Traveler's Notebook Update 2021

Hello everybody, long time no update on my regular size olive Traveler's Notebook. It has been a weird time in general as I am still 80% working from home and 20% going into the office as well as improving the apartment even more.

Cause I am still mostly at home I had a bit more time to rework my setup. What ended up happening is that I made it a lot more centered around what I am doing from home cause I am not outside or traveling as much as I thought.

First is that I took out the insert pouch cause I wasn't using it since I was using my Superior Labor Engineer pouch with pockets from Baum-kuchen and a small pouch from The Stationery Selection. In the future, I hope to get it customized with leather pockets as well so I won't need another pouch insert.

Now the inserts in this right now are the 012 Sketch paper refill from Traveler's Company, ca.crea premium notebook, and the Baum-kuchen x TRC grid notebook.

012 Sketch refill

ca.crea premium notebook

BKxTRC Grid Insert

The sketch refills are for doodles and helping me use up some of this ink I have. The ca.crea premium notebook for my blog drafts and is being used a lot as I am trying to publish more posts on here. The ca.crea is in the band because it is a bit larger than a Traveler's notebook standard insert plus it helps keep it in place the best. I am using the BK x TRC insert for what I finished reading where I write about the books and helps me track what I finished.

This setup is simple and easy cause its what I can use every day. I will switch it up if I do go on trips and travel but it doesn't seem like that will happen soon. Let me know if you updated your setup and until next time, stay hyped!

Techo Kaigi: Journals in Review 2021

It is almost August as well as time for 2022 planners to be available, so I thought it would be nice to give a full review of all my planners that I used this year and what my plan is for next year. 

Just as an overview I have been using one Hobonichi Mega Weeks, one regular Hobonichi Weeks, and a Hobonichi A6 English Techo.

To start I got the Hobonichi Mega Weeks for personal chores, housework/housekeeping, and tracking expenses. The calendar was used to track holidays, birthdays, vacations, and events. The daily rows were for me to write my chores, events, and when I was hanging out. The note page on the other side was to write all my expenses that week and budget my paycheck when it comes in. The extra pages were used for writing all the random items I wanted to buy and the reasons why, which helped me stop impulse buying a lot, and reviewing my budget every month. I love how I have been using this and I feel like I can add even more. 

I plan on continuing to have a Hobonichi Mega Weeks but I will add my TCGPLAYER online shop TsubakiCards, my Mercari, and all the little bits of side hustles. My paycheck budget will also be moved to the extra pages so any side hustles expenses can be on the same page as my personal expenses. Next year I might reorganize the extra pages by month so it will be easier to keep track of when I wanted to buy something and how my budget changes month to month. I want this to be my overall planner where everything else besides my day job lives. My day job is in a FiloFax and there is nothing to talk about there cause it’s boring but it works for me.

The regular Hobonichi Weeks was only used to track tasks for my TCGPLAYER shop and side hustles but it failed because there is not that much to write about in general. My small tasks of shipping orders every other day barely fills the rows and my expenses for the shop are very far and in between making the book very empty even in the calendar as trading card release dates are sprinkled around. 

This will not be continued as a separate weeks but combined in the Hobonichi Mega Weeks. I plan on using different ink colors to separate my side hustles and to make it look more organized. This kinda works out cause I am trying not to spend a lot during the next Hobonichi release cause of how high shipping is.

Last but not least is my Hobonichi A6 English Techo. I loved this so much, I have been writing, drawing, and pasting ephemera every single day in here so are no major issues. However, I do not like that the format gives me less space on the page with the quote at the bottom and how big the heading is at the top. I also stopped using the calendar altogether and the tracker in the front, I just never keep up with it plus I have the calendar in the Weeks to use. 

This format will be continued but with a Stalogy 365 in A6 size as it is fountain pen friendly and gives me more of the page. It also doesn’t have monthly calendars so each and every page of this will be just my journaling. I will see if it can handle everything I stuff in my journal and will update if it works. 

Let me know what are your planner and journal plans for next year!  Thank you for reading and until next time, stay hyped! 

Hobonichi Weeks: Side Business Use 2021

 Hello everybody and welcome to another planner discussion. I hope to touch on more planner systems later this year but until then I will cover this unexpected purchase.

On December 30th I ordered the Astro Boy: Above the Sky Hobonichi Weeks from JetPens and immediately started using it as soon as it arrived. I also bought the matching pencil board and Astro Boy MT washi tape so I had a whole little matching set. Had to get a cover on cover since I might not get a Hobonichi Weeks cover until later in the year.

I originally didn't think I needed the Hobonichi Weeks for 2021 cause I haven't used one since 2019 and I write a lot so the format isn't good for my personal use. However, if you may not know I also run TsubakiCards on TCGplayer where I sell trading card singles at reasonable prices. I love selling trading cards as much as I love opening packs and figuring which cards I'm missing in my collection, so in December I made goals to hit during 2021 so I can see how much we should buy or attempt to. Now when I was trying to figure out how I was going to keep up with these goals I realized I didn't have a notebook I liked for this ad realized the format of the weeks is perfect. 

