This year I bought my first Hobonichi Weeks. I’ve used a Hobonichi Techo in the past but I’d never tried the Weeks.
I purchased the plain pistachio fabric 2025 MEGA Weeks ($41) and added the Cover-on-Cover “Beautiful Season” ($10) which is printed with yarn and craft details in opaque white ink that pops off the lime green cover.
My plan is to use the Weeks for planning projects, videos, blog posts and other topics related to the blog and running my own business. I wanted the MEGA version of the Weeks so that I could use the extra pages for notes on the go since the Weeks is considerably more streamlined and portable than the Techo or Cousin.
Most everyone here has already seen the Hobonichi Weeks either in their own hands or on another blog or vlog so I won’t go into a lot of detail about it as it would feel too repetitive.
I do want to delve into some of the rumors I’ve heard about the new Tomoe River paper in the 2025 Hobonichi products. There’s been some hullaballoo that the paper bleeds more easily, feathers more easily and is more translucent. So, I decided to do a little investigation.
I tested all my standard pens ranging from fountain pens, felt tip, gel, pencils and such to get a feel for the quality of the paper in the 2025 Hobonichi planners.
My first batch of tests, both front and back, were pretty consistent with what I would have expected. I only had one or two outliers: a brush pen and the wider of my fountain pen nibs had a bit of show through. Overall though, the performance of the 2025 Hobonichi paper was what I would have expected. It was good.
I decided to go ahead and test the pens and colors I’m currently using for my October planner set-up as it represents a good range of tools I might use next year including pencils, brush pens and felt tips as well as fountain pens.
Both the front and the back of the paper seemed to handle the inks well. It leads me to think that there are a lot of people who have not experienced the new Sanzen Tomoe River and the new 2025 Hobonichis are their first experience with it. I’ve been using the Sanzen Tomoe River paper for several months and the new Hobonichi feels more than adequate.
I think the complaints and concerns mentioned elsewhere have been overblown. Because the space in most Hobonichi is limited most people won’t be using wide nibs which will limit the issues. If you are concerned, I recommend testing inks and pens in the back of the Hobonichi before using them on your daily pages if you are concerned about performance.
No one can test every ink or pen combination so there are bound to be some pens and inks that will not perform as well as you want but, in general, the 2025 Hobonichi appear to be more than adequate.
There are some lovely little details in the back of the Weeks that I haven’t seen mentioned before like the 100 List. They suggest that you use the list for whatever you want throughout the year. I thought it would be great for a books list or movies list.
There’s also a 365 day list where you can check off each day in the year for a specific task or just for surviving another day.
Below are the pens I used for testing.
I wasn’t sure if I would like the Weeks but I think but having a specific purpose for the planner has made it the perfect book to help me get organized for 2025. I am delighted to see that I can start using it the last week of November since its going to serve a different purpose than my regular journal.
DISCLAIMER: The items included in this review were provided free of charge by Dromgoole’s for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.
Ya know– I have been watching some journaling YouTubers and most are complaining about the paper– I had a feeling there was more to it then just “this paper is now trash” and you’ve shown that. I’m also thinking about the YT algo and how it favors controversy (not to imply all YT creators are biased, but I digress….). Thanks for this write-up. I plan on using several different 2025 Hobonichi planners and I was initially worried. Now I’m not.
I have never used a Weeks until now, but I have used an A6 and an A5 for the past ten years. I love the Weeks! I’m going to use mine as a budget planner. It’s so slim and will fit in my backpack quite well.
I got a Hobonichi Techo for 2025 and joined a Facebook group for people who use it. There have been so many people talking about the paper quality that the mods started a thread for paper test photos. I initially thought people were just angry because of the new Tomoe River Paper manufacturer, but as it turns out, there definitely WAS a bad lot of paper. I’ve seen a huge difference between the screenshots. I went home and tested mine, and the only bleed-through I got was from a Sharpie, no surprise there. So I got one of the good batches, thankfully!
Yes, I have a Hobonichi Techo Cousin A5 from the bad batch and the paper feels different. It doesn’t have the sheen. My fountain pens don’t seem to bleed through, but strangely my midliner highlighters and pigma micron pens do! It’s so strange. I really don’t think I’m going to manage a year in it.
So sad to hear the issues you’re having with it. What a bummer.
Whew. Well, that’s a relief. Speaking of 100 lists, I’m maintaining a list of pet names that are food-related. My only rule: I have to know of an actual pet, either in person, word of mouth, or online, that has the food-related name. Most names I have are actual edibles, but I have a couple that are not: Crockpot, Fryer. My favorite names are Skittles, Meatball (he is a big muscular pit bull), Cashew (a caique), Barley (a really light colored golden retriever), Hambone (a loaf of American bulldog), Kimchi, Jalapeño Pancake (also a caique), Gouda (a Loris), and Kit Kat (a porcupine). Thought you’d enjoy that.
I thought you’d like to add our kittens (who are no longer kittens anymore) to your list: Apple, pepper, tater, pickle and carrot. Clover was the sixth but when we discovered he was a boy we changed his name to cooper so he’s no longer an edible.
Sadly my 2025 Weeks has paper that widens my writing. Fine and medium nibs looks one size larger and not as much sheen. It doesn’t bleed through at least but still disappointing compared to my 2025 HON paper.
So sorry to hear that!