My 2023 Techo Kaigi
Hi my name is Carla and I’m addicted to stationery.
This is not a new obsession, I’ve been afflicted with this since I was a child, when the letter writing sets and multi-pens were a thing. Then came the more sophisticated G-Tecs and Cattleya fillers, and the planners fountain pens. It’s an evolving, revolving thing.
In my hours of watching journaling Youtube videos, I stumbled upon the term ‘techo kaigi’, a Japanese term planners are now using to refer to a time in their year where they sit down and evaluate the notebooks and journals they will use for a year. It’s pretty intense, and I’m resisting all urge to post my own video about it, so for now, I’m happy to share it here on the blog.
So here we go stationery nerds. Strap in.
The every day carry (edc)
The EDC is the notebook you carry with you on the daily, the One Notebook where schedules and to-do lists are placed. Usually what you will see the person post about the most, especially when they’re in cafes.
My EDC is a regular sized Traveler’s Notebook. I was introduced to the Traveler’s Notebook late last year by my friend Danice (Hi From My Journal on Youtube!) and I was immediately fascinated by the concept of being able to customize your inserts (or fillers lol). After using two large A5 journals to be able to bullet journal, I liked the customization and the smaller size.
I went all in on the system, and I have to say I really love it! I did not think I would be as enthusiastic about using the TN system as I am. I love the idea of slipping the inserts in and out as you need, and the leather covers are just gorgeous. They aren’t too cutesy or too artsy for me, just right.
My current planner has three inserts plus folders on two inserts for stickers and other random things I need to carry every day.
In not so particular order, my inserts are:
Kraft Folder: Just for a pack of Kitta tapes, dot stickers and the bookmarks I got from the BTS folios—!
Traveler’s Company Weekly Memo + Note Insert: These are interestingly split between six months of the year, and I don’t mind so much when it’s this slim. It reminds me of the Hobo Weeks, but this one has a little more width. And I am a fan of the week + note layout forever. I used to have a monthly, but it felt like it was just cluttering the whole system, so I put that aside.
Grid Insert: this was a dirt cheap insert I bought online, and I’m currently using it to dump all my notes and random snatches of book writing and plotting. It’s worked really well so far, and the paper withstands EF fountain pens, which I’m partial to. The size of the TN is just enough for me not to feel like it’s too tiny.
Plastic Case Insert: bought from the same cheapo site, this one holds stickers and random papers.
Bullet Journal Dot Grid Insert: Quoth the Crow has this brilliant video on how they use a Passport TN to fit their entire life, and they used an insert as a bullet journal, which kind of blew my mind? I loved the utility of the trackers in the bullet journal, but didn’t like the bulk and the pressure of thinking of monthly themes, so this chill, random spread idea really worked well for me. I’m currently using mine to track 2023 highlights per month, some important info, merch orders, and a mini reading and watch journal. Nothing ~too fancy, but it’s perfect for my needs.
That’s it for my every day carry! Like I said, I’m really happy with it so far and not looking to change anything up. But then again it’s January. BUT THEN AGAIN they’re fillers. We shall see.
The Travel JOurnal
Another important notebook for me is my travel journal. I’ve been personally documenting my trips in long, winding diary entries and little drawings since I was in high school (I’m….not in high school anymore) and so the travel journal has been important to me.
My first trip in two years was to Seoul, and in my excitement I used a notebook that I made out of Canson mixed media paper. I loved the way it turned out.
There was something so fun about a little notebook you could just fill to your heart’s content. I used to carry journals that would span several trips, which was fine, but it was kind of frustrating for the year to not fit in one place, or to have to end a journal with x number of pages left because of the length of the next trip, if that made sense?
So I bought a second Traveler’s Notebook. This one has just one insert, a blank one to fill to my hearts content with art, collages, attach little ephemera or spend pages, pages and pages writing about what I saw, how it made me feel. Then I added pockets for washi tape samplers and stickers, a place to put in ephemera, documents, my passport (in transit) and other documents.
I really liked using it on our last trip to Turkiye. I managed to fill up the entire insert, can you imagine. One of my favorite spreads was when we visited the Atatürk memorial in Ankara, and I filled the page with all the Atatürk stamps I got from this set of 100 used stamps they were selling at a store. There were a lot of Atatùrk stamps.
The Journal
When the pandemic started, I started to fill my then useless notes and planner pages with thoughts, feelings, processing emotions and doodling. Despite keeping a travel journal for as long as I had, and keeping up with
”diary entries” for high school and parts of college, I didn’t recognize this as journaling until I filled that planner up. And then a notebook. And another notebook. It was kind of incredible.
Not my notebook, but one just like it!
Right now i’m using a notebook with 300 pages (I think) made by The Unplanned Life on Youtube. She’s a fountain pen fan from the Philippines, and while she personally uses a discbound planner, she also sells these gorgeous journals.
I covered mine with peel and stick wallpaper and have been slowly chipping away at the pages. I don’t write in it was often as I used to, maybe because I need a little less emotional management, but when I do, it’s there, and it’s been really comforting! The pages are lined, and it takes darker fountain pens really, really well. I’m a little over halfway through, and I’ve enjoyed filling it up with more things that I love, and fully committing to the idea of spreads in the journal (a recent thing, trust me).
NOtion
Notion fills in all the gaps that my analog journals don’t. It has my monthly calendar, tracks my works in progress, including my plot outlines and my finance tracker. I want to say it’s all nice and consolidated, but it’s really not. But the flexibility there is nice!
but then again
I have issues, clearly. Because I just bought a Passport size Traveler’s Notebook. WHY? I don’t know, but I guess I will find out????? This is definitely not healthy, but I will find use for things! I will!!!