I don't need a lot of space each day since I am only writing when to order stuff and when to ship packages. The space for notes is easily filled with what I ordered from shops, costs, and what I am thinking about ordering the next time. Great way to keep track of my thoughts and goals. I don't feel like I need more notepaper so I might not even get a Hobonichi Mega Weeks with the extra notepaper in the back.

The monthly section is super helpful for keeping up with release dates and I love that there is a little checklist on the bottom cause I use it to remind myself to order booster boxes and sets! 

The Hobonichi Weeks really has kept me organized so far, plus I can use my fountain pens on it making it very worth the decision to buy it. I actually will go back to buying a Hobonichi Weeks again for my side business, I think it was a very good format that I can utilize to the fullest. In fact, I think people can use the Weeks for work, business, online shops, and even health tracking which is a large range of stuff that can utilize this format.

Let me know in the comments if you use a Hobonichi Weeks and what you use it for! Until next time, stay hype!

January 29th - 8th Anniversary of Otaku on Hype!

I can't believe this blog is eight years old. It feels like yesterday that I made a Google account and decided to start this.

When I started this blog I absolutely had no idea what I was doing and used this as an outlet for everyday life. Since 2019 I made it a goal to review limited edition games and have now expanded to all otaku lifestyle and stationery goodies.

I enjoy people taking the time to read my posts, I spend time making sure the pictures and topics are on point. If you learn something or even got ideas from my posts that really make me happy!

Since this also is a new year, I hope to update and cover more now that I found more energy and passion to blog than ever before! This might be due to the fact that I finally adjusted to my work schedule and now I want to keep up with my hobbies even more so.

The interesting things to look forward to are a comparison between planners, fountain pen reviews, a review of all the stationery I have, and having some anime and manga reviews along with more otaku lifestyle tips and tricks.

If you ever want to see what else I am up to, check me out on Instagram and Twitch! Links will be in the sidebar. I am always glad to chat while I journal and play video games!

If you have anything you want me to review let me know in the comments! Until next time, and hopefully, for even more years, stay hype!

How I Organize my Stationery (NYC Apartment)

Happy 2021! Tsubaki here and with the answer you all been waiting for, how do I organize everything!

I lived in NYC my entire life and throughout the years learned to condense my collection and magically get it to fit within one room. In this post I will breakdown the layout of each section of the room I place my stationery in. I place my stationery in four sections which are: the cart, my desk, the side table, and the archive basket. 

Cart: The cart has three tiers and I bought this from Micheal's when it was on sale a while back. The top tier has all my Hobonichi planners and covers, the sketchbook I am using, my personal FiloFax, and my olive Roterfaden. Two small keychains and my tripod are also in here. Occasionally I stick my pen rolls in here too. All of these are used daily or at least once a week so they are here for very easy access. 

The middle tier has all my Sentimental Circus pencil cases with all my pens, markers, and lead pencils which I covered in a previous post.

The bottom tier has all my ink bottles, a vanity that has all my fountain pen cleaning supplies and ink samples, some fountain pen cases, my watercolor tin, and my Chic Sparrow passport notebook with watercolor paper.

Attached to the cart are washi tape I use to pack stuff I am selling, a stapler, and an organizer with random stuff I need.

Desk: On top of the desk is my Winnie the Pooh pen cup with tools and paintbrushes and my wooden toolbox with washi tape, clips, deco tape, Nichiban tape, and few other things and a small leather card holder which has store and artist business cards. I will review this toolbox hopefully soon!

Inside the main part of the desk is a small plate of washi tape I use often in my planner, ca.crea notebook refills, all my Traveler's Notebook refills, my Fullmetal Alchemist book pouch with laminated inserts and art paper, and all my Sentimental Circus paper and plastic tapes for friend mail. 

Side table: The side table mostly has my printer, my vintage organizer I bought off of Etsy, my letter set collection, sticker collection, stamp tracker notebook, and washi tape tracker notebook. The vintage organizer has all my wooden stamps, Tsukineko VersaMagic Dew Drop ink pads, some other stamps like my Sentimental Circus stamps, MD notebook refills, cute paper for journaling, clip book for orders, Traveler's Notebook inserts I am using for my postal stamp collection and other things I don't want to carry in my leather cover, my old 2019 Hobonichi weeks for ink swatches, and my blog ca.crea notebook. 

These cups have whiteboard markers and colored pencils.

Next to the printer are file holders with my letter set collections, sticker collection, letter sets I use for mail, two Hello Kitty notebooks for my stamp, and washi tape tracking. There is also my Delfonics pink pouch holding refills for my work FiloFax and laminated papers for my personal FiloFax. 

