The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Hobonichi
The Ultimate Beginners Guide to Hobonichi
At first glance, Hobonichi can seem intimidating with so much to choose from. But really what makes Hobonichi such a popular brand is the flexibility it offers its users; you can choose to use it like a diary to keep track of your day-to-day activities and appointments, or you can use it to track daily habits, daily journalling — the possibilities are endless! Here is our ultimate guide for absolute beginners to the world of Hobonichi.
About Hobonichi
The Hobonichi Techo first launched in 2001, and was designed by the Hobonichi Team with the goal to create a Techo (planner) that they wanted to use themselves. What emerged as a result is what Hobonichi call a "Life Book" — a diary that can fit the lifestyle and style of anyone, anywhere, and can be used exactly how they want with complete freedom. The idea is that you make the book your own, and it may become a treasure in your daily life.
What makes the Hobonichi Techo truly special is its thoughtful design — created to capture everything your day holds. You can fill each page with plans, notes, sketches, clippings, work updates, personal reflections, and anything else that matters to you, all in one beautifully curated book. Users find endless ways to personalise their Techos, turning daily planning into something genuinely enjoyable.
Why should I choose Hobonichi?
Hobonichi is renowned for its ease of use and handy features that help make it one of the world’s best selling planners. This includes:
- Fountain Pen Friendly Tomoe River Paper
- Lay-flat binding
- Sturdy bookbinding
- 3.7mm graph paper
- Flexible format that’s eye-friendly
- Refined layouts
- Annually updated bonus pages
- Personalise With a Cover of Your Choice
Key Features Breakdown
Fountain-Pen Friendly Tomoe River Paper
The Hobonichi Techo uses Tomoe River paper; a thin, lightweight, yet durable paper specially designed for their planners. It’s characterised by its unique ability to hold ink well and provide a smooth writing experience despite its thinness. This is one of the big pulls for fountain pen users as it can be challenging to find planners that can hold so much in one place without being massive AND handle fountain pen ink well.
Lay-Flat Binding
The Hobonichi Techo has 180 degree, lay-flat binding; so you don’t need to hold down the pages in order to keep the book open. This is achieved with thread-stitch binding which involves sewing and binding the book with thread. The experience of opening your Techo and it laying completely flat is an impressive one that’s hard to beat when you’ve started using it!
Sturdy Bookbinding
The thread-stitch binding also helps to make sure that the Techo is incredibly secure. It will hold up well against the constant opening and closing during the course of a year; so even if you put the binding to the test by sticking in tickets, notes, and other journalling accessories that will add bulk to the book, it will continue to hold together. You won’t need to worry about the book falling apart halfway through the year. This type of binding is also great for long-term storage so you can keep your Techos for years after you’ve finished them.
3.7mm Graph Paper Squares
After plenty of trials, the Hobonichi Techo has 3.7mm grid squares - perfect to writing within (or outside) the lines! This size makes it easy to draw charts and graphs, and the lines provide a handy guide for sticking in papers or photographs with perfect alignment!
Eye-friendly Flexible Formats
The ink colour and line-thickness in the Techo are designed specifically for eyes in mind - allowing you to focus on your own writing instead of the grid. This design keeps you, the user, in mind, with lines you can either utilise to your heart’s content, or completely ignore and go your own way!
Refined Layout
The daily pages have been improved for convenience and writing comfort, expanding this to each of their layouts to make writing in each of your pages an enjoyable experience.
Annually Updated Bonus Pages
There are plenty of bonus pages in the back of each Techo, including useful contents to write in (such as graphs, time tables, the My 100 List). There are also pages including interesting contents to read that are updated annually - so there’ll be something new to discover every year!
Personalise With a Cover of Your Choice
One of the big attractions of the Hobonichi is its HUGE selection of cover designs to choose from, available in fabric, leather, PU and in plenty of styles that there is definitely something for everyone. With plenty of storage space, the covers allow you to carry stickers, sticky notes, tickets, smaller notebooks, and pens too!
Types of Techo
Over the past 25 years, Hobonichi has expanded their collection into versatile planning systems to suit every workflow. Here is how they break down:
The Original (A6)
Includes Month-to-View, Week-to-View, and Daily Page layouts. There’s plenty of space for daily tracking, to-do lists, and personal reflections in a compact, portable size.
By picking the A6 Original, you are guaranteed plenty of space to plan in a compact book. You also can use the A6 Covers! There are well over fifty designs available across the range; including the Alettone and Tragen range of covers too. They come in a huge variety of colours and designs, and most of them include a handy Butterfly Clip closure, where you can clip the cover closed using a pen. There’s also plenty of space for extra notebooks, cards, and tickets. Here are some of our favourite designs from the 2026 range to give you an idea of what to expect!
Mina Perhonen: Skyful (yellow) is a gorgeous vibrant yellow with two bookmarks, the butterfly clip closure and plenty of space to put cards, tickets, and other bits and pieces!
The A6 Tragen (Purple) - This cover uses a click closure and has so much space inside, you can even use it as your pencil case!
The A6 Alettone: Grey Cover - made from PVC, this cover features a clear pocket and a snap closure with plenty of space to store any bits and pieces!
You can also use the Clear Cover on Cover to protect your fabric cover and to personalise it even more with stickers!
The Cousin (A5)
Offers the same layouts as the Original plus a bonus vertical weekly layout, making it ideal for habit tracking, work planning, or quick monthly overviews. As an A5 book, the Cousin is still quite portable, and perfect for those who want to do more writing than the quick note!
There’s so much space in here for daily plans or journalling, monthly overviews, and weekly run-downs - the vertical weekly overview is also perfect for habit-tracking! We recommend this for anyone with lots to keep track of, or those who want their planner and journal in one. You also can use the A5 Covers! Much like the A6 Original, there are well over fifty designs available across the range; including the Alettone and Tragen range of covers too. They come in a huge variety of colours and designs, and most of them include a handy Butterfly Clip closure, where you can clip the cover closed using a pen. There’s also plenty of space for extra notebooks, cards, and tickets. Here are some of our favourite designs from the 2026 range to give you an idea of what to expect!
A5 Yumi Kitagisihi Cover - a gorgeous cover by popular cat-themed artist Yumi Kitagishi - again featuring the butterfly closure, plenty of spaces for cards, and an inner pocket for loose bits!
A5 Letter Cover - an envelope-style cover with a string-and-button closure with an internal pen-loop and extra storage!
Again, you can use a Clear Cover on Cover to protect your gorgeous fabric cover!
A6 and A5 HONs
The HON includes the same contents and layouts inside the Original and Cousin (see above); but the main difference is that the planner is bound in a durable hard-cover that comes in a lovely variety of designs! See below for some of our favourite covers from 2026. The cover types are available in both the A6 and the A5 sizes, so you won’t miss out.
HON Hiroko Kubota: Waiting on the Chord
HON Bow & Tie: In The Forest
HON - Liberty Fabrics Sasha Kiora
Unlike the Original and the Cousin; the HONs are designed to be used without an extra cover due to the hard-cover binding. However, you can use it with a HON Clear Cover to help protect your book.
Hobonichi Weeks
A slim, wallet-sized planner with weekly horizontal planning on the left and grid memo pages on the right. Perfect for someone who doesn’t need a lot of space and prefers a basic layout without the extras.
Much like the HONs, the Weeks come with a large number of different designs to choose from - here’s some of our favourites from 2026:
- Weeks: Iyo Okumi - A Story About Me
- Weeks: Shirt Fabric - Foggy Plaid
- Colours: Antique Green
There are a number of covers you can choose from too! You can use the likes of the Tragen and Alettone with the Weeks. See below:
Weeks: Tragen
Weeks: Alettone
Much like the HON, you can also use a Weeks Clear Cover to protect your Weeks!
Hobonichi Weeks Mega
The Weeks Mega offer the exact same inner layouts as the Weeks Original - the only difference is that it offers 219 pages of grid paper in the back - this is perfect for people who like to take lots of impromptu notes or want to keep things together whilst being slim and portable!
The Day-Free
Also available in A5 and A6 sizes, the Day-Free planner is a lightweight and portable monthly planner combined with a 171-page graph-paper notebook. Unlike the Original, Cousin, or HONs, the Day-Free doesn’t include any daily pages, making this planner far thinner than the core planners. This is a perfect fit for people who only need to see a quick overview of the month or week at any one time, and who need more space to write notes than offered in the Weeks.
You can partner the Day-Free planner with any of the A6 or A5 covers and Cover on Covers to personalise it to your tastes - who said more simple had to be boring!
The Planner
The Hobonichi Techo 2026 English Planner is designed for easy use worldwide. It features a sleek charcoal gray and red design with a matte cover and gold foil accents. It includes daily pages, yearly and monthly calendars, and a yearly index to help organise your schedule. This planner blends practicality with a touch of cultural charm, making planning enjoyable all year long.
