The Art, Craft & Purpose of Travellers Journals with Frank from Yokogaki
Hi, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Stationery Freaks with myself, Rob Lambert, and, of course
Helen:And with me, Helen Dasowski.
Rob:And today, Helen, we've got another special guest. It is Frank from Yokogaki, and I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. Hi, Frank.
Frank:Hello, Dante. It's exactly pronounced that was the same way that I would have pronounced it. So you did a great job there, Rob. Hi. Hello.
Rob:That's awesome. And today, we're gonna be chatting all things traveler's notebooks, which is something I have seen so much on Instagram and all over the place, and I love them. But I don't know really what they are, and Frank is here today to help us go through what they are and, you know, how to use them. So, Frank, did you wanna just give us a quick hello to the Stationery Freaks audience and just introduce yourself and what it is you do?
Frank:Yes. Hello. I'm I I have no relation whatsoever to stationary, but I do love stationary. So I'm basically based in Belgium. I run design operations for an educational company and stuff like that, a lot of digital stuff but I do have a passion for actually the tangible side of things and especially also stationary.
Frank:So I basically a while ago started creating my own stationary and I think went on the hunt for some more content and that's how I found your great podcast around. And so I started listening and I was like, wait a minute, they never touched the subject of travel journals. And I was so confused. So I reached out to Helen, I think, who responded. Where I'm like, hey, don't you use travel journals?
Frank:Because I hear you buying and buying and buying more and more and more notebooks. And in case of Helen stickers, which by the way Helen you can get back to, there is a link there. So I basically reached out like, Hey, don't you use travel journals? And it turns out you don't, if I'm not mistaken. So now I'm here.
Helen:Yay. Yeah.
Rob:You're absolutely right. We did a video, didn't we, Helen? We did an episode about hoarding notebooks. I think you had what, 45? And I had 116.
Rob:In that combination of that number, there are no travelers notebooks.
Helen:No, there wasn't. And in fact, when you reached out to me, Frank, and you kind of said, hey, you're gonna do an episode on travelers notebooks. I was like, oh, traveler's journals. I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, we'll do that. And then when I spoke to Rob, neither of us had any experience at all.
Helen:So it was like, oh, but I know a man who does. So Frank's hopefully gonna give us an introduction to what they are.
Frank:Oh, gladly.
Helen:And how you came to be basically building your own. So yeah, mostly, do you want to start by telling us what a traveler's journal is and what makes it different from the very large number of notebooks that Rob and I already have?
Frank:Oh, definitely. Actually, that's the fun part, right? You've probably been buying notebooks for the covers for one part, but also probably on how they look, but also on the inside, I assume, You have your grids and all your other type of project management type of setups or other journaling setups and whatever you can find. The fun part about the travel notebook like this is that you can actually put in any kind of refill you like. So just imagine you're a bullet journal fan.
Frank:You can get a small bullet journal, so a dotted grid bullet journal and hang it inside a travel journal notebook if you were because basically all they are are like this sturdy, oftentimes leather covers and then you have a couple of rubber bands in them. Most of the time they're rubber bands like ribbons and you just hang a refill in it. There are, you know, the big brands that have like these metal rings going around, right, with refills but you have to buy their refills. The fun part about the travel journal is you can find any refill you find out there or create your own, hang them in there and then there are techniques to stack them up and hang multiple refills with multiple ribbons one on top of the other and just basically I hear you talk a lot where you use this type of notebook for this functionality and that one for the other. If you were to split it up into three refills you could have all three types of note taking or whatever all stacked in this one travel journal So
Helen:is there a limit to the number of books that you can get at the moment? I'm imagining that you don't want something huge, but
Frank:Well, if you Google it, you will find a lot of people who really go to the max. It's basically a stack of side five centimeters of refills and other stuff in there and then incidentally there's still another cover around it. So you can go as wide and as big as you like as long as the cover kind of manages it. So you can go really, really big. Going to be honest, I don't go that big.
