Midori Traveler's Notebook

[kushbaby]

I got one of these after reading about it here. I love it, but I fear I'm being a little dense about how to add additional refills/booklets with the extra elastic. I have a second refill in there by putting it in that loop on the inside of the cover, but it seems a bit... off-center. I keep having to readjust. I'm completely stumped on how to add all the extra stuff (5 or 6?!), and I'd really like to add a zipper pocket, etc.

 

Could someone describe or post photos to help me figure this out?

 

Pretty please? :embarrassed_smile:

 

Edit: OK, I clearly didn't dig deep enough in the first search or missed it somehow. I spent a long while clicking on more links, etc., and finally stumbled upon the Flikr images on how to add extra refills without punching new holes (in this post here).

 

Gosh, I really, really love this thing...

Edited July 30, 2011 by kushbaby

[liapuyat]

I got a brown passport-sized one last weekend from Scribe Writing Essentials, our local distributor in the Philippines. I've made my own refills with PaperOne 100gsm paper (mine ended up with 48pp in all), and it's working out fine so far. Will look for Japanese blank pads with the thin, fountain pen-friendly paper so I can make refills with more pages.

[ExcaliburZ]

I got a brown passport-sized one last weekend from Scribe Writing Essentials, our local distributor in the Philippines. I've made my own refills with PaperOne 100gsm paper (mine ended up with 48pp in all), and it's working out fine so far. Will look for Japanese blank pads with the thin, fountain pen-friendly paper so I can make refills with more pages.

If you can read Chinese or know someone who can Taobao has a lot of refills and for cheaper.

[Moondust]

O, you enablers, you! It never stops.

 

 

Anyone around who knows where to have a look at it in the NL?

Edited November 28, 2011 by Moondust

[hedera]

O, you enablers, you! It never stops.

 

 

Anyone around who knows where to have a look at it in the NL?

 

If you're in/near Amsterdam, de Vlieger has the complete range, and Thursday Next on the Overtoom have the journals and some of the refills as well; they have a bit more limited selection than de Vlieger, but their prices are slightly lower, too.

 

I think there's a store in Arnhem that has them as well, but I'd have to do some digging for that one.

[Moondust]

Thanks Hedera! I know Vlieger. The shop on the Overtoom is a good tip as well. I'll go and have a look...

[lowks]

I am also in the cult ! Bought mine at kinokuniya malaysia

[maryannemoll]

Okay, I'm in! But I'll be using mine with Chronodex, and only starting in June.

[AlejoPlay]

I got mine at Maruzen in Tokyo and I have to say I love it. It's specifically for journaling and sketching and it was a perfect companion on my trip.

 

I must say that while the paper handled most everything I threw at it, it feathered with my Pilot Metal Falcon with Pilot Blue ink (this was the regular grid refill). It did a little better with that pen and Iroshizuku Ku-Jaku but the wetness of that pen kind of pushed it a bit.

[Vshin]

I needed a little "binder" for travelling, and for this purpose the Midori TN is simply marvelous. I stuff my passport, plane tickets, hotel receipts, stamps, postcards, small maps, and other paperwork into my TN with the various pocket inserts that you can buy separately. I don't doodle or journal but I still use the paper for quick notes, which is especially useful when I can't charge the smartphone.

 

So in the end, it's really not about the leather, it's about having a convenient place to hold and organize my travel documents in a notebook "system" that I can customize to my specific needs.

[tguk911]

I love my Midori Traveller's Notebook but I hate that friggin knot on the back like the OP said. I wish they put it on the spine, I'm actually thinking about doing this myself with an awl and just covering up the original hole with a sticker or something.

[Letsdisinfect]

Finally took the plunge and got myself a Midori TN. Getting that link to pencils.jp just pushed me over the edge -- I couldn't really argue that it was way too expensive anymore

Quick question- what are ya'll using for bookmark charms? That piece of string isn't very useful the way it comes.

[lovementos]

Received mine yesterday Got it from pencils.jp. That was some fast shipping!

[maryannemoll]

Finally took the plunge and got myself a Midori TN. Getting that link to pencils.jp just pushed me over the edge -- I couldn't really argue that it was way too expensive anymore

 

Quick question- what are ya'll using for bookmark charms? That piece of string isn't very useful the way it comes.

 

I just attached a brass charm to mine. I find that if I don't attach something to the end of the string to make it heavy, it just ends up getting bunched up in between pages.

