Hobo Nichi Techo

It was some time last year. I somehow discovered that Itoi Shigesato had a website. On that website was something called a "Hobo Nichi Techo", which is essentially a planner.

It was around November of last year when I first discovered the Hobo Nichi Techo. I became interested in getting a new planner because... well frankly it was almost the end of the year, and my current planner at the time was running out of space. I had just gotten Mother 3 for the Gameboy Advance at the time and so I must've been looking for information on its creator, Itoi Shigesato, on the internet. I stumbled upon his website which, given the time of year, was really pushing the Techo. I was a little bit iffy about ordering one from online, as seeing them in person would give me a better idea of which one I really wanted. The problem is, seeing one in person was a problem considering where I live-- Toyama. I had plans to see my school's brass band perform in Osaka at the end of November, so things kind of worked out. I waited and waited, and one day my girlfriend and I were finally in Osaka, looking at what would become our new planners.

Here is a video posted by Itoi Shigesato featuring his Hobo Nichi Techo on youtube:

I absolutely love that video for some reason-- and the song, too. Anyways, as you can tell by my pictures, I got the safari beige color, with the "cool" looking stripes on the pen holder on the side.

Anyways, I have had mine for over half a year now, and I wanted to post a semi-review of it. In short, I think it has worked out great for me. However, I think there are quite a few reasons why it's not very approachable (particularly to non-Japanese).

For starters, I really like the simplicity of it. The books themselves, as you can tell by the video, are mostly all very interesting. I quite enjoy the color I chose, although it has admittedly faded and gotten a little dirty with time (on the outside). My girlfriend got the red one, which is a nice color as well. I particularly like the designs of the two-tone "Cousins", but they are a little bit too large for what I need.

The planners are filled with little pockets and slots to fit all kinds of things in, from business cards to nearly paper thin calculators (incidently made by Itoi's company). They also sell additional books to what would be the main planner. I bought a weekly schedule planner book and a set of 3 simple "note" books. I have to be honest, the weekly schedule book is a waste of money, as it seems to be exactly the same as what's in the main planner. I found the note books to be the best part, though. The note books are simply smaller books filled with pages of blank graph paper. I use one of these books to do my finances in. I mark how much I've put away every month (and for what particular purpose), I keep track of my gas milage, I keep track of how many coins I save, and also keep track of my bills and work expenses. That all fits snugly in the inner page of my techo, which is really handy (don't get too excited, as there's no personal information in it besides yen symbols and numbers). I also bought what the Japanese call a "Shitajiki", which is basically something hard to put under the paper that you write on. I also found it convenient to make my own little cards to keep up with my class scheduling (which remind me strangely of old-school library book checkout cards).

The planner part of the set, or what is basically the meat and potatoes of this thing, is wonderful. They sell two versions: A weekly planner starting from Sunday, and a weekly planner starting from Monday. It was brought to my attention by my girlfriend that starting from Monday is actually more traditional in Japan. As a teacher, it is quite convenient. Going vertically down the page, the time is revealed (on the left side). This works out great as I can write down my class schedule for the week ahead of time and kind of figure out when I'll have time to make lessons or have meetings with other teachers. It is also nice because I can plan out what I will do before and after school. On the right side there is extra space to write in detail what you will do, or if you have done it or not. It also has check boxes on the top of the page to help you make goals for the day. At the bottom of the page there is some blank space and lastly a short story or anecdote from famous people, a random person, or even from Itoi himself (in Japanese). Some of those are actually quite funny.

At the beginning of the planner book is a calendar section to make long term plans and have a big calendar to look at. At the back is some space to make weekly schedules and some blank pages for notes.

One reason why I think these are a little bit inaccessible to non-Japanese is... well, it's all in Japanese. That takes away a certain dimension of the experience. Another thing is that all the pages are graph paper. It really helps to make well thought out ideas; but only in Japanese. Writing in English on graph paper is frankly a waste of space. There simply isn't enough realestate to jot down even the simplest ideas. In Japanese, though, you can. I have to say, though, that the boxes are a little bit on the small side (although this changes from year to year based on customer input, supposedly). I could imagine, though, that if you have a short hand system, you could probably get along really well with one of these. It's small and compact and I think quite stylish. It has two book markers for quick navigation-- I use one for my day to day business and another for the calendar section to get a big picture.

Something that I have noticed since I have started using my techo is that when I don't have classes at work (like during summer/winter/spring vacations), I simply don't use my techo that much. When I do have classes, I use it quite often in a day. At home, I find that I rarely use it for scheduling and more often than not use my note book to help keep track of expenses and savings. The beauty is, though, that it's all there. There's even space for my pen. It's like a computer that you don't have to plug in or start up and shut down. It's a funny thing to think like that, but having grown up with computers, I often lose track of the convenience of a pen and paper to get down ideas quickly.

A funny story about my pen, by the way... my girlfriend and I got married recently -- on my birthday incidently. We were at the city hall filling out some forms and I guess I must've forgotten my pen there or something. We got a call from them a few days later saying that I had forgotten to sign something. I went there and signed what needed to be signed, and on a whim asked if they had seen my "multi-pen". The man stood there with a well expected dumbfounded look on his face as I scanned my surroundings only to find my pen sitting in one of their pen holders. I explained to the man that there was a high chance that it was my pen, and upon taking a closer look at it, I realized that indeed it was. I retrieved my pen and my wife and I drove home. In retrospect, I suspect that maybe they had accidently collected my pen which caused a hiccaugh in the process making me forget to sign that last document! Yikes! I'm happy to say, though, that my pen is back in its Hobo Nichi home at long last.