Slippery Smooth: Kokuyo Perpanep Tsuru Tsuru
The Kokuyo Perpanep line is really interesting. As I mentioned in my #21 Pen Questions post, I really like Kokuyo Business Paper (the one that you can buy in a looseleaf ream). Kokuyo paper in general is fountain pen friendly and cheap. Even the Kokuyo Campus Notebooks work with most fountain pens/inks and are really inexpensive. About a year or two ago, Kokuyo unveiled the Perpanep line (a mashup of the words Pen and Paper). What makes this line really interesting to me is that it offered three different paper types (zara zara, sara sara, and tsuru tsuru) with three different rulings (dot grid, grid, and lined). The original versions were gray card stock covers with a cheese-cloth lay flat binding. Recently, they have also been released as hardbound A5 journals.
I bought one of each from Wet Paint in St. Paul, MN to try out, since I’m a huge paper nerd. I’ve been scribbling on them ever since. I was trying to decide which one was my favorite, and I will say that it varies, but if we go by sheer amount of use… I have almost run out of the Tsuru Tsuru notebook. Tsuru Tsuