Category: Journaling

My Techo Kaigi for 2024

January 27, 2024 / / 0 Comments

I have seem the term, “techo kaigi” floating around various journaling and planning blogs, channels, and communities that I follow online. It is a Japanese term that translates to notebook/planner meeting and roughly refers to a self-reflective meeting that one has with themselves to review what planning systems did or did not work and why. I find it to be a good end-of-year and mid-year audit of personal organization and project systems. It’s also a good opportunity to review if any personal needs have changed to warrant something new being added or removed. And if we are all being perfectly honest, it is also an opportunity to treat myself to new stickers or something like that.

At one point in time I had tried containing all of my journaling and planning to one or two notebooks but I am terrible at journaling regularly in any capacity whatsoever and well, life is too short to only use a mere one or two notebooks anyway. So, I will take what I can get which usually means writing, drawing, or scribbling in any number of notebooks or digital devices whenever I feel like.

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Musings on Starforged (TTRPG)

November 22, 2022 / / 0 Comments

A while back I came across Quest Calendar on Reddit/Kickstarter, a single-player RPG in the format of a tear-off day calendar; It’s a fun RPG that only takes a few minutes out of your day to play. It has also opened the door for me to explore the Solo RPG genre, which I was previously unaware had even existed. I have been playing Starforged on-and-off for a few months and it is positively delightful; It’s a PbtA (Powered by the Apocalypse) based tabletop RPG that can be played either solo, co-op or guided; My chosen method of play is sort of a blend between a tabletop roleplaying game and a creative writing prompt.

You see, I love journaling and drawing/watercoloring as a form of personal creative expression and I really like dice rolling TTRPGs. I also really really love world building but I really really don’t want to DM a game. Starforged seems to do a decent job of scratching the odd combination of all 3 itches. So lately, there have been more than a few evenings spent with my Traveler’s Notebook, a printout of some of the rules, dice, a cup of tea, and background music to set the mood. It’s also nice having other activities that aren’t in front of a screen or don’t require daylight and expensive sporting equipment.

One thing that I really like about PbtA systems (vs D20 based systems like DND) is that I feel it is a better balance of chunky stat things vs narrative based actions. The systems is also open enough to make it fairly easy to incorporate other role-playing systems. For example, I really like Stars Without Number’s method of sector generation as it’s more comprehensive so I have been using a blend of SWN and Starforged to generate new sectors and planets. I might integrate some of the ship building and ship combat rules, but I don’t want my campaign to get too mechanically “chunky” so we’ll see.

Here’s a couple of things that I have bookmarked that I either use or have bookmarked to look into:

  • Stars Without Number: Mentioned above
  • Bucket of Bolts: Another indy solo space RPG. I really like the idea of playing through this and then integrating any characters and ships into my Starforged campaign.
  • Starship Geomorphs 2.0: In-depth ship building. It looked neat.
  • itch.io Starforged Jam: Community created extended Starforged content. The Cyberpunk playkit interests me greatly as I am enjoying Cyberpunk 2077 play #2 (inspired by watching Edgerunners).

…I also really love how the community has officially unofficially adopted the standard sized Traveler’s notebook as an analog medium for this game. I have a notebook insert and folder with laminated cheat sheets that I use during play sessions.

My Customized Traveler’s Notebook

May 28, 2022 / / 0 Comments

I recently ordered and received a customized standard-sized Traveler’s Notebook from Baum-Kuchen. I have been wanting to order one for a while so as soon as they had re-opened the service, I contacted their lovely team to work out the details of my request. I have always wanted a camel Traveler’s Notebook and have always wanted a customized Traveler’s Notebook, so great opportunity to fulfill both wants.

