Recently I’ve been going down a stationery rabbit hole. I’m a bit of a former stationery addict (I had a Field Notes subscription for a year or two back in my uni days) and considering Japan has some great stationery brands I was curious to see what sort of notebooks were available here. One of the more beloved brands is the Traveler’s Notebook range, and since they had a store in Nakameguro I decided to check it out.
I assume Traveler’s Notebooks are reasonably popular in Japan, but they actually have a bit of a cult following overseas, and so the bulk of the visitors to this store are probably tourists making a pilgrimage. You can also buy Traveler’s notebooks from regular stationery stores too, so the only reason you’d really want to visit here is if you were a fairly big fan of the brand to begin with.
The main distinction with Traveler’s Notebooks is that they have leather covers with replaceable paper inserts. The concept is that you hold onto the leather cover forever, and just swap out the paper insert inside. You could say this is a bit of a gimmick - it really literally is just a piece of leather with elastic cord wrapped around it - but it is a unique concept nonetheless.
One of the fun things Traveler’s enthusiasts like to do is customise their notebooks, so there’s plenty of little add-ons you can buy, like stickers and metal charms you can hang off of the elastic loop.
If you wanted to stamp your notebook, there’s plenty of custom stamps here you can use for free as well. I assume at least one of them is probably some sort of stamp unique to the store itself, so you’d have to visit here specifically to get it.
The store building itself is in a regular residential side street. A rather random location for a store, but it was once the location of a paper processing factory according to their website.
Due to how small the store is, and its popularity, you will probably have to line up a bit outside. We came around 12:15pm on a rainy Sunday (it opens at 12pm) and we got in within 5 - 10 minutes, but looking at Google you can wait up to an hour at a more busy time.
The other thing Traveler’s is really good at is their aspirational branding. Like the name suggests, users of Traveler’s Notebooks are supposed to take their notebooks along on their travels, so they can journal/sketch about it (like this).
I almost fell into their trap, but decided to do the smart thing for now and just buy a couple of paper inserts. They’re only 200 - 300 yen each, so not too bad.
The leather covers are in the 5000 - 6000 yen range, so a fair bit more pricey for a notebook! I feel you’d have to really commit to it, so I figured I could start by writing in the inserts and then see how I feel.
(Another reason was that they come in two sizes, and I couldn’t decide between either).
Their smaller version is their “Passport” size, which is a fair bit smaller than an A6, and a bit smaller than what I was previously used to with Field Notes. It’s probably really handy to have on the go (fits into your back pocket) but it just feels a bit too small for me, so it’s a bit of a no-go. I will use up all the paper though, so for now I’m just using it for jotting down quick tasks and memos.
I was quite dubious of the standard Traveler’s Notebook size. It’s this weird, narrow long rectangular shape that you don’t tend to see in a lot of notebooks. I’ve been using this one for journalling, and surprisingly - I’m growing quite fond the size. Somehow it just works for journalling.
As for the paper itself, Traveler’s uses a brand of paper called MD (or Midori). This is technically a separate brand to Traveler’s, but both Traveler’s and Midori are owned by the same parent company. The special thing about this paper is that if you use a fountain pen it doesn’t feather. In comparison to Field Notes, for sure the paper does feel nicer to write on - I feel like the strength of Field Notes was more its external design more than anything.
I definitely wouldn’t buy the Passport size of the Traveler’s, but Midori sells A6 notebooks which are slightly bigger so I later decided to get one of those as my next memo book.
As for the regular sized Traveler’s - I’m a bit undecided on what I will be doing with this one, but for now I’ll journal through the rest of the paper.
The store is tiny, considering it’s only operating on the first floor. The second floor is supposed to be for a cafe, which unfortunately was closed (boo).
They sell a pourover coffee for only 400 yen - not bad - just with a blend roast. They did ask whether I wanted milk or sugar in it, so I suspect they don’t really expect you to drink it black.
They also sold the beans, from a roaster called aalto coffee.
It’s not bad (drinkable) but I wouldn’t really recommend coming here for the coffee.
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