Life Recent Memo pocket notebooks handle fountain pens really well, as do the Life Klesha notebooks. Hobonichi Plain notebooks or Apica CD notebooks in A6 are great options too.
Transit Notebooks are for jotting down reading from telescopic sighting transits and alidade/plane tables for geological engineers (for roads, building and underground mines) and surveyors.
The transit book is for land surveying, the left side is for specific transit elevation inputs- Station#/back site/instrument height/front site/elevation/distance . The right side is for your field sketch/notes, with the red centerline used as the North/South line. Nice book!
The little "passport memo" notebooks from Muji are nice EDCs. Gorgeous paper, stitched binding, dead cheap. Only problem is that I literally do mix it up with my EU passport.
I think Muji has the best quality to value ratio out there. I’ve got one of their passport memo notebooks, you’re completely right it looks exactly like a passport! I haven’t used it yet but I use their slim and wire bound A5 sized notebooks for work a lot. Muji is another dangerous place, I could buy all of their stationery. Their fountain pen is another gem.
While I go through every tiny thing in Muji, my son patiently rearranges and tidies all the pens. I can imagine him launching a YT channel like yours one day.@@BlankFirstPage
Transit books can be found in the hands of or vest pocket of any land surveyor. I would love to see you go down that rabbit hole in an episode. Your Kokuyo should be a pleasure to use with a pencil.
Kia ora from a Kiwi stationery enthusiast - I just discovered your channel today and am enjoying watching back through your videos, and am delighted to discover you spent some time here in Aotearoa New Zealand 🙂 I know this is an older video, so you might well have already discovered this since you filmed it, but Kokuyo is a fairly well known low-to-mid budget stationery brand. I see their Campus range of notebooks regularly advertised on the JetPens videos, and Stationery Pal also periodically has a few of their character notebooks, planners and other stationery pieces.
Thanks for watching and for commenting all the way over the other side of the world! I find the campus range at odds with theses slim hard cover notebooks, somehow it feels like they shouldn’t be from the same brand!
@@BlankFirstPage - I hear you! I haven't actually tried any of their notebooks yet - budget or otherwise. I wonder if there's genuinely a difference in quality or whether it's all just branding optics 🤔
Japanese stationary really is next level amazing. I made a video review of a Plotter mini and it really is awesome, but also really expensive. But it's different with a leather cover and mini rings, more of a system than a bound book. I use it in my front pants pocket because I don't want to break the rings.
Cool notebooks, definitely understand the draw of Japanese stationary. I have a few Muji notebooks, one of which is my current daily carry and recently picked up a Yamamoto Ro-Biki notebook that is about the same size as a Field Notes and has a wax-infused, kraft paper cover. Interested to see how that works when i get to add that to the rotation. Loving the channel!
@@BlankFirstPage I like the taller skinny ones best. They’re about the height of the ones in this video, but pretty narrow. They come in grid, ruled, or blank. The wax paper covers really are lovely.
I would try a ballpoint with these small notepads despite knowing most users would use a pencil. I feel like this review is really had on them because you already have a type you love. I would be open to trying these.
I would lose my mind at the stationary stores in Japan! I wonder if any of these have Tomoe River paper. Thin, sturdy, and fountain pen friendly. It has an interesting history of its own. Some of these may be intended to use going right to left through the book and writing down the page right to left in Japanese fashion.
The elegant custom notebook says: 書き心地が良く、にじみにくい 高級手帳用紙を使用しています。 Comfortable to write on, smudge/bleed-resistant Makes use of high-grade notebook paper.
Agree that Itoya is mind-blowing! I know you love FN as your daily-carry, but for the sake of arguement, do those Japanese notebooks not fit well in the pants pocket? Maybe too tall?
I'm going to Japan and I want a notebook from there instead of the field notes. Field notes is held together with staples which seems cheap to me. Also I do not use a fountain pen. Which one do you recommend?
I hope you’re going to Tokyo so you can go to Itoya. I’d get any of the ones that are ‘Transit’ or ‘sketch’ books. The paper is great with whatever writing instrument you use!
@@BlankFirstPage Yes Tokyo Osaka & Kyoto. I want to buy notebooks, pens, and whatever else cool stuff I can find. I almost bought the field notes but I’m sure Japan will deliver something better. Still can’t believe they just staple the books together