There are several that the community has been talking about recently like the Canopus and the new Teranishi notebooks but I dug deeper and found a few others worth considering. I went through the whole inventory on JetPens and purchased every A5 Japanese paper-filled notebook I could find. I found six notebooks that I had not tested and some had paper I was not familiar with so this was quite an adventure.
All six of the notebooks are A5-sized, all feature some variation on a soft cover and all are designed to be fountain pen friendly. (There are some details that I left out of this review for brevity, like if you want to know about the color and texture of the end papers, drop a comment below).
What I wanted to do is see what the differences are, what features might be a make-or-break for you, and what the cost breakdown was for each of them. I’ve seen other breakdown the cost per ml for fountain pen ink, today I’m going to give you the cost per sheet for these six notebooks.
To start, let’s run down what these notebooks are:
- Nouto Nombre Notebook (available in 8 different cover colors)
- Tsubame Fools Cream Notebook (available in A5 or B5, cover colors relate to ruling/grid)
- Teranishi Guitar Taisho Roman Haikara Notebook (cover colors align with ruling/grid)
- JetPens Kanso Noto Notebook (five different cover colors available)
- KOKUYO Century Edition THIN Paper Notebook (only one size/style available but offer ruling/grid options)
- Yamamoto Paper CANOPUS NOTE Notebook (only one size/style available)
| Notebook | Price | Sheets | Pages | Price/sheet | Available formats | Paper Weight | Paper Information | Paper Color | Construction |
| Nouto Nombre Notebook | $24.00 | 94 | 188 | $0.25 | Grid | 58.1 gsm | Siebundo Paper | Natural White | Exposed spine |
| Tsubame Fools Cream | $7.00 | 32 | 64 | $0.26 | Graph, Blank, Lined | 81.4 gsm | foolscap paper | Cream | Taped spine |
| Guitar Taisho Roman Haikara | $17.00 | 64 | 128 | $0.26 | Dot Grid, Blank, Graph | 95 gsm | No add’l info | Natural White | Taped spine |
| Kanso Noto | $20.00 | 160 | 320 | $0.13 | Dot Grid | 52 gsm | Tomoe River Sanzen | Natural White | Taped spine |
| KOKUYO Century Edition THIN Paper | $24.00 | 184 | 368 | $0.13 | Blank, Dot Grid, Lined | 52 gsm | same THIN PAPER as the KOKUYO Jibun Techo | Natural White | Wrapped cover |
| Yamamoto Paper Canopus Note | $25.00 | 88 | 176 | $0.28 | Blank (includes guide sheet) | 73 gsm | “Inspired by the discontinued Cosmo Air Light “ | Bright White | Taped spine |
(* formats used in this review are in BOLD)
This review is long so I’m putting in a break here….
Construction:
While there is a pretty big variety of page count between the various notebooks, from the cahier-style Tsubame Fools Cream to the chonky Kokuyo Century, there were some noticeable differences. Though all six notebooks feature soft, flexible cardstock covers, some have more substantial cover than others. Noteably, the Teranishi featured a light, cellophane wrap cover over the paper cover that can be left on if you decide note to invest in a thicker plastic cover or other sort of notebook cover wrap. The Tsubame Fools Cream have the lightest weight cardstock cover but for the size of the notebooks, it makes sense to keep the covers light and flexible. The Nouto, Kanso and Canopus all had very stiff cardstock covers. All three appear to be very similar weight paper for the covers and are likely to be fairly durable, with or without an additional wrap or cover. The Kokuyo is the only notebook with a full wrap cover and has a flexible, yet durable feeling. It reminds me of some large, paperback novel covers that just feel good in the hand.
The Tsubame is the only single-signature design of all the notebooks tested. All the other notebooks feature multiple stitched signatures.
The Nuoto Nombre is the only notebook with an exposed, stitched spine. Visually, it has a very clean, elegant look.
The Nuoto, Canopus and Kanso have very minimal branding or decoration on the covers. If you like to decorate your notebooks yourself, than these will be your favorites. The Kokuyo Century has foil lettering and a textural cover that would not lend itself to stickers but maintains a fairly minimal look. The Teranishi and Tsubame both have decorated covers. The Tsubame even has the design in gold foil. You either love the designs or you can slip these into a cover.
The Teranishi and Tsubame both have square corners while the other notebooks do have rounded corners on the right edge. I prefer round corners on the right because they seem less prone to showing dings and getting rounded just from daily use.
- Winner for construction: Kokuyo Century
- Runner-Up: (TIE) Canopus and Kanso (same cover and construction)
Paper Texture & Color:
I was surprised to discover the array of shade of “white” that these notebooks offered. The Tsubame Fools Cream is a warm ivory, as expected. The Canopus is a BRIGHT white, more so than I usually see in Japanese notebooks. The other four notebooks have more of a natural white color that is all fairly similar.
Only one of the notebooks included in this review feature Tomoe River Sanzen and that’s the JetPens Kanso. The other notebooks feature paper that is unique to their brand. The Kokuyo Century uses the same paper found in their Jibun Techo and is described as “THIN PAPER” with a weight of 52 gsm which is probably the most similar to Tomoe River.
