(Jeff Abbott is a regular contributor at The Pen Addict. You can find more from Jeff online at Draft Evolution and Twitter.)
Every once in a while, you come across a tool or a product that you just instantly know is special and well-made. For me, this doesn't happen very often, but I recognize the feeling as soon as it happens. This happened recently when I picked up a new notebook.
The Nakabayashi Yu-sari notebook line is a recent addition to Nakabayashi's product offering, and it's hitting all the right spots. On the surface, it's easy to dismiss these notebooks as yet another iteration of the same old A5 and B5 books that are already widely available from almost every stationery retailer in business. But if you have a product that excels in certain ways, you have justification to add it to the pool. In this case, the Yu-sari notebooks are something you don't want to miss.
The version I have is the A5 size with 5mm grid paper. The different cover colors are indicators of the paper type inside, so my notebook is a cheery blue with black binding tape. The outside of the notebook looks very clean and crisp. You can tell a lot of care and attention went into the details when manufacturing these books. There's branding on the front of the cover, but nowhere else. This branding features the logo in the top right corner, and then some product information in the bottom right corner. There's also a sticker on the back that is easy to remove. Overall, the branding is subtle and adds to the overall aesthetic thanks to the gold debossing.
The look of high-quality manufacturing and materials on the outside instantly translates to immediate feel when you pick this notebook up with your hands. While a lot of notebooks feel rigid and somewhat compressed, this one feels warm and floppy like an heirloom journal passed down through the generations. At the same time, it feels new and incredibly well-made. It's a tough feeling to describe, but they nail the tactile feeling of "new but perfect worn in" to which many products strive.
Opening the notebook is always a pleasant experience thanks to the binding. It opens and lays flat with ease and requires zero breaking in to make it cooperate. It really does feel like this is a journal that has been heavily used and broken in, but while also feeling solid and reliable. Another way of saying this is that notebooks with lots of wear might eventually wear down to a point that the binding is unreliable and pages may get loose or fall out, or the notebook doesn't close as well after the binding has been loosened up over months of use. Have that mental picture of how a notebook like that feels in your hands? To me, that's how the Yu-sari feels, but it has the advantage of being new and fresh.
This is the back side of the previous page. Nothing to see here.
The paper inside the notebook is a pleasing eggshell color and performs really well with basically any kind of writing instrument. The 5mm grid pattern is an old standard, and it's done well in this notebook. The grid pattern is full-bleed across the pages, and I appreciate that the pages cuts are done in a way so that there aren't any awkward half or 3/4 grids around the boundaries of the page. Again, there's an obvious attention to detail here that pleases the part of my brain that craves order and structure. Another part of my brain that appreciates mistakes and messes is also happy because this paper can take anything you throw at it. I haven't seen any bleeding or feathering, and there's hardly any show through on the back of the page. You can easily use both the front and back of each page. Speaking of pages, this notebook packs 96 of them while still remaining fairly slender.
Writing with this notebook is fantastic. The pages lay flat on their own, so you're free to relax and write, doodle, or whatever. Pens and pencils feel great when writing on this paper, and the ink dries fairly quickly (varies a bit based on how wet/wide the nib is). Overall, it's a joy to write on, and it rivals some of my favorite notebooks to date.
On top of all that good news, the Yu-sari notebooks (the A5 size) retail for $12.50. That's a stupidly good price, and you should pick one up if/when you have the chance. The larger B5 books retail for $17, which is also a good deal considering the large size.
(Vanness Pens provided this product at a discount to The Pen Addict for review purposes.)
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