I am a Traveler, and I have too many hobbies.

I am a Traveler, and I have too many hobbies.

I backpack in the mountains. I've traveled by bike from Tokyo to Kyoto. I read 150 books last year. I take poloroid photos. I play video games on two different consoles. I participate in weekly tabletop roleplaying games. I write novels. I sing karaoke. I compose music. I draw pictures. I play the ukulele and the piano. I do fantasy worldbuilding. I sketchnote. I drink black coffee. I enjoy pipe tobacco and incense. I often create by candlelight. I am a jack of all trades, master of none.

Because I have so many hobbies, I tend to stay in my neighborhood and travel less extensively in the real world, but the worlds that I do travel to, either in books or games or those of my own making, are just as important to me.

And all of these hobbies go in a cycle. I am immersed in a hobby until I get sick of it, and then I move onto the next thing until enough time has passed that I want to return to that hobby.

At first, I placed all of my hobby notes in a cloud-based note app so I could return to the point I left off (especially for long video games). But I developed a bad habit. I would copy information from websites into the app and tell myself I would "read it later," only to forget about it. After two years, I ended up with 3,700 notes, and some were too long to be useful. It became difficult to find the important notes I wanted--even if I separated them by category, each category could have 300 or more notes that I would have to wade through or hope that the search function could pinpoint.

I wanted my notes to be more meaningful. I wanted to go back to the basics and write notes down myself in a way that I could remember them. I tried hard-bound notebooks, but they were expensive, and I filled the pages too quickly. I could have used cheap school notebooks, but I wanted something durable that I could take everywhere with me and felt somewhat personal. Also, I became accustomed to smooth, higher-quality paper.

In America, sketchnoting, bulleting and visual note-taking were becoming a popular alternative to digital repositories. Visual note-taking was used during Tedx Talks and by internet celebrities and it was a technique I wanted to try for my hobbies and goal-setting. I started watching videos showing the notebooks that people were using in their daily lives for traditional writing, sketchnoting and organization. Many people in the videos were using a "MTN" or "a Midori," meaning the Traveler's Notebook. Each one had inserts that were completely different, decorated in each person's own style. Some decorated their notebooks with bright pink floral stickers, some had their favorite quotes in elegant penmanship, and others kept theirs minimalistic. After seeing all of these beautiful customized notebooks, I knew this was exactly what I was looking for.

I live and work in Tokyo so I am fortunate enough to be able to visit the Traveler's Factory store in Meguro. I remember buying my first camel-colored regular-sized notebook with a hot coffee. Both smelled so good. But that notebook soon left my hands--when I went to America for the holidays, my sister admired the color, so I gave it to her as a gift for nursing school. I ended up buying a dark brown passport-size as soon as I returned to Narita Airport, which is lighter and can easily fit into a purse or a small canvas tote. This is the notebook I've used for a year and a half now, and it is part of my everyday carry (EDC).



Unlike the note app, the space is limited, so I must think carefully about what I want to write down. This allows me to focus clearly on my hobby tasks or things I want to remember instead of mindlessly clipping web articles and categorizing them like inventory. It makes my goals more meaningful. Less really is more.

I have a notebook insert for each hobby, dated and numbered with a table of contents that gets filled in as I become engrossed in that hobby. I always use brown ink on cream-colored paper. The brown ink makes my notebook look worn like an actual traveler's journey log, like there's always adventure to be had within the pages. However, cream-colored paper is used only for certain notebook inserts and limited editions, so I must make the trek to Meguro to stock up on these notebooks, five at a time. Even so, I still pay far less money for more pages than I was using for the hard-bound notebooks, and they can be switched out easily whenever I feel like taking up a certain hobby again. I primarily use the half-refills so that I can fit more inserts.





I soon found myself buying stickers, stamps, washi tape and collecting ticket stubs, photos, and colorful cards to decorate my notebook. I would look at websites of how other people had their notebooks set up and try to adapt it to my own style, such as my yearly reading list as a small bookshelf in the notebook where I fill in colors for progress. Not only had the notebook itself become another hobby, it became part of my identity. It became part of my own philosophy for life.



My friends would see me pull out my little leather notebook to use as a character sheet for our tabletop game sessions or jotting down notes at a work meeting with my brass fountain pen. They would inquire about where I got them, so I now exclusively give passport-size Traveler's Notebooks as gifts and souvenirs. It brings me great joy to see them used by my friends and family as they personalize each one with their own sense of style. That's what I love about these notebooks--each one has a character unique to the person who owns it.

One day when I was returning home with insert refills, I noticed a collection of words on the brown shopping bag which evoked what it means to be a Traveler. Some of these words appealed to me, others not so much. But it showed that to be a Traveler is subjective and different concepts resonate for each person.

I cut this list from the paper bag and taped it to my front door so that I see it whenever I leave the house. It reminds me that even if I don't go on vacation to faraway places, I am still an adventurer. I am a Traveler.