Much like the Original and Day Free, you can also use the English Planner with any of the A6 Covers and Cover-on-Covers.
Five Year Diary
You can partner the A6 and A5 Five Year Diary with a specific cover designed for these planners because they’re much thicker than the Original and Cousin. Here are some of our favourite Five Year Covers!
Hobonichi 5-Year Cover - Leather (Natural)
Hobonichi 5-Year Cover - Leather (Red)
Accessories
Another appeal to the Hobonichi brand is the sheer volume of accessories available to purchase alongside your planner! Including, but not limited to:
- Pencil boards
- Folders
- Stickers
- Memo pads
- Stencils
- Iro no Tsuki series
- Weekly Calendar Booklet
- Stappos (organise desks)
- Drawer Pouches
Pencil Boards
Pencil boards are available in the A6 Original, A5 Cousin, and Weeks sizes. Because the planners are made with the Tomoe River paper, the pencil board reinforces your writing surface, preventing indentations and providing a secure grip for the pen. The “Today” tab at the top can also be used as a bookmark to keep track of where you are in your Techo. See below for some of our top designs from the 2026 lineup.
Ice Grey
Tamagotchi
Folders
Available in A6 and A5 sizes, the Hobonichi Folders are a lovely addition to your Techo. Available in packs of 3 for the A6 and packs of 2 for the A5, the folder fits perfectly into the pocket of your Hobonichi Techo Cousin cover to carry small items like stickers and tickets; you can also use them to organise small bits of paperwork in your desk drawers or bags! Here's a couple of examples from the 2026 range!
Pack of 2 A5 Tamagotchi Folers
Pack of 3 A6 Iyo Okumi Folders
Stickers
Each year, Hobonichi release a number of different sticker packs to celebrate the new launch - including top ranges like Yumi Kitagishi!
- Iyo Okumi Transparent Embroidery Sticker Set
- Yumi Kitagishi Stickers - Daily Life of a White Cat
- Hobonichi Unforgettable Day Stickers - Not a Dream
Memo Pads
Hobonichi offer packs of 2 or 3 memo pads designed to fit perfectly in the back pocket or inside of an A6, A5 or Weekly Hobonichi Techo! Pages are made with thin yet durable Tomoe River paper, so despite it having 48 pages to write lots of memos, it allows each memo pad to stay at a mere 2 mm thick to compactly store in a techo cover; and the 3.7mm graph paper allows ample writing space.
Pack of 3 A6 Memo Pads
Pack of 2 A5 Memo Pads
Pack of 3 Weeks Memo Pads
Stencils
Stencils are another popular accessory from Hobonichi to help you personalise your planner! Available in a number of different layouts, they are designed to fit perfectly into the planner cover pockets (Basic, Activities, Schedule).
Hobonichi Basic Stencil
Hobonichi Activities Stencil
Hobonichi Schedule Stencil
Tsuki no Iro
Tsuki no Iro is one of Hobonichi’s ranges that offer a huge variety of add-ons and accessories for you to choose from. The colour scheme is designed to match the monthly colours available across the year inside the planners, and gives a cohesive style which can be incredibly useful for people who want to try and be more adventurous in their Hobonichi, but don’t have the time to add doodles, stickers, and decorate. They offer sticky notes, sticker sets, index stickers, and Pen Sets.
Hobonichi Tsuki no Iro Transparent Dot Stickers (3.5mm, 6mm, 15mm)
Hobonichi Tsuki no Iro Index Stickers
 
Hobonichi Tsuki no Iro Sticker Set (Schedule)
 
Hobonichi Tsuki no Iro Sticky Notes
 
Weekly Calendar
This weekly calendar is a supplement to the A6 Hobonichi Techo Original. Each two-page spread covers an entire week, allowing you to view your schedule at a glance. Each daily column includes a full 24-hour timeline and three checkboxes at the top, making it easy to plan out your week.
Stappo
The stappo combines the words “stand” and “pouch”, and essentially allows you to store your items in a standing pouch. These are great if you want to keep everything in one place and able to quickly grab it when you’re on the go! Here's the Tamagotchi Stappo from 2026's range!
Drawer Pouches
The “Drawer Pouch,” part of the Hobonichi Techo lineup, is a pouch that lets you store your favorite and important items all in one place. It’s like carrying around an organized drawer with you wherever you go. Here's the Yumi Kitagishi 2026 Drawer Pouch!
Get in Touch
We know there’s loads to think about and lots to choose from within Hobonichi - but we hope that after reading this, you’ll want to dive right in and get involved with Hobonichi 2027.
