I love Kokuyo Campus Notes. For me they are the ideal notebook. They are slightly more textured than Clairefontaine and Apica which means a bit more feedback, but they are less troublesome with picky, slippery nibs. They also seem to work great with any pen and ink I throw at them.

The last time I was in Japan I picked up a newer product, the Kokuyo Campus high grade MIO paper. According to Kokuyo, MIO stands for "Mobile Ideal Original writing PAPER." I'm not making this up, it's written on the first page. The paper is supposed to be designed for gel pens, but is also recommended for fountain pens on the Kokuyo website. I bought a 210x148mm, 80 page model. The style is much different than the regular Kokuyo line and these will not open flat. Price was 262 yen (about $2.50) at Tokyu Hands; considering the number of sheets compared to the regular Campus line, they're not very expensive.

The paper is extremely thin and exceptionally smooth to the touch. So far I haven't been able to get it to bleed through, but show through is quite noticeable since the sheets are so thin. Ink dries much faster than on Clairefontaine. Needless to say I was excited to start my new journal using this notebook!

Unfortunately I am very disappointed so far. I've gone through roughly 20 pages, and when it's good, it's AWESOME, but when it's bad, the nib literally scrapes dryly across the page without leaving any ink. This is true for 3 Reform 1745s that I got this week. It's acted up with my Pilot 78g as well, reducing the flow of ink in patches in various places on a page (the same both front and back), and my Lamy 2000 seems to "stick" in places -- it's like there are patches of spilled syrup on the page that the nib literally sticks to. It's very difficult to move the nib across these areas. Plus, ink sometimes feathers in these areas.

I have a few theories:

1. Paper consistency: there is something wrong with the paper itself, leaving patches that do not accept ink.
2. Oil from hands: The paper DOES seem sensitive to oil from my hands, but even if I use a piece of paper as a guard there are still places that do not accept ink as well, or that make the nib feel like it's being pushed through a sticky spot.
3. Nib/ink incompatibility: My Reforms were both filled with Shaeffer Skrp and they will simply not write on certain parts of the page. Whether it's a nib problem or ink probem I don't know. My nail-like Jaguar Concept Pen filled with Pilot blue-black has no issues that I have seen so far.
4. The paper is coated: I've had two cases where a pen's flow was reduced drastically and wouldn't correct without a lot of scribbling on regular copy paper. I've had a similar (but more drastic) reaction when I tried to write on coated ink jet paper. I haven't read anything about coating on this paper, but that would explain why it feels so smooth.

Most likely it is a combination of factors that are causing the problem, or it could be simply that I got a bad one. I have two more but I don't really think I want to start a new to find out just yet.

I would happily recommend these books for gel-pen or maybe roller ball users, but I cannot yet recommend them for fountain pen use. If I can figure out the problem I will post an update.

Neill