Frank:I think usability wise you run into some issues as well. But one thing you have to know also is that outside of refills, there's other stuff you can put in there. For example, little pouches and envelopes and all that kind of stuff because originally travel journals were made to travel and so you had to have a little pouch where you put in your passport or perhaps your train tickets or stuff like that, right?
Helen:Receipts, yeah.
Frank:So you can extend them with not just the refilled notebooks but other stuff as well. They call them inserts, right? Where you have pockets or other stuff and you can put that also in there. So they can grow quite thick quite rapidly depending on the use case. But the gist, the basic gist is a good sturdy cover with a type of a ribbon where you then hang in one or three, four, five, however many you want additional refills.
Frank:Now there's one subculture even just about the charms you hang the little rubber band you used to close it because it's all hold together with another rubber band that often comes out of the back and you like pull it over the notebook and it keeps it all closed, right? So there's even like a whole subculture going on just about the charms that you hang on that closing rubber band. It's a really big ecosystem. You're missing out on a lot, you two. We really should dive into this.
Rob:No. Don't don't give Helen any more side hobbies. She's already got the stickers going on. We're gonna see a whole charm section coming up now.
Frank:I can I
Helen:can see the need to, yeah, to fiddle with things? That's just
Rob:so let me you know, you've got these different refills that you can put inside it, Frank. And so presumably, you could have a refills of any type. You like you say, you could have a bullet journal one, you could have a sort of to do list, maybe even a calendar. So you're right, you know, we talk about carrying fifteen twenty notebooks around. I'm not suggesting you put that many refills in, but you could combine all of that into that one thing that you carry around with you.
Rob:That sound is that that's the gist then, isn't
Frank:That's exactly it, yeah. And to be honest, let's be clear, one of the reasons so it was a colleague that showed me the first travel journal I came across with and I was already looking into Do you know Midori? The Midori paper and Midori Actually, the biggest brand in traveler notebooks is called the Traveler Notebook,
Helen:I think.
Frank:And that is actually a rebrand. The company behind it is Midori.
Helen:Midori, I
Frank:could be wrong, right? But so the largest, the most common ones you will find are actually from Midori so you can take their refills or like their entire notebooks because they only have like a little paper cover most of the time beautifully printed but they have like a paper cover on top of their notebooks. You can just hang a Midori in your traveler notebook or in your traveler journal basically.
Rob:That's really cool.
Helen:They do make beautiful paper. I think I've had notebooks from them before and the paper is lovely to write on. With the traveler's journal, I'm just checking here, everything I've ever seen, because I have since you and I had this conversation, Frank, a look at all sorts of things. And it looks like most of them are kind of A6 size, but do they do them that bigger A5 or even A four size? Or is it get too unwieldy then?
Helen:Is it difficult?
Frank:No, no, no, they definitely do. You can have A4s. Yeah, no, you definitely can have a lot of sizes. There's another brand, the name escapes me, from which I have seen definitely A four size travel notebooks. I'm gonna be honest though, so one of the things, let me phrase it this way.
Frank:I built like a back house in my garden and I like some woodworking. When I build something, I kind of over dimension everything so now a helicopter can land on that thing. I kind of tackled building my travel journals in the same way so the leather of my journals is actually quite sturdy. I've learned that when you use them in the bag and over time it loosens up. That's one of the nicest qualities of leather, right?
Frank:It starts to get this petting A on it and it loosens up a bit and it becomes more flexible. The big or like the more popular ones I've seen, the leather is a bit thinner which if I were to put that on an A four, I think it would be a bit too flimsy but I'm going to be honest, I haven't tried it so I could be totally wrong. I'm sure some of the listeners will write in and say, Nope, I have an A four with a leather travel journal, works great. But for me personally, I tend to have the versions that I currently offer are the sizes that I like the most. So that goes from a B6 slim tailored by the way based on the Midori paper sizes.
Helen:Oh really?
Frank:And then I have an A6 which you can like if you have when you're out and about you can quite easily put that in a pocket. And then I have something for travel which is for business more, like to do my day to day note taking for my work and that's an eight point five slim. So that's a bit bigger. But yeah, you find them in all kinds of sizes, European or the other formats.
