I love B6-sized notebooks. I seek them out at every pen show, stationery shop and web site looking for more. There are not a lot of options available in the US so when I find one, I go all-in. That is 100% with the Midori Yuru Log Notebook. The B6 notebooks come in a variety of styles and there is even a fabric cover for the notebooks. YES!
The Notebook Cover
I am a sucker for a good notebook cover. I have so many leather covers in various sizes that I’m always delighted to find covers made from other materials. The Midori Yuru Log Zipper Pouch Notebook Cover ($42) is available in “Light Blue” and “Beige”. I think the Light Blue is actually much more a soft blue green.The fabric looked textural but its actually soft, more wool-ish blanket than burlap sack. Thumbs up!
It’s 100% cottage core with its button-and-string closure and a bunch of pockets including a zipper pouch in the back cover. The interior nylon fabric is a deep brown, the button is a cloth-covered natural color and the string is a thin leather-like cord.
There is also a pen loop in the back cover. The loop is a bit large so a pen with a clip is recommended to keep it from accidentally sliding out.
The leather-like string seems quite thin and considering how much stuff I’m planning to cram into this cover, I’m worried that it will stand up to the abuse though the cord feels strong.
The pocket on the front will fit a cell phone and the additional slots and pockets can easily allow this cover to be a wallet/notebook combo which would work great at school, conferences or on a large office campus.
The brochure
Inside both notebooks was a brochure style document showing techniques for using the Yuru notebooks. The document is all in Japanese but I enjoyed looking at the photos. I tried using a translation app to discover that the copy was mostly what you would expect: “Use for travel notes”, “fill in blank spaces with stickers or washi tape”, etc.
he back panel of the brochure show the three coordination sticker packs that are available as well as a 2mm gird notebook. I didn’t order that one because, that’s a lot of grid lines!
The notebooks
There were five potential styles available for the Yuru Log Notebook ($14.50 each): Cats, Forest Animals, Scandinavia, My Life and the edition I got, Watercolor.
Inside the front cover is a golf foil-stamped logo and place to write your name and contact info on dark brown end papers.
Inside, the paper is classic Midori MD cream paper but with dot grid and washi tape looking graphics decorating the top or bottom of the page. There are four different page spread designs and the colors are light pastels. I like this design best as it is decorative without being specific to anything. The other designs are super cute but I’m not sure I’d want 80 pages of any specific cuteness, you know?
The paper performance will be consistent with all other Midori MD notebooks like the Owl Diary from earlier this week.
The Free Diary ($14.50) is extra special because it uses “extra thick” Midori MD paper. The pre-printed, undated monthly calendars provide space for 18 months then there are 12 pages of 2mm grid paper for extra notes and doodling.
The cover is textured to look and feel like fabric in a warm grey color. The end papers in the Free Diary is a minty blue green that matches the fabric cover very well.
The paper in the Free Diary is a bit smoother than the standard MD paper so it should be good with fountain pens.
My Quibble
My only complaint with the notebook is that the covers were only glued along the open edge. It means that when the covers are folded back, there’s a little bubble of space between the two sides of the cover. I don’t know if this was intentional or happened accidentally but both notebooks have this issue. I tried to re-glue the covers but it required slicing the pieces apart in order to re-glue. I don’t recommend. Just live with the bubble.
Overall, I’m really happy with the new Yuru series from Midori. I do hope they continue to support this product line with additional covers, inserts and accessories.
