Stationery Review: Hobonichi Techno Planner 2020

Image Description: title card. It has four strawberries in each corner of the image and large, bold, pink text in the middle that reads: “Stationery Review: Hobonichi Techno Planner”.

Item: Hobonichi Techno Planner 2020

Size: A6-sixed journal

Category: Review/Feedback

Cost: Cover + Planner = AU $203.10 (Shipping Fees: free shipping via Amazon Prime). Cover on Cover = AU $12.10 (shipping Fees: AU $5.98) = $18.08. Grand Total: $203.10 + $18.08 = AU $221.18

Store: Cover + Planner = Amazon (Australia). Cover on Cover = Amazon (USA)

Images:

Image Description: a close-up image of an A6-sized grey cardboard-box. In the centre of the box is written: “HOBONICHI TECHNO ORIGINAL”

Image Description: a close-up image of the contents of the previously mentioned A6-sized grey cardboard-box. Inside the box contains a pink A6-sized journal, the journal is wrapped in a white-transparent bag.

Image Description: A close-up image of the insides of the pink journal cover. The cover contains two pen holders (one of the left-side and another on the right side), two bookmarks, and various pocket sections to store things like stickers and pieces of paper.

Image Description: image – a black perfect-bound journal inside a shiny plastic bag. There is a band of white at the bottom of the journal with black text: “HOBONICHI TECHNO PLANNER 2020”. Then underneath that is more text: “One Page Per Day | English Language | January Start”.

Image Description: A white piece of thick white cardstock with black text on it. The text is essentially a description of the journal (what it is and what you can use it for). In the top right-hand corner is a trio of silver keys embedded into the paper.

Image Description: The first page of the Hobonichi Techno Planner 2020 colour-print pamphlet. The front cover of the pamphlet has a small child holding the planner and has a speech bubble of “What’s that?”

Image Description: The Hobonichi Techno Planner 2020 colour-print pamphlet has been folded out so that the viewer can see the multiple coloured panels where a small child asks their parent what a Hobonichi Techno Planner is and how it can be used.

Image Description: The other side of the Hobonichi Techno Planner 2020 colour-print pamphlet. This side of the pamphlet has less narrative with the child and parent. This side of the piece of paper has more step by step instructions and a list of features within the planner.

Image Description: On the left-hand side, a Year-At-A-Glance page for the year 2020, and on the right-hand-side is a Year-At-A-Glance page for 2021.

Image Description: The left-hand-side and right-hand-side of the book have monthly overview pages. The title of the month is up the top, with the day-title and number of the day going down in two verticle columns.  The pages have two months per page. Every Sunday is marked in red on the page.

Image Description: A box-style calender-design of December 2019 that spreads across two pages. All of the Sundays in the month have been marked in red.

Image Description: A box-style calender-design of January 2020 that spreads across two pages. All of the Sundays in the month have been marked in red.

Image Description: A box-style calender-design of January 2021 that spreads across two pages. All of the Sundays displayed in the month have been marked in red.

Image Description: On the top of the page, on the left-hand side, there is the black text: “Turning the page to a new year.” Underneath this title is plain graph-paper so that you can write notes or goals for the new year.

Image Description: On the left-hand side, there is text at the very top of the page that says: “Coming up… January”, underneath this is blank graph-paper (I think this page is for upcoming events or tasks for January 2020). On the right-hand side, is a daily page for the 1st of January. Up the top of the page has the day of the week, the current month, the current moon cycle state for that date, and the date of the week on the side. Most of the page is graph-paper to write notes.

Image Description: The left-hand side is for the 4th of January (a Saturday), on the right-hand side of the book is 5th of January (a Sunday). On the left-side side of each page is a column indicating the time of day. Both pages are graph-paper. The Sunday page is using red ink instead of standard black ink.

Image Description: a pale hand holding the journal in a side-long view. This is so the viewer can see the “stair” or “zig-zag” pattern that’s been printed on the edge of each piece of paper. Each section represents a month of the year.

Image Description: End pages of the journal. On the left and right side of the journal are pages with red grid-dot paper for note-taking.