Helen:I have to be honest, Frank, I've just had a bit of a flashback. While you've been talking, I've been imagining Rob's sort of yellow legal pad sliding into one of these kind of travelers journals. And it gave me a flashback to years ago. I mean, before we started doing this podcast years ago, I think Filofax had a thing called a Filofax Flex. And they had this idea that you had sort of several different notebooks of varying different sizes.
Helen:And they all slid in little like pockets. I'd completely forgotten. So I had one of those, which I loved for a short amount of time. Yeah, I don't know if they still make those at all.
Rob:Yeah. I think I think we we did an episode on Filofax. Didn't we? We mentioned it in a couple of episodes. Did we?
Rob:But I think coming back to the the size of the a four and you were mentioning the legal pads, the legal pads don't travel. And, you know, I I get the idea that the travelers journals really offer people to carry them around. They're not necessarily something that you might sit at a desk and use day after day after day, although, obviously, you could. And I think carrying an a four, full with lots of different a four stuff in there, I don't know, that feels wrong. I'm sure people do it successfully, but I guess it defeats the purpose of it, is to travel with it.
Frank:Yeah, I would rather consider that than just a nice leather cover of your notebook, right? The travel kind of goes out of it but again who knows who's out there and who just puts it in their backpacks or whatever. But yeah, the sizes that are most common will be something that you can easily throw in a bag and take with you anywhere you go.
Helen:So I have another question for you, Frank, which is you've just spoken about other companies doing it. I mean, Dory have now got a spin off company or rebranded company. And I've talked about Filoflox Flex who may or may not be still doing this. But what made you think, well, hang on, I can do this better or niche. Why did you then go and make your own?
Helen:I mean, loving them is one thing, but setting up your own business to make them that feels like proper dedication.
Frank:Yeah, no, well, great question. It started, I think a while ago, I'm not a fan of the word sustainability. I think it's too vague, it's overused and instead somewhere I was reading and I came across this word it's called also Japanese incidentally, Motonai. Again don't cut me on the wording on how I express it. Motonai, I don't know how you really call it.
Frank:And that means it means a deep respect for resources or like a regret over waste. And somehow that for me was like more interesting. It's about valuing what you have and me and my wife share a passion for timeless design but high quality stuff. Stuff that you buy and that you know like okay in ten years, in twenty years this will still look nice and work. I'm a huge fan of Dieter Rams, I don't know if you know the designer in German, right?
Frank:Actually one of his shelvings is being sold and created in The UK by Witzo. If you ever want a great shelving, look up Vitsow in The UK and they are making the same shelf for over sixty years. And that principle is buy one, you can buy it small, they're so durable and they will be your lifelong companion and you can add on to it. So that concept of buying something once that you really like but having a long longevity for me really is sustainability Because you can have all kinds of thoughts when it comes to leather and that type of stuff. So I liked that part.
Frank:And then I was looking at home at a handmade table we have that has that same that's from my grandfather, like a craftsman. He was the director of a part in the Port Of Antwerp where they repaired stuff. And apparently I think on the side, he had them build some furniture for my parents in the day and I inherited one of those little coffee tables. Very simple in design but like craftsmanship worth and I know that this will last me for my whole lifetime when I take some pride in maintaining it. And then from that, there was the colleague that I mentioned earlier showing me a travel journal and I was buying what is it?
Frank:Leuchtturms?
Helen:Oh yes, yeah.
Frank:The Leuchtturm notebooks, really great stuff by the way. But I kept buying those and I'm like can't I like when I saw the travel journal concept, I'm like, oh, but I could make only the refill, make the journal and then just put all kinds of stuff in there. I have the gridded one for my bullet journaling, I make some of them with like the really gritted, how do you call it, for sketching or sketching paper and stuff. So I make one of sketching paper, throw it in. I might want one with another cover or one only for a certain project, throw it in.