My Tokyo Station Traveler’s Notebooks is what I have been using as my main journal for the past couple of years. I kind of baby it because it is one of my favorite souvenirs from our first trip to Japan. As such, whenever I take it anywhere, it is usually in a canvas carrier to prevent it from getting scratched up; Which is fine, but that makes it kind of a chunky thing to carry anywhere and prevents it from developing a nice patina like my passport Traveler’s Notebook. I kind of just throw my passport TN in my bag since it functions as a planner and extended wallet. Because of that, the leather has become nice and supple and broken in with a lot of character.

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Analog System Update

May 5, 2021 / / 0 Comments

These are the notebooks that I am currently using: My Regular Traveler’s Notebook for journaling and memory keeping, my Passport Traveler’s Notebook for planning, and the new addition discussed below. Not pictured is the black notebook that I scribble in (brain dump journal entries, grocery/to-do lists, etc). I had recently treated myself to a few goodies from one of my favorite stores, Baum-Kuchen, one such item being an A5 notebook cover to house the stuff that I am using to study Japanese.

Finally, after so much procrastinating, I am bucking down and redoubling my efforts to study Japanese. I took around 2 years of Japanese in college, but didn’t really keep up with studying it afterwards. Consequently, even though I still know enough to travel and hold basic conversations, I had forgotten more than I would like. My study goal is to relearn all of the kanji, vocabulary, and grammar that I have forgotten as well as continue my language education with a focus on stuff that would be useful for our next Japan trip (whenever that will be).

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2020 Analog System

November 27, 2020 / / 0 Comments

I figured that now would be a good time to post about the various notebooks that I have used this year and why they did or did not work for me.

Traveler’s Notebook Passport

My Traveler’s Notebook Passport setup hasn’t changed much since I had made this post. This notebook is used as my daily planner. I have 3 inserts: A weekly planner insert, a monthly planner insert, and a blank notebook. I had considered moving over to a TN regular or A5 sized planner, but the passport size really works for me because it is modular and is the perfect size for my bags and purses.

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My Traveler’s Notebook (Regular) Setup

March 18, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Here is a post on how I use and setup my regular sized Traveler’s Notebook. My passport sized TN is used as a daily planner/general notebook whereas my regular sized TN is used as a creative outlet for watercoloring, sketching, scrapbooking, and stuff like that. I really like the TN system because of how modular it is; I use my notebooks for a variety of things so being able to swap inserts in and out is crucial. For daily use, I usually have 2 or 3 notebooks inserted at a time (detailed below). For travel, I will have one notebook (an insert dedicated to travel journaling) to keep the thickness of the TN down to a manageable size, since my travel journal insert is filled with about a dozen pamphlets and stuff like that.

This is the Traveler’s Factory Tokyo Station edition notebook that I picked up during our first trip to Japan in 2018. The red mizuhiki charm (the knot thingy) was purchased during the same trip. The brass charm was purchased from the Nakameguro store when we visited in 2019.

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My Traveler’s Notebook Passport Setup

February 5, 2019 / / 1 Comment

I guess some folks find it odd for someone so digitally oriented as myself to use an analog planner system instead of well, my phone. I have used both methods for general planning as well as note taking, and physically writing stuff down just works the best for me and well, ❤️ analogue/journaling things.

I have three notebook inserts, two folders, and the plastic sleeve insert in my TN. These are the three notebooks that I use: the Weekly Diary, Blank Notebook, and the Monthly Diary. I find that having three inserts is the most that I can include in my current setup without making the notebook too chunky. 

The plastic sleeve has a clear zipper pouch in the front and card slots in the back. I keep memory cards, checks to deposit, and stuff like that in the zipper pouch (as well as a whisker from each cat). The card slots in the back have cards that I don’t need to carry around in my wallet (club cards, stamp cards)

I have two folders: The first folder is the TN Kraft folder, which is inserted around the monthly planner notebook. I just keep blotter paper, post-it notes, shitajiki (writing bird), and stuff like that. The second notebook is a thin leather folder that I purchased at the Tokyo Station Travelers Factory store when we we visiting Japan. This folder is loosely inserted in the back.

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