The Canopus paper is something Yamamoto Paper worked to create in an effort to fill the gap left when Cosmo Air Light was discontinued. The Teranishi paper is a mystery but is listed as being 95 gsm. The Nuoto Nombre is 58.1 gsm “Seibundo Paper”. I don’t know anything about Seibundo paper but having the manufacturer information is always nice.
And finally, the Tsubame Fools Cream is a Foolscap paper. What I like about the foolscap paper is that when you hold it up to the light you can see the lines from how the paper is made and dried, like a laid paper in the West. The laid lines are more noticeable on the plain paper than on the grid unless you hold it up to the light.
Texturally speaking, the Nuoto and Teranishi are the smoothest paper with the least texture. If you like your pens to glide, these may be your best option. The Kanso (Tomoe River), Kokuyo and Tsubame all perform similarly. There is a slight toothiness to these papers but not overly scratchy. Canopus is the most textural. If you do not like tooth, avoid the Canopus. I like toothy paper as it forces me to slow down a little, write with a light hand (not push too hard where my micro nibs might dig) and it just feels nice to touch — like velvet.
- Winner for paper: As paper texture and color are such a personal preference, its a tie among all six. I like the colors for different uses and the textures are all completely usable.
Ink & Pen Testing:
The first test I did was to do a swatch of Sailor Irori which sheens, but not a lot. I wanted to see, if dry, I could see the sheen on each of the papers. I was shocked to see that the Tsubame was the sheeniest of all the papers despite the cream color. Teranishi also showed a ton of sheen. Surprisingly, the Canopus and Kanso (Tomoe River) performed similarly regarding sheen and the Nuoto and Kokuyo showed some sheen in the swatch but not as much as the others.
In writing tests, all the fountain pens performed well. I used one fountain pen with shimmer, one with sheen and a variety of nib sizes. The sheening ink appears sheeny on all the papers. The shimmer ink was also visible on all the papers.
There was no feathering of the fountain pen inks. None of the writing samples bled through though the show through varied a bit depending on the paper. The Nuoto has the most showthrough (58 gsm), just slightly moreso than the Kanso (Tomoe River 52 gsm). The Kokuyo Century was next with some show through but not as much as the Tomoe River or Nuoto Seibundo paper. In the ink swatch, however, the Nuoto and Kokuyo Century tied for most bleed through.
- Winner for sheen: (TIE) Tsubame Fools Cream & Teranishi
- Winner for least show through: Tsubame Fools Cream
- Runner-up for least show through: (TIE) Canopus & Teranishi
Value:
This is a new category for me when it comes to notebooks. What is the “per page/per sheet” value of each of these notebooks? If performance is similar, which one is the better value?
To this end, I calculated the price per sheet based on the sheet count and MSRP. The least expensive were the JetPens Kanso (Tomoe River) and the Kokuyo Century Edition coming in at about $0.13 per sheet (0.07 per page). The most expensive is the Caonpus at $0.28 per sheet (0.14 per sheet). The Nuoto Nombre, Tsubame and Teranishi fell closer to the Canopus but slightly cheaper at $0.26 and $0.25 per sheet (approx. 0.13 per sheet). This was kind of an interesting experiment to see how each notebook fared regardless of page count as we often look at notebooks and see an “inexpensive cahier” at $7 and an “expensive chonky notebook” at a price over $20. I had to stop and ponder, is one really a better value?
Knowing this type of information, are you more inclined to buy a notebook with a lower per sheet/per page cost?
Winner: (TIE) JetPens Kanso (Tomoe River) and the Kokuyo Century Edition
Final Impressions:
These are all good notebooks. They all have fountain pen friendly paper, they should sheen and shading. Some have super thin paper, some is smooth, some is textural. Some is bright white and some is cream so a lot of your purchasing decisions will come down to personal preference. Do you need dozens of pages or hundreds? Do you need grid, dot, blank or lined? Only one of the notebooks listed in this review are available in other sizes other than A5 so while A5 is quite a popular and favored size, if A5 is not for you, this might make these a no-go for you.
Initially, when I purchased these notebooks, I wasn’t sure how they would perform or which would end up being my favorite. For sheer feel-in-the-hand and value, I really like the Kokuyo Century. While it might not be great to use both sides with some tools, sometimes how the notebook feels and its general performance are enough to make it a favorite. I wish the dot grid was slightly lighter but I might buy the blank as a back-up.
The surprise for me was the Tsubame Fools Cream. I am not usually a fan of cahier-style notebooks but that paper is lovely and the soft color is pleasant for everyday use. Even though the per sheet price is higher, the $7 price tag per booklet is reasonable to try it out. I like the toothiness of the Canopus Note but I know that won’t be everyone’s choice. And I surprised myself by still really liking the Tomoe River 52gsm in the Kanso. It’s still a great paper despite all the ups and downs over the past few years.
In the end, I wouldn’t kick any of these notebooks out of bed. I know that’s not a huge help but is does suggest that JetPens is working really hard to curate a great assortment of notebooks. Is there a feature you wish was available that isn’t here? Which one of these notebooks have you tried or might try next?
DISCLAIMER: Some of the items included in this review were provided free of charge by JetPens for the purpose of review. Please see the About page for more details.