Archive bin: This is a Hello Kitty canvas bin I bought a while back. It is super heavy with folders with important documents, my postcard collection, artists prints I switch out every now and again, two Traveler's Notebook binders, my first ca.crea blog draft book, my 2020 Hobonichi Techo, my junk journal which I used for 2019 and 2020 and the notebook I used to help me understand minimalism all last year. This bin is next to my PSVita limited editions.

Over time I hope to place the old notebooks in a better place so I can use the bin for refills or all the stuff I have next to the printer. I wish I had shelves to place all the refills and old notebooks on but I do not want to drill holes in the wall! Lack of storage place really puts a large strain on you unless you are constantly decluttering which is still a lot of work.

Hope you all enjoyed this! I can't want to give you all more posts this year. Let me know if the comments on how you organized your stationery. Until next time, stay hype!

Hobonichi Covers I am Using for 2021

Hello there, Tsubaki here! Back with some more stationery that I am using daily! September 1st (Japan Time) was the day Hobonichi released the first wave of covers along with their planners and many stationery shops here also released their stock of Hobonichi covers as well. Either way it certainly has been an adventure getting these covers.

This year I didn't plan to get any covers but when I saw CANDY STRIPPER Spruced up Cat with the cute collared cats with sewn on bows I knew I had to get it. Thankfully Yoseka Stationery had enough in stock for me to be able to order the A6 size and then I order from JetPens for the A5 size.

I started using Hobonichi back in 2019 with a Steiff weeks. Later that year I made by first purchase with Hobonichi for an A6 English planner. The first A6 cover I got was the Trinity Steiff cover for 2020 which features the adventure of three little bears trying to find the perfect planner for their king! This cover is amazing because the mohair is actually curly and a delicious chocolate color. This planner also has three page holders with each of the different bears on them. 

Earlier this year (right before we went into lockdown due to COVID) I treated myself to the Cafe Au Lait Steiff cover 2019. I wanted to get it as soon as possible before Hobonichi ran out or discontinued it. This one is a blond mohair that is short but just as soft. It has two page holders with dark bears on them.

During September  I also found a good condition Hobonichi Steiff cover 2018. This is the first collab cover between Steiff and Hobonichi and it has the same shirt mohair texture of the Cafe Au Lait but it is black! In fact the King bear used in the Trinity cover's story is also a bear Steiff bear. So in a since the story went full circle in a very cute way. Turn around come mid September and I found the Hello Kitty Hobonichi covers in A6 and A5 on eBay and I grabbed those as quick as possible. 

Now, many might ask how am I using all of these, especially all at the same time. Now I will give a full breakdown on how I am using each of these now and through 2021!

The Steiff covers which are the(From left to right) Steiff 2018 black cover, Steiff 2019 Café Au Lait and Steiff 2020 Trinity are being used for my actual A6 English planner and two Hobonichi paper(s) which I tape my watercolor and small art pieces into. I switch them around time to time. 

The Spruced-Up Cat (Lilac) from Candy Stripper is being used for tracking TCGplayer orders and uses Hobonichi Day Free A6. I like to use the Day Free for this because I actually use the calendar to mark when each new booster set, special set and collector tin come out for Pokemon, Yugioh and Cardfight Vanguard.  

The Spruced-Up Cat (Candy Pink) from Candy Stripper is used is used for Latin Language study and uses a Hobonichi Day Free. I will use a Hobonichi plain notebook after this since I don't need the calendar and it is a bit cheaper to buy. I also only need the calendar once to write down the Roman calendar dates. 

Hello Kitty (Stripes) A6 is used for TCG deck editing. This has a Hobonichi plain notebook which works perfectly because it has four different color sections which I use for different types of decks! I feel like in the future I will buy even more plain notebooks for different trading card games, especially since I started editing my Cardfight Vanguard decks first. Sounds organized if I have one for Cardfight Vanguard, another for Yugioh and one more for Weiss Schwarz.

Hello Kitty (Polka Dots) A5 is used to study Spanish and uses a Hobonichi Techo Cousin 2021. I hope to just write Spanish phrases I learn daily in here and new vocabulary. 

It is quite a lot of books but only the English A6 will get super chunky with all the decorating I do. I use a mix of washi tape, stickers, instax photos and notecards which explains why it expanded as much as it did. Currently I have no plans on carrying any of my Hobonichi planners outside however I might update you all if I figure out a travel bag system with my daily planner once we are able to travel again!

Everything that I don't have in a Hobonichi is either in my Olive Regular Traveler's Notebook, my Ace Hotel Passport Traveler's Notebook or my A5 Olive Roterfaden, which I will explain my setup in a later post.

Thank you all for reading this! It means a lot <3 Let me know if you are using a Hobonichi Techo for next year in the comments! Until next time, stay hype!