[Bigeddie]

I love my Midori Traveller's Notebook but I hate that friggin knot on the back like the OP said. I wish they put it on the spine, I'm actually thinking about doing this myself with an awl and just covering up the original hole with a sticker or something.

 

You could always take it out and use it as a detachable loop. I put one of the larger pockets on the inside of the back cover, once it has a few tri-folded A4 sheets in it eliminates the knot bump.

[PDXJill]

Okay.... Thanks to you enablers, I'm totally addicted. I made mine and bought Midori accessories.

 

If you'd like to make one, here is some important stuff:

 

1) Get 7-8 ounce scrap tooling hide from Tandy or a similar place. Make sure it's vegetable tanned. (Oil tanned leather and oil dyes/finishes will cause oil stains on paper).

2). The leather will be blond - this a good working phase.

3) Cut it to size using a metal square.

4) Burnish the edges by getting them really wet with water and rubbing til they're shiny with something really smooth and rounded. I use a chisel handle.

5) if you'd like to personalize it, wet the leather completely and use a leather stamp. Tandy has great Celtic knots. Practice on scrap!

6). Dye to your preference using a water-based dye and also apply a leather finish.

7)the outside can be softened with mink oil.

 

The elastic cord can be purchased at fabric or beading stores.

 

Serious: it's an easy project-and makes great gifts!

[VaN GoGh]

Maybe you should try Aniki Geographica series. Really nice handmade notebooks which I'm already have one for me and one for my wife check out http://anikinotebooks.blogspot.com/

[Aquaria]

For the record, the "lightweight" notebook is Tomoe River paper.

 

I call the Midori Traveler the Zen notebook. It's so minimalistic...yet you can do nearly infinite things with it. And what it can and will do, depends entirely on what you want of it.

 

My husband and I each have a regular Traveler's notebook (in the Pan Am Blue), and then the passport notebooks. His is in brown and mine is in black.

 

The Passport goes everywhere with me and the zipper pocket insert has turned it into essentially a wallet. I keep the occasional change and dollar bills in the zip pocket and cards in the back. I have a pre-dated monthly calendar insert in there, as well, so it's my on the go "overview" agenda. When a doctor schedules me for an appointment, I can simply jot down the basics in there, rather than lugging the bigger MTN everywhere. In the regular MTN, I use the weekly insert for logging class assignments, detailed appointment info and to do lists on the facing memo page.

 

What I like about the Midori is that it gives the flexibility to set it up however you want. If you want a full-blown agenda, it can handle that. If you want an on-the-go sketchbook or journal, then it will do that, too. If you want something when traveling that can hold your passport, your tickets and boarding passes, important receipts and a map, then it can also do that.

 

And sometimes I have it doing only one of those things, or all of those things. It depends on what I have going on.

But that's the beauty of it. It does what you need of it, rather than forcing you to conform to its structure, unlike other agendas or notebooks.

 

That's why it's the Zen notebook. It's both nothing and whatever you want it to be. At the same time.

[Aquaria]

As for the knot...

 

 

A way to get around that is to buy a shitajiki and put it between pages when you write. A shitajiki is a plastic writing board that will fit between pages to keep ink from soaking through to the page below, or to give a firmer surface to write on. If you don't like the feel of it directly beneath the paper, then get one of the stick on pockets for the inside back cover and tuck it in there. You won't feel anything through it.

 

I find that the Kraft file folder and zip pocket can also eliminates the potential for annoyance of the knot in back, especially if you fill the pockets with, oh, sticker sets like I do. I think I have something like five different sticker sets tucked into the pockets of my file folder and zip insert.

 

Because I've always had the zip pocket insert + the kraft file folder + multiple cards of stickers in the folder pockets + a shitajiki, I haven't noticed the knot in back.

[hedera]

Looks like I was briefly using something else at the beginning of this thread... but I quickly went back to the Midori TN and I am in love with it as ever.

 

After all these years, I now have quite a row of finished refills!

I tend to decorate the covers with stickers, labels, stamps etc that I come across while using it (also bits cut from packaging of stuff I buy; boxes of tea in particular often have lovely designs) so they become a nice little time capsule.

 

Sometimes I use the official Midori inserts, more often the Banditapple 'handy' ones; neither of those come exactly cheap, but since they tend to last me 1 - 3 months, depending on how much I write, sketch etc, the overall cost is not too bad.

 

 

I'm afraid I have to take back my praise for the Journalshop from earlier in this thread though; I recently placed another order with them, and their customer service was abysmal. I will not buy from them again.

Luckily, I can find pretty much everything they sell elsewhere, usually cheaper.