We sell high-quality notebooks made in Japan from high-quality paper.
You may be wondering why Nanami Paper hasn't raised the price of Tomoe River notebooks for many years, especially given the post-covid inflationary period. During that time, the price of a fancy hamburger here in California went from around $9 to $15-20. Well, basically, while our costs of shipping from Japan and storage in the US have gone up a LOT (storage alone has doubled) the yen has become a lot weaker, meaning the notebooks themselves cost us less, which seems to balance out our other costs. Plus, rather than seek huge profits, we are just looking for a reasonable return on the time it takes to manage this small business. It certainly IS possible that due to the upcoming tariff and trade wars, we may be forced to charge more, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Meanwhile, we are keeping the price low so that as many people as possible can enjoy these notebooks.
Writing in thick notebooks can be uncomfortable - as you get to the bottom of the page, your hand has no where to rest, and the pen becomes unstable. Here is are some tips that may help you avoid that situation.
Have you ever wondered whether that expensive notebook or paper pad you need is a good value relative to other choices out there? If so, please check out our Notebook Value Comparison!
If you are concerned about "show through" of reverse-side writing on thin papers, please read this.
Check out these pictures of vintage handwriting samples on old paper from the "Golden Age" of handwriting. The lines on the handwritten letters are spaced 9.5mm apart; the lines on most of my correspondence papers are 10mm apart. Line spacing on note-taking paper (for example, steno/legal pads) and journals is typically 6-8mm.