Yoseka Notebook

Yoseka Stationery is run by Neil and Daisy in New York, where they opened in 2017 and focus on Asian stationery. Yoseka sent me their A5 notebook to try, and the very first thought I had when I saw it is minimalist. The cover is a cement grey, with a small discreet logo on the back cover. The binding is exposed and the paper blank. It’s a naked canvas for whatever you can dream up.

The spine is open, you can see the exposed binding which allows the notebook lays completely flat all throughout the notebook. This is the biggest part of why I enjoy this notebook-I hate it when notebooks don’t lay flat.

This paper is called KBU2, and is made by Conifer in Taiwan. It’s a thick, 85gsm uncoated blank paper. There are 224 unnumbered pages. It’s not a bright white, but not cream either. I’d call it ivory.

A5 Hardcovers

It measures 5.8" x 8.3". The cover is made of durable cardboard, and so far it’s held up really well to use.

Fountain Pens:

This paper has zero feathering, and only a few spots of very minor bleed through. I love how well the paper holds up to fountain pens, way better than I expected. There is some show-through, but not enough that would stop me from using both sides of the page. The paper also shows shading and sheen beautifully.

Pencils and Gel Pens:

Here’s the part where I discovered this notebook’s one weakness: it doesn’t handle gel pens that great. It handles pencils like a champ, mainly due to its thick uncoated nature, but even after ten minutes the gel pen ink was still wet and I easily smeared the writing.

Overall, this notebook handled fountain pens really well. I love the basic cover, exposed binding, discreet branding and really good paper. I do wish it was available in dot grid, but that might prove dangerous because I would buy them all.

Disclaimer: This product was provided by Yoseka for the purpose of this review. All photos and opinions are my own. There are no affiliate links on this page and this post is not sponsored in any way.