Hiromi Paper

In the quest for the perfect journal, I followed the Black Cover review, and wrote to Awagami in Japan asking them for US sources for their notebooks.

Aya Fujimori sent me two sources, Hiromi and Kates Paperie.

I've bought fine paper from Hiromi in my bookbinding days, and know they have some of the finest stock around.

Curious why there was such a big difference in price between the two sources, I asked Aya in a follow up email what distinguished one journal from the other, and she replied, "The difference among the Yuzen Spring, Yuzen Autumn, Syuro journals is the cover paper. The Yuzen series is hand printed papers and Syuro is made of rice straw."

Frankly, I like the Syuro variant better as I am not inclined to buy floral covered journals.

So for $12.00 I think I may try this journal as I suspect it could be of a similar quality to Apica--a wonderful paper with a simple cover.

And when I get the Syuro, I will probably also buy one of the Kuretake brush pens that are being offered for a very reasonable price.

PS - Here's a review at Amateur Economist of the journal.