The Hobonichi Techo is the most beloved planner in the global stationery community. It uses Tomoe River S paper — an extraordinarily thin (52gsm) Japanese paper that shows fountain pen inks at their most expressive while remaining resistant to bleedthrough — and comes in daily, weekly, and monthly formats across multiple sizes. The choice between formats is genuinely complex and the wrong choice leads to abandonment by February. This guide cuts through it.
The Journal Shop is one of the UK's leading Hobonichi stockists and has been shipping Hobonichi planners to UK customers for years.
The A6 Original (daily, A6 size)
The original Hobonichi Techo. Each day gets its own page — a dot grid with a 24-hour timeline running down one side, five checkboxes at the top, and the characteristic "secret line" dividing the page horizontally. The A6 format is genuinely pocket-sized: it fits in a jacket pocket, a small bag, or any coat. 448 pages for the full year.
The Original is right for you if: you want a daily planner you'll carry everywhere, you have relatively compact handwriting, and you want each day to feel contained rather than expansive.
The Original is not right for you if: you write extensively each day (the A6 page fills quickly), you need significant space for diagrams or sketch-heavy entries, or you want the most possible writing space.
Available in English and Japanese editions. The English edition includes English-language mini book excerpts and quotes on each daily page.
The A5 Cousin (daily, A5 size)
The Cousin is the A6 Original enlarged to A5 — roughly four times the writing space per day. The 24-hour timeline runs down the left side, leaving the full right portion of each spread as open dot grid. The Cousin also includes vertical weekly spreads at the beginning of each month, giving you a planning overview that the Original lacks.
The Cousin is right for you if: you write at length each day, you sketch or illustrate alongside your diary entries, you want the weekly overview in addition to daily pages, or your handwriting is on the larger side.
The Cousin is not right for you if: you want a portable everyday carry (the A5 size requires a bag), or the daily format feels like pressure to fill a larger page.
Also available as the Cousin Avec — split into two half-year volumes, making it lighter to carry and better suited to those who find the full-year Cousin unwieldy by summer.
The Weeks (weekly, medium size)
A different format entirely: the Weeks is a weekly planner — seven days on the left page, a blank memo page on the right — in a compact medium size roughly equivalent to a B6 notebook. For people who don't need a daily format but want a structured weekly overview. The Weeks MEGA has significantly more memo pages for writers who journal extensively.
The Weeks is right for you if: you plan rather than journal, you want the weekly overview but not the pressure of a daily page, and you want a compact format that functions as a planner-journal hybrid.
The HON (daily, A5 or A6, hardcover)
The HON is a hardcover version of the Techo — available in A5 and A6 sizes, with a rigid cover that makes it more practical for writing while standing or in situations without a desk. The same Tomoe River paper, the same daily format, in a more robust cover. For writers who find softcover planners feel fragile or who write frequently outside.
The Hobonichi Notebook (undated)
Not a planner but a blank Hobonichi — the same Tomoe River paper in the same format, without any dated structure. Available in A6 and A5 in blank, graph, and lined rulings. For writers who want the paper quality without the planner commitment. The most flexible Hobonichi product.
Which should you buy?
First Hobonichi, writes moderately: A6 Original. Learn what the daily format demands before committing to the larger size.
Writes extensively, wants space: A5 Cousin or Cousin Avec.
Prefers weekly planning: Hobonichi Weeks.
Wants the paper without the planner structure: Hobonichi Notebook.
Browse the full Hobonichi Techo range at The Journal Shop, including the Original, Cousin, Weeks, HON, and Hobonichi Notebook in all available editions.
