saiki from The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. I really should have started further down the page! I really enjoyed this anime and liked the bright colours so I wanted to give it a go. I coloured it in with pencils because I don't have any watercolours bright enough for his hair.

A baby monitor. Don't ask me why. I just love the combination of smooth curves, soothing colours, buttons and what's basically a spy camera.

What I've been eating ...
Husband and I went with a foodie friend to a Rotary Hotpot restaurant, a new thing for us. It can be described as a cross between hotpot soup (or shabu-shabu) and sushi train. The soup is cooked at the table on an induction cooker, while the ingredients pass by on a conveyor belt for the diners to choose and add. (For anyone worried about food safety, the meats are kept separately in a freezer. They are cut very thin so that when added to the soup, they cook almost immediately.) There were several different soup bases to choose from and, as you can see from the photo, there's an option to choose two bases with the divided bowl. With all the different ingredients to choose from, the potential for different soup flavour combinations is truly endless. It was a lot of fun as well as delicious, and I would definitely go back!

What I've been observing ...
Spring happened. It's getting quite warm.

What I've been knitting ...
Aaaaaand, right at the very end of the month, I became interested in craft again. I was all crafted out after finishing my blanket. I guess it took me a few months to recover. Plus the nerdy/obsessive part of my brain seems to be quite perverse, as it always seems to point me in the direction of crafts that are inappropriate for the season. After visiting my friend and her baby, I was inspired to finish this dinosaur plushie which was supposed to be a birth gift. I might be in time for her first birthday, though. I have just under 6 months, and it's already half done, so I'm quietly confident.

Hobonichi Unboxing, Part 2: Custom Covers from Snow Cover Journal

Please see here for Part 1 in which I write about my purchase from the Hobonichi Techo shop.

This year I wasn't very enthused with the covers that Hobonichi were offering. I was in the market for 2 covers, because in the first couple of years, I didn't buy a cover, thinking I'd make one myself. That never happened, so now I'm trying to catch up by buying one extra cover each year until all my diaries are covered (so to speak!). There were two covers in the shop that I quite liked, but I wasn't sure. (These were the Candy Plaid and the Floral Handkerchief, for any curious Hobo fans reading.) Then I realised that I didn't like the interior colours of either of them! They were beige and black respectively -- my two least favourite colours! I spend at least as much time looking at the inside of the cover as the outside, as it peeks out around the edges when the book lies open. I don't want to spend a whole year looking at a colour I don't like (sorry Hobo!). So I decided to seek my fortune elsewhere.

After extensive searching on Etsy I found a shop called Snow Journal Cover in China. The seller makes custom covers with your choice of design for the exterior, and a selection of 12 interior colours. I liked many of the cover designs, and the interior colours were pleasing. The bookmark ends could also be customised. When factoring in the postage and the inclusion of a cover-on-cover, the cost came out to be only slightly more for the customised Snow Journal covers. So I decided to go for it!

I placed my order for the covers on 28th August, knowing that custom orders take time to make. It turned out perfectly as they arrived one day before my Hobo order did! It wasn't deliberately timed, but it couldn't have worked out better. My order was packed very well, even with bubble wrap and cute wrapping paper tied up with string.

The two designs I chose were Fuji-San with Sakura in grey, and van Gogh's Almond Blossoms. I chose the option which includes a cover-on-cover for both (a clear plastic cover which goes over the cover proper to protect the fabric). I definitely insist on the extra protection as I leave my diary out on the coffee table most of the time: it's in danger of tea spills and sometimes the cat sits on it.

This cute postcard came with it. It says: "Sometimes when I'm with you, I forget myself." It will make a lovely pocket deco. This photo shows off the custom bookmark ends as well. They're exactly as I requested.

These covers have one less pocket (I think) than the Hobonichi brand covers, but there are still plenty, in my opinion.

The biggest problem I will have now is deciding which cover to put on my 2020 Hobo, and which to put on my old one! I still work with my older Hobos quite a bit though, as I like to go through and fill up the blank/spare pages with paintings, practice drawings, quotes, ideas for art projects, etc. Or sometimes I find old ephemera (brochures, movie tickets, restaurant business cards etc) that I can add to the relevant year.

In the end I decided to put the Almond Blossoms cover on my 2017 Hobo. This photo shows well how the interior of the cover is visible when you're working in it.

Even though it isn't full (yet!) my 2017 Hobo is still quite chonky!

Here it is with my current/2019 Hobonichi side by side for comparison. This is the plain pink cover matched with the Night Forest print cover-on-cover. The Hobonichi cover looks slightly bigger in this photo, but it's not -- I think it just looks like that because it's (even) thicker. And it's still very much a working item so please excuse the bulldog clips and ugly sticky notes! As you can see, the Hobonichi cover-on-cover has a matte finish, whereas the generic cover is shiny. This doesn't matter in everyday use, only when you're trying to take photos, ahem. It has a different, smoother feel, but I personally find it just as pleasant.

Here is a comparison shot of the interiors. The Snow Cover Journal is on top, and the Hobonichi cover underneath. You can see when looking at the corners that the generic cover-on-cover doesn't fit quite as closely to the cover itself. I'm not bothered by this, but others can always stick to the Hobonichi brand cover-on-cover if they prefer.
P.S. I did a course on colouring-in as therapy back in 2017. XD

I am absolutely thrilled with my covers from Snow Journal Cover. They're exactly what I wanted and will make my diary-writing experience more pleasurable all year long. I'll definitely keep them in mind for next year.