Frank:So I really liked that idea and then I went to look up what is it, how do you make it or like first what is it and then I'm like I can make this and as I mentioned I like to do things with my hands and learn a new hobby every three months because I'm so way into the digital every day. I like to do stuff with my hands and I'm like hold on that seems like a piece of leather with a hole in it, I can do that. And so I basically picked up leatherworking taught me all there is to know up to the level of stitching and types of stitching and how to work with leather and like the borders, how to make the borders nice and shiny and all of that stuff. And it ended up with me actually creating a whole set of journals for everyone around me until they were fed up with me and then I'm like actually why not sell them to people who also have that joy for something that I know will last them for ten years, right? That joy for design and I like sharing it because let's be honest, it's a side job.
Frank:This isn't going to pay the rent. Just love doing it and sharing it with other people to give them something that's really handcrafted. And I put some little tweaks in there in the design that I think nobody else is doing right now but that I'm like okay well I'm proud of that. Like the pen loop for example, a lot of the other ones are just the leather strap around and then you have to buy something to clip your pen onto it. So I was like nope don't want to do that.
Frank:I want the pen loop to be nicely attached to the notebook but then it sticks out which, nope, I also don't want to do that because I throw it in a bag and it gets clipped and whatever. What if I put the pen loop so that it actually folds within the whole journal? And so prototyping wise I kept tweaking it a bit here and there until I have what I basically have today. It's a really sturdy, hefty, good travel journal in my opinion.
Helen:I have to be honest I love the idea that my pen attaches to my notebook or whatever it is that I'm using my Hobonichi at the moment. That being able to reach in and pull out your notebook and know the pen is attached is really, really good. And just because I spend my entire life, if I have a pencil case with me, I have to find, dig around in the bag to find that. And you're pulling out like six pens because you can't travel light. If you're taking a pencil case, you might as well take a lot of things.
Helen:So it helps me stay more minimal actually.
Rob:I think as well Helen, you would need one with a pouch for all those stickers that you need to carry as well.
Helen:Do you know? I do have a you just need an insert, like a little pocket on the inside. It's actually tram stickers. You just need a few.
Frank:No actually there's a little secret about the pen loop. Another countryman of yours, I don't know, do you know Tom's studio? Yes, ring a bell? Yeah, yeah. Right?
Frank:So Tom's studio, when he came out with his first pen, I think it was Lumos. Now if you think about objects that lost a lifetime and also a bit about the Montonnaya I was talking about in the beginning, he kind of comes from the same world, right? You can refill all of his fine liners for example like the Lumos pen. You can just refill it, put other nibs in there. I basically bought that one.
Frank:They're quite expensive to be honest. I mean, for somebody like me who doesn't buy a thousand pens a year and whatever, it's quite of an expensive pen but I love the design of it, the simplicity, the craftsmanship and also the fact that you can refill it. So I bought that and I'm using that one as the base measurement when I wrap around the loops. It's based on his pen to make sure that that one fits. Of course leather always gives a bit over time so you can add bigger pens or smaller pens, it adjusts a bit.
Frank:But the loop is basically based on Tom's studio's diameter of pen.
Helen:Nice.
Rob:That's awesome. That's awesome.
Helen:That's a good sort of reason to do it. I like that.
Rob:Yeah, his pens are amazing. Follow him. And yeah, he's he's creating some beautiful stuff as well. I love the I was checking out your website, is yokogaki.be. And, the picture of the table, that you've just described was brilliant.
Rob:And I triggered a whole load of memories. My granddad was a cabinet maker. And so I've got this love of furniture. We've taught a lot about, our own furniture and the writing bureau that's in my studio is from like the 1940s and it's still solid. I've now got it.
Rob:It houses all the stationery.
Helen:A 100 notebooks.
Rob:A 100 notebooks is still staying strong. It's got all of my stuff in there. It's just a wonderful place to be because it's got that history. And to your point, it feels like it's it's not getting wasted. It's not getting burnt and chopped up.
Rob:It's been reused. That's a really great thing. And I love also, Frank, how you mentioned that your notebooks would love you back. I think that's a wonderful way to talk about our appreciation and love of stationery. It's great.
