Midori Traveler’s Notebook Blue Edition
As I’ve searched the internet the past few weeks for different types of journals, I’ve stumbled across the Midori Traveler’s Notebook by Midori from Japan. Let me just say that my debit card has sadly been the target of this journal and its many accessories. Having said that, the Midori Traveler’s Notebook is eminently affordable and you can customize it to your heart’s content. There is also a thriving community of folks that post videos on YouTube their Midori Traveler’s Notebook “un-boxing,” how they use their notebook, and how they choose to organize the contents. My favorite video is from Stuff and Things (https://youtu.be/tBRjYNQ1qio), primarily because, as he says in his video, his review won’t be like the many videos already on YouTube by “artsy crafty women with long painted nails and lots of dangling jewelry” (be steady my heart), who talk in “great detail about how they had set up” their notebook with oodles of scrap booky handmade inserts etc. As sexist as his statement may be, he’s right, and that’s what I find so funny. So on with my review.
Midori Traveler’s Notebook Star Ferry Edition
The Midori Traveler’s Notebook is a leather cover that can contain any number of inserts. The inserts can be notebooks, Kraft file folders, plastic zip pouches, card files, sketch books, and more. The covers come in two sizes, standard and passport. The standard size is approximately 5.1″ wide X 8.4″ tall. The passport size is 4.6″ wide X 6.1″ tall. The passport size can evidently hold a passport while traveling, which for some, will make it an excellent choice for capturing thoughts about their travels. The leather covers come in two standard colors, black and brown, but every now and then, Midori comes out with special editions. Two such editions are: a 2013 Hong Kong Star Ferry Company special edition with a tan leather cover in passport size, and a 2015 Pan Am special edition with a medium blue leather cover in standard size. Both of these special editions came with a number of fun, and at times, silly, accessories. For the record, most of the accessories for the 2013 Hong Kong Star Ferry edition are now out of stock, and despite many attempts, I was unable to find the leather cover. Special pencils, pens and holders, fun stickers, and other stuff will take up hours of your time and make you think you are going crazy. Trust me I speak from experience.
The notebooks you can insert come in blank, lined, and graph paper. Some notebooks have thinner paper and more pages, some are made of Kraft paper, which seems like it is good for folks that want to sketch, and some of the notebook’s pages are scored for easy removal. There are monthly and weekly diaries available as well. Most of the videos I’ve watched on YouTube claim not to use the notebook as a calendar but as a writer’s or traveler’s journal. This seems to make sense to me in this day and age of smart phones. Most of these inserts are available on Amazon, but another brand, Banditapple, is available at Goulet Pens website.
Despite my making fun of some of the accessories, there is something decidedly fun about these notebooks. They are not high style but rather have a homemade feel. The simple leather cover is just a large rectangle of leather that folds over to protect the contents. They have a vertical elastic in the spine that for holds the inserts and an elastic around the middle to keep it closed. You can use additional elastic bands (an accessory), to load in more notebooks by piggy-backing off of a primary insert. There are other ways of loading in notebooks, which you can research on YouTube. Some folks have even gone as far as to punch additional holes in the spine and string more vertical elastic into the cover to avoid the piggy-backing of inserts. You can even remove the closure elastic and add charms to it, and to the end of the built-in bookmark. Customizing it is what makes this notebook fun and it reminds me of all the keychain types of charms my nieces used to hand on the zippers of their knapsacks years ago.
This notebook is fun, relatively inexpensive if you can control your desire to get all the accessories, and useful as well. I bought a regular black, and change the horizontal elastic with a red elastic. I also bought the Pan Am special edition, and a black passport size. I’ve filled them all with fun inserts, and coins with holes in them as charms on the middle closure elastic. I’ll use the passport size for a planned trip to Brugge, Belgium and Amsterdam in the fall. The sheer number of accessories and knock offs (search “faux midair” on Etsy), I think is testament to how successful this notebook has been. So run out and get one yourself, but don’t blame me if you can’t control your urge to accessorize!