u/Migreyne

Normally I would never drop this much but a few things factored in.

1. My wife’s latest scans came back clean as she approaches the end (next week) of her cancer infusions. It seemed a reason to celebrate.

2. Extra pay period :)

3. A little reward for the past year as a caregiver.

4. I love Japanese Cherry blossoms and as a long time D&D player the combination was just too perfect.

Soon I get to use it in my great grandmothers secretary that she used to write letters on herself :)

Two years ago my daughter went on a trip to Japan and I had asked her to inquire about the Moomin’ TN if she got the chance to visit any of the stores there. She happened to hit 3 of the stores for me and at the Tokyo Station store she showed them a picture of what she was looking for. The two clerks had a frantic discussion and then reached under the counter and pulled out the only box that they had. I was SO stoked when she opened her luggage upon her return and surprised me with it!

Now here I am and it has remained pristine and unused because the one side of my nature says “It is worth so much and needs to stay that way to keep its value”. But the other side of me knows that I would NEVER sell this as it holds such value to me as something my daughter went out of her way for me on.

So today I have decided to break the internal conflict and I pulled it out and I am going to USE it. No more worry about keeping value because the reality is it is invaluable to me. I transferred everything over from my Road Trip cover and now it is time to introduce it to my daily routine…

Two years ago I was reading my great grandfathers journals and came to the conclusion I wanted to go analog and leave something behind like he did.

As I did my research the Travellers Notebook system stood out to me and after two years I am still enamored with it.

I love my covers (I have about 10 of them and rotate them around). My daughter picked up Kyoto, Moomin and Tokyo station for me while in Japan and I just smile as I look at them.

These journals have walked through my first grandchild, my wife being diagnosed with cancer (she is still in treatment but outlook is positive), and countless other events that I have documented.

Analog is therapeutic for me - and this community has been wonderful to be a part of. Here’s to many more years :)

It’s the job that never gets started that takes the longest to finish…

At least now my family has an idea of what to get me for my birthday for a while :)

I will likely never finish but still a fun project to get the Blackwing Volumes pencils…. Needed something g for that hall wall anyway…

I picked up this cover with plans to do a bit more traveling with my wife than we did in the past. Our kids have all moved out so it seemed like we needed to plan for being a little more focused on our time together than focusing on raising or children. Shortly after getting this TN we discovered my wife had a melanoma that was in stage 3C and our lives went on hold. What I thought would be a journal about travels became a journal about a cancer journey…

It has officially been a year since we first found out. She is getting her 11th infusion of Nivolumab today - two more to go. It has been such a roller coaster of a journey but she is still with me and so far things are looking like she may beat it and be with me for many many years to come. It has been therapeutic to journal this way and look back on all she has been through and realize how lucky we have been through this…

Each life is unique, as is each journey they take…

I have always stayed within the safe budget pen zone - but after a month with a third pay period I decided to splurge a little. Not crazy mind you - I still can’t quite justify a price over $100 but I went to the edge and picked up this beauty from Japan. So far I am enjoying it as far as the writing experience - but REALLY enjoying it from the visual side. :)

Building this Behemoth or listening to the BBC Lord of the Rings audio book…

My guess is the build will take me more than 12 hours but… we shall see…

Loving the look of this set…

Only complaint. No guide for the pencils. When I opened it they dropped out and had to go online to figure out which were the dwarves vs man pencils and even then it took a bit :)

For old school hotels that face a court on the inside, and in my case nostalgic.

Also a small reminder of my age as is evidenced by the fact that they had a big sign saying the hotel is now on the state historic register (it opened the year after I was born)…

Still, an excellent opportunity to pull out my TN and do a bit of reminiscing…

Looking forward to having this one to display…

http://blackwing.attn.tv/aypUhmy5RxXL

This is one of those times I feel conflicted on posting. I was lucky enough to snag one from the US site on the first drop thanks I part to having my shop account set up and ready to go but I know there are a lot out there that even missed the second drop. From reading their posts it sounds like they are honestly trying to get as many out there as possible to those that want them… Even in the 3 years I have become a TN geek things have changed. When I first started every color was available on their website and now you are lucky to see any two at a time. I am glad to see so many enjoying the hobby but the bottleneck is real for sure.

All I can say from my own experience is that there isn’t one (outside of Moomin) that didn’t eventually become available at some point down the line. The Toyko, Love and Trip, and even the US Road Trip all sold out quickly (yes in minutes) but eventually (in some cases several months) became available and stayed available for at least a few weeks. Just trying to provide some hope for everyone out there… even if it may be a bit of a wait.

I really like this one. I am not sure yet how I will be working it in my day to day (or if I even will) but I am glad to let it join the family…

There were only two shops in Utah that had these and both were about an hour away, but I took the chance and headed to “The Kings English Bookshop” In Salt Lake hoping I wouldn’t be too late.

My daughter and I got there and they were on the front counter - they only had 6 boxes total but we were each able to snag one :)

Beautiful one to add to my collection!