Image Description: These two pages contain information about Local Festivals in Japan. Every festival has a paragraph of text explaining the festival and is accompanied by a black and white image related to the festival in question.

Image Description: The next two pages describe Japanese Bento dishes. Each type is accompanied by a black and white image and a paragraph of text explaining the particulars of bento in question.

Image Description: On the left-hand side is a page that contains space for “Personal Notes”, things such as name, address, and contact details. On the right-hand side of the page is grey card-stock and in the bottom-right of the page is the individual serial number for the Hobonichi Techno Planner.

Image Description: The image is of the inner pages of the perfect-bound journal (left-hand side), the journal is contained inside the Sweet Pink cover, and the Sweet Pink cover has a clear protective cover around it. The left-hand side and right-hand side pen loop are still accessible with the clear cover on. The small pockets (on the left side) are also accessible with the Sweet Pink cover and transparent cover.

Image Description: image – The image is of the inner pages of the perfect-bound journal (right-hand side), the journal is contained inside the Sweet Pink cover, and the Sweet Pink cover has a clear protective cover around it. The left-hand side and right-hand side pen loop are still accessible with the clear cover on. The small pockets (on the right side) are also accessible with the Sweet Pink cover and transparent cover.

Image Description: image – An image of the journal (closed) from the front, so that you can see the two pen loops on the side, and the two bookmarks sticking out down the bottom.

Review:
~Accessibility: Just before we begin, I wanted to mention something that might affect your purchasing ability. I understand that some people don’t want to use the Amazon website (which is understandable), however, for someone like myself who lives in Australia, Amazon is sometimes the only way I can purchase international items.

In Australia, there was only one physical store that sold Hobonichi Planners, and that was a store named Milligram. While Milligram sold the cover and planner book, the Melbourne Central store I visited didn’t have the cover-on-cover option available, and the staff had no intentions of being helpful in any way. I’ve also recently rechecked their website and I am unable to find any Hobonichi planner products available. I can only assume that they have sold out and are no longer restocking.

There is also the option of purchasing from the manufacturer’s website directly, however, shipping fees are steep and you have to have a credit card, a Debit Card will not suffice. The Hobonichi Techno Planner website allows for credit card purchase only. There is no Paypal option available on the website. This might not be a big deal for some, however, it was super frustrating to me.

~Limited Design Selection: The availability of Cover Selections on Amazon (Australia) are limited. While I like the Sweet Pink cover, I had originally wanted Bonbon Plaid (Bitter), however, that’s only available on the Hobonichi Techno Planner website. While I have noticed that the Strawberry Milk Design is very popular (at least on YouTube), I wasn’t a fan of the pink and red colour combination. The Sweet Pink design seemed to be a better compromise.

~Planner Structure The Planner Page Layout follows the following structure: Yearly Pages, Monthly Pages, and then Daily Pages. While there are dot-grid pages in between some sections, every page is practical, and every page serves a purpose. There are no wasted space within the journal. Even though I am not typically a Daily Planner style person, I adore the page layout and structure of the Techno Planner, it’s obvious someone put a lot of thought into it.

~It’s The Little Things: On the Daily pages, there are little touches here and there that I appreciate, such as: the daily pages all have moon phase position located at the top. All pages also have a timeline down the left-hand side so that you can schedual appointments and time sensitive events (if desired). Then there’s a motivational quote at the bottom of every daily page. There’s lots of little gems like those located throughout the planner.

~Costing: I find that the biggest barrier to recommeding the Hobonichi Techno Planner is the large upfront costing involved. I’m not comfortable speading approximately AU $225 on Stationery Items. I managed to curb my strong temptation for impulse purchasing and made sure to save up for these items over a few weeks.

The Sweet Pink Cover and Cover on Cover can be continuously reused and, to be honest, I’m pretty content with them. I don’t plan on changing them anytime soon. Just in case readers are unaware, Hobonichi Techno Planner covers are seasonal, and non-repeatable. The available cover selections change every year.

All in all, if it wasn’t for the high price tag and accessibility issues involved in obtaining the item, I would be happy to recommend the Hobonichi Techno Planner 2020. This could just be an “Australian” problem though, so if these types of planners are easy for you to find and buy, by all means, go for it.