Techo text
It’s time. 2026 goes on sale in a week. First, a story.
On January 07, 2018, I walked into one of my favorite stores on earth, the Shibuya branch of Tokyu Hands, and found the rudest sign I’ve ever seen in Japan, written entirely in English. I didn’t take a picture, but it approximately said:
WE DON’T HAVE ANY MORE HOBONICHI TECHO IN STOCK. WE ARE NOT GETTING ANY STOCK. DON’T ASK ANY CLERKS IF THEY ARE KEEPING HOBONICHI TECHO FOR THEMSELVES. IF YOU WANT A TECHO PLEASE CHECK ONLINE. THANK YOU.
No apology, crucially, along with the unthinkable assumption that clerks must be hoarding them.
Hobonichi Techo is an extremely popular day planner, and despite its nigh-perfect design and variety of options, it is really worth returning to the fact, over and over again, that it is just a planner. Yes, the paper stock is perfect. Yes, the grid is perfect. Yes, the typography is lovely. The inspirational quotes are funny-dumb or dumb-funny depending on how hard you squint that day. There is a popular manga collab; covers exist from some of the biggest brands in Japan, including carry godheads Yoshida Porter.
None of the details matter. It’s one of those objects where using it is a constant, ineffable pleasure. You will be hooked. Use a Techo daily for a year and there’s no question that you need to buy another.
I made a horrible mistake one year and bought a Techo as a holiday gift for my stationery-mad, fountain pen collector of a father. This cursed him with the same thing that afflicts me now, which is The Search.
The Search is the process by which you plot out your next-year Techo. They come out on September 01 this year, with a variety of new covers and formats. You can buy it from their main site like a sucker, but really you want to buy it from somewhere in the States. That means you have to find who is selling what, and you need to refresh for it.
The best option I have found is JetPens. The plus side is that they have pretty much everything, and most things will remain in stock. The minus side is that every year I’ve tried to buy from JetPens, the site crashes. Hobonichi day would make any sysadmin weep tears of blood.
And so you find alternatives. Direct links are ideal. Nothing goes live until 9p Central Time the day before launch, because it launches at noon Japan time across the world. So you’re inevitably out, having fun, and then your phone’s alarm goes off and you must refresh for a day planner. Inevitably there are questions from whomever is around you at the time. This being nickd and refreshing and all, it’s very clear that this is no typical day planner.
Why? The paper is good. Smooth, takes ink well, lovely to write on. What do you do with it? Morning intentions and evening gratitude. Do you ever look back at what you’ve written? Look, you’re talking to someone who made a bonfire of everything they wrote before 2021 once. Do you take it everywhere? 40 states, 25 countries, 5 continents. My Techos (Techoes?) have been to more places than my camera.
There remains confusion, but now you have a Techo on the way and JetPens’s servers are on fire.