Helen:It really is. Now, before we ask you ridiculous questions on another topic, I just wanted to ask you, is there something in your opinion that makes a bad travel journal? So I mean, yes, obviously coming to you and your online shop would allow somebody to buy great, perfect travel journal. But for whatever reason, people might not want to do that. So what would they need to look out for that makes a bad travel journal in your opinion?
Frank:I'm gonna be honest, I don't think it's possible. I would be really hard to I mean, I've seen people I've seen there are some great artists out there who made the covers not out of leather or something, but out of like paper or something. Right, paper they made themselves or stuff like that. I can imagine that that might over time be a bit more That won't last a lifetime, But it doesn't make them a bad travel journal. It does the job, you take it with you and then perhaps after two months you take another cover.
Frank:That's the travel journal in and of itself is still great. It's just a bit of a waste that you have to replace them. I'm not a fan of the plastic y ones. I have done a lot of research to find an alternative to leather because both me and my wife are vegetarian so all of a sudden starting to work with leather kind of is weird. But I did a research and I tried to find out something that would last for a long time and be able to take it and a lot of the faux leather or the vegetarian leather and whatever has PU in it so polyurethane.
Frank:It looks like leather still has plastic in it which might under time and over time say three four years start to crack or things like that right. It's just not as sustainable and again I don't like the word but that's what it is right. It doesn't last for long. That's basically the only thing that can go wrong with a journal is it just doesn't last that long. I don't think you can go wrong with the concept.
Helen:I've seen cork covers. And in fact, I have a couple which are just notebook covers really, which are wonderfully tactile and they seem much more, they look quite fragile, but when you're using them, they've worn really well. But I don't use them every day. I don't use them for traveling all the time. So I can't really say they would work, but I'd be really interested if you looked at cork at all.
Frank:I looked at it. There, I think my Let me rephrase. I'll try this again. I ended up looking at a certain type of leather and it was the classic green notebooks you see on my website. That leather shouted at me basically, looked so nice.
Frank:And I was like, wow, this is really beautiful. And at that point I kind of fell in love with that type of look and I never even considered. But I'm 100% sure that indeed cork would be perhaps a very good Moltonai alternative to leather, I think. I'm pretty sure it would never make a bad travel journal for sure. I'm pretty sure a lot of people actually use it to make them.
Rob:So Frank, before we jump into the ridiculous questions that Helen has hinted at and regular listeners will potentially know what's coming next, Have you how do you use your travel journal? Can you give us some examples of how you might use it other than maybe just bullet journaling?
Frank:No. Sure. So I will use it for outside of the regular bullet journaling. I'm gonna be honest, Helen, you made me buy a Hobonichi. So guess what's in my daily travel journal right now is Hobonichi with cover and all.
Frank:I just put it in there. I'm going to be honest, if Hobonichi would make exactly the same thing without the hardcover, then that would be super awesome. I would just love just having that one. It's the slim, what is it, weekly one? Don't know.
Frank:Is
Helen:that a hard cover? Because I was looking at switching to that but I assumed it was soft cover. If it's a hard
Frank:cover It's hard it's a very slim one, kind of like 176 millimeters high, yeah I forgot the name but that is a hardcover with fabric around it on top of it. So if they were to make that one with a soft cover that would be my go to for which I currently use more for mindfulness and all day to day journaling, actually real journaling. How your day was, how you're feeling. Activity trackers and stuff like that. I have an additional sketch paper notebook in there which I used to dabble around with and I have a book I ordered but I think it's what was the name again?
Frank:I think it's also UK designer. The sneaky artist I think will bring out a book to learn and sketch little people right when you're in a scene in a cafe.
Helen:Oh yeah.
Frank:You start to like just take in the scene by doing a little rough sketch with tiny little people in there. I'm gonna use the sketching refill for those types of things and then I have a more general note taking refill I put in there. It's still a grit but I don't really use the bullet journal mechanic in there but that's for my day to day actions jobs and perhaps also here and there a project for work I put in or other types of notes. So generally I have up to three refills and then I have an envelope insert I have in there that's where I put little nibbets or like a name card from somebody or like a ticket for here or there or just something that I collect along the road to then make or add to the journal and paste it in or stick it in with tape or something more as a reminder or like a yeah something to think about.
