About Tomoe River "Notebook" paper:

A few people have asked whether our Tomoe River paper is the same Tomoe River paper that's used in the Hobonichi Techo. The answer is yes. We use the same 52 gsm paper as the Hobo. The only difference is in our products that use "cream" paper, instead of the "white" used in the Hobo A5 and A6 planners.

Tomoegawa, the company that manufactures Tomoe River, makes two kinds of 52 gsm paper. One kind is for offset printing, and comes in many colors. That's not the paper we use. We use the "notebook" paper, which comes only in cream and white, and is specially formulated for handwriting, as opposed to catalogs produced with a printing press.

Although we work with our partners in Japan to purchase, print and bind Tomoe River paper, we have met with Tomoegawa staff in Tokyo to discuss other projects as well as sample some of their other papers (so far, only TR is appropriate for our applications). Tomoegawa is a huge corporation, with very professional staff and strict quality standards and controls. They are so huge that they do not sell direct to any downstream companies that make end-user stationery products. Not even Hobonichi buys their paper directly from Tomoegawa, as they, like us and other companies such as LIFE and Kokuyo, work with companies that specialize in stationery products and book binding.

I hope that clears up a few things. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Dave