It’s really quite dangerous for me to shop for pen refills at Jet Pens– I think I’ll be disciplined and just get what I need, but then I can never seem to resist throwing in a notebook…

…such as this little cutie made by Papier Platz.

Though the name sounds French or German, this is made in Japan by a small company that “collaborates with artists and illustrators to produce charming washi tapes and stickers.” This notebook is a collaboration with the Japanese artist Eric Small Things aka Erico Matsubara.

The Papier Platz notebook is smaller than my usual go-to size, measuring 5-1/8′ x 3-3/8″ x 5/16″ thick. This makes it very pocketable. The outside is a removable plastic cover with clear pockets inside to hold the covers of the page block. There is no branding anywhere except on the back cover.

The page block inside is very basic on its own– it’s not meant to be used without a cover but it’s really nicely made with nice grey cardboard end sheets, so it actually looks quite presentable!

Inside, there are pale grey endsheets, and a ribbon marker in a beautiful shade of blue. It doesn’t look as nice in these photos, but I love this blue ribbon so much I want to buy a big spool of it and change out all the ribbon markers on my other notebooks now!

The construction of the Papier Platz notebook is very refined– I love when there are a larger number of signatures with fewer pages, as you see here– it always seems to make the spine more flexible and the notebook opens more flat.

The paper has a 4mm grid made of dotted lines. No paper weight is specified. It’s super smooth and silky, so it feels great with any pen or pencil. But it’s very thin, so a couple of my wettest pens bled through a bit, and show-through was a little worse than average. The Jet Pens listing calls this fountain pen friendly, and I would agree, as the inks look very vibrant and there’s no feathering, but you’d want to avoid the wettest nibs and anything where you’re applying a little pressure to flex a nib.

Jet Pens also has this in a few other colors/designs. Their price is $10.25, which seems a wee bit high given that the sticker on the packaging says the price in Japan is 990 yen, which is about $6.83 right now. But given tariffs and other costs of importation, this may be a normal level of markup these days.

This is a simple but charming notebook–I love the precise craftsmanship and high quality and cute design touches. If you want a small, stylish and fountain pen friendly memo book or pocket journal, I think the Papier Platz notebook is a great choice.

I purchased this notebook with my own funds and have not been compensated for this post.