Helen:Yeah almost like a kind of light scrapbooking kind of.
Frank:Yeah yeah like that. I combine that one with the Hobonichi where you what is it the in stocks the little photos you can print with Instax?
Rob:Yeah yeah yeah.
Frank:Sometimes I do that as well it's like really fun because they're really small and then you make a little photo and just drop it on the Hobonichi on that page because you don't feel like writing and you're just like okay I cut off half my thumb today. This is a picture of my thumb and I stick it in the Hobonichi and that was my day then.
Helen:I think Rob had one of those printers and I think you stuck photos of yourself all over your kids stuff just to annoy them.
Rob:I did. Yeah, those little thermal printers were amazing. And the one that I had, they stopped making it and so the software just stopped working. So I had to buy a whole new printer, the tiny little thermal printers only does black and white. And yeah, did it.
Rob:I took a selfie, really horrible selfie. It wasn't even a glamorous one. And I printed it and stuck it all over my kids' stuff. Actually, we've still got some Tupperware up in the house that's still got those stickers on. So it's quite funny.
Frank:Did you like it? Because I've been looking at those thermal printers and that's even better than the the in stocks, right? Because it's really thermal. You just put a piece of paper in there. There's no ink in it, right?
Rob:Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Just a little roll of paper. You can get you can get sticky paper. You can get all sorts of different types of paper.
Rob:The only challenge is is I've yet to find one that I can trust to be around for long enough, because obviously you need the app on your phone to send it to the printer. Yeah. And they just went out of business, whatever. And so the app stopped working. And I found no way of connecting to the printer.
Rob:So I think that's the only challenge. I'm sure there are. And let us know, listeners, if you know of a brand that do a small thermal printer that are going to be around hopefully for at least more than a month. And that'd be helpful. So Frank, very quickly, I know we're gonna jump into Desert Island Stationery in a minute.
Rob:The videos I'll be I was going through your Instagram feed. It's really great. And the videos of you drawing the little people, that that's you, is it, in your traveler's journal doing that sketching?
Frank:Oh, okay. Okay. So, put them in Instagram, but not with the intention that a lot of people see them because I'm a terrible sketch person. Really call them a No. It's it's really because my wife has has more experience in sketching and I look at her when she sketches and then I'm like, what am I doing here?
Frank:I don't know. But this is like, as I mentioned, travel journal, I switch hobbies every three months. The journal's stuck so that's something I'll keep doing. I'm also looking into porcelain working and all of that type of stuff. But the sketching is something then is like hobby three or four that I take on and add to it.
Frank:So that might change over time. But right now it is a focus. I would really be able to like to sketch those little people to like use that in combination with stuff in my travel journal to then quickly be able to like put a scene somewhere or like a reminder or like something to to think about later on to like be able to jump those scenes quickly into a notebook here and there.
Rob:Yeah. That's awesome. That's awesome. Alright, Frank. Closing in on the end of the show, and we've got Desert Island Stationery.
Helen:I can't remember, Frank, if I've
Rob:told you about this. I don't know whether we did tell you
Frank:about this. I've I've I've heard I've heard the other seasons talking about it. I was thinking, should I prepare or not? But I haven't. I put some thought in it and I think it's a very difficult question, to be honest, but I can give it a try.
Helen:You you can give it a try. Rob makes the rules really flexible, so you'll be absolutely fine, Frank.
Rob:So, yes, Frank, moving into desert island stationery as this section's called. You may have heard previous episodes before where we've had a guest, and we set them this challenge. You're stuck on a desert island. You're only allowed five items of stationery with you, and yes, Helen always says those rules are somewhat flexible, and they certainly are when I'm involved. And you might have heard the original episode way back.
Rob:We'll put a link into the show notes. So Frank, you're stuck on a desert island. You've got five items of stationery. What's the first thing you're gonna make sure you've got with you?
Frank:Actually, I think I'm gonna go with Tom's studio Lumos pen. For a set of reasons though. So one is they're refillable. So I'm thinking I can basically find any plant based dye out there and make it into an ink and then refill the Lumos Pen with it.
Rob:Nice.
Frank:Also they are straw like, right? You can like turn all the elements out of it and then you're left with this tube. So if ever I need something straw like or tube like, I think I could use those as well, like for filtering water. I don't know. I'm going like on a limb here, I could use it to I think that.
Rob:That's cool. Yeah.
Frank:Make a filter out of it. So that that pen would be item one.
Rob:That's great. I mean, in the last episode, we we had Jenny Kane, didn't we? And she'd sort of almost chosen things for their multi use, which is what you've done there, Frank. You've you've got a You can refill again using those natural plants and inks and dyes, but also you could use it as a straw and a filter. I like it.
Rob:Okay, Frank, item number two.
Frank:Okay. By the way, on the dies, I'm not sure what I would be writing on the naturopath.
Helen:Are you not taking a travel journal in this?
Frank:Yeah, well, hey, it's survival, right? I'm still thinking how the travel journal might help me survive on this with the leather thing perhaps. Yeah, it'll probably pop in there somewhere. I think for number two, I'll go with there's like these really flat metal rulers. I think the I forgot the name.
Frank:The previous guest also had a ruler, I think, in her bag and she was right, right? Those rulers, you can do all kinds of cool things. But I have like this really thin, metal one with a little hole in it. So I I think I can do quite a lot with that as well. The fact that there's a hole in, I can, like, put a rope through that and start fishing.
Frank:I don't know. So I I would go for the ruler, the the metal metal ruler there.
Rob:Nice. That's great. Yeah. Good.
Frank:Oh wow, five items. Oh yes, I know, I know. So you mentioned ROP can be a bit flexible sometimes in what you bring or no, no. I'm thinking of something to create paper so I've been screen printing for the covers and I like the screen prints but you can quite easily with the sieve also make your own paper so I would jump up stuff on the island and make my paper then but that's not a writing utensil or stationary stuff right so
Rob:I like where you're going with that, that's a really good idea.
Helen:You wouldn't let me have hand cream Rob, I think Frank can't have a sieve but I think Frank could have a stack of paper that he's already made.
Rob:Yeah, 100. Can
Frank:take That's okay, that's allowed.
Rob:Yeah, yeah, yeah. You could take a bumper box of travel less journals with you according to my rules. Yeah.
Frank:But no, I would make one, I really, you're on an island, I would want to make my own paper of the stuff I find there. So I'm going to go with a cutter. Is that allowed? Is that a stationary thing? Let's go with that.
Frank:Because that I can use to cut them off, chop them into little pieces and then make my paper out of I'll figure out how to do this zip. Okay.
Rob:So item number three is a cutter. Do you mean like a, you know, a knife or a guillotine?
Frank:Yeah. What is it? Exacto knife or something like that? Yeah.
Rob:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Cool.
Rob:So so far, we've got a Tom Studio pen number one. We've got a flat metal ruler number two. And then we've got a cutter, a knife. What's number four then, Frank?
Frank:I think I think I have to put a travel journal there. Right? I'm traveling. I'm on an island. Even if it doesn't help me survive on the island I need to put my stuff somewhere.
Frank:It'll give me some protection on my self made paper and my Tom Studio notes and my sketches I made on the island. Yeah. I'll take that one. Also, there must be something useful to do with the letter. Don't ask me why yet, but I I'm pretty sure there is.
Rob:Yeah. I think so. Alright. So number four is a travel journal. And five.
Frank:Oh, wow. This is really tough, this game.
Rob:And by the way, listeners, we we should say here that we've actually sprung this on Frank. In the show, we failed to sort of prewire Frank with this.
Frank:So We did. Yeah. Oh, I'm I'm in doubt. So there's there's either something stably or one of the you know the okay. I have it.
Frank:Do you know I I forgot the is it Tokyo boxes? It's you see them quite often and they're used to put all kinds of stationary stuff in there and there are these these old I think they're Japanese from origin.
Rob:Oh, do you mean like the old the sort of Yeah. They're like a toolbox, aren't they almost?
Frank:Yeah. They're like toolboxes, but they're making them in smaller sizes and you can use them for a bunch of stationery.
Helen:Yeah. I've never heard of these and I've never seen them. And now I need to go and find out what they are and see if I need them.
Frank:I found it, they're Toyo, so t o y o, Toyo boxes and you can find them in all kinds of sizes now. I think they were originally toolboxes but now you can really find them for stationary as well. I want one of those to put all my stuff in and it keeps everything safe.
Helen:I don't know what they are but I want one too.
Frank:I feel like every time I bring something new there should be like some kind of a disclaimer so that Helen turns off her headphones and not hear about it because otherwise she'll she'll probably buy them out. Oh, by the way, those are great surfaces for putting your stickers on as well, Helen.
Rob:Yeah. I've just I literally just googled them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Rob:So the Toyo Trunk type boxes, loads of different sizes, aren't Would
Frank:they be allowed?
Rob:Yeah, I think that's a stationary item for sure. That's okay. Do want a stationary container?
Frank:Yes, got my five.
Rob:Frank, let's just recap on those. Number one, we've got a Tom Studio Pen. Number two, we've got a flat metal ruler. Number three, we've got some sort of cutter or knife. Number four, of course, the travel journals.
Rob:And then number five, these Toyo Steel sort of tool stationery boxes. That sounds like a great kit out for a desert island for sure.
Helen:It does. I like how our guests have recently got to the stage where they're now thinking of actual survival. Rob and I, when we first did this, we were just thinking of what station we will we take. Everyone else is like, you could use this for other purposes. Mean, it's like
Rob:Exactly. This is so much fun, actually. I like the the fact that you didn't have the pre wire there, Frank, and you still managed to come out with five.
Frank:Yeah. I'm happy myself.
Helen:You did great.
Rob:Alright. Cool. It's been a slightly longer than usual episode, that's been an absolute joy chatting to you there, Frank, about these travelers journals. Where can people find out more about you and your travelers journals?
Frank:Oh, I think the easiest one is just to to find me on Instagram. I think that might be the the shortest, fastest way, and that would be, yokogaki underscore shop. And if people are interested, I also created a special stationary freak discount code for your audience. So if I'm allowed to share that, that would be stationary freak20. So one word stationary freak20.
Frank:And that should normally give everyone a 20% discount on the shop if they're interested.
Rob:That's awesome. Thank you, Frank. Yeah. They were a very generous discount. Much appreciated.
Rob:That
Helen:is amazing. Yes. And they're handmade by you, which is particularly lovely. So
Rob:Awesome. We'll pull all of the links into the show notes. So, Helen, anything else you wanted to cover before we close out?
Helen:No. I have it's been a joy. Thank you so much, Frank. And thank you for teaching me about traveler journals. And I am now gonna go away and see if I can manage to combine my Hobonichi thinking with my, I think this might be a really good idea for me.
Helen:Because as you say, I use multiple notebooks.
Rob:Yeah, I was thinking the same I might go away and buy one and see. I don't know. I'll have a look. I'll a think about it. But yeah, thank you so much, Frank.
Rob:It's been absolutely enjoyable.
Frank:It was a pleasure. I hope you enjoyed the travel journals. I hope I didn't put you into too much financial problems with them.
Helen:It's a lost cause, Frank, be think
Frank:that'll go. I think that'll go okay. You only need one. Right? You only need one, and it will save you money because you'll just be buying refills instead of entire new notebooks.
Rob:Thank you so much, for listening to the episode. You know where to find us. That's stationaryfreaks.com. We are on Instagram at stationary freaks u k. And, of course, you'll also find the newsletter that accompanies every single one of these episodes on the stationeryfreaks.com website.
Rob:And with that, we look forward to speaking to you in the next episode. That's bye bye from me.
Helen:Bye from me, and thanks for coming, Frank.
Frank:It was a pleasure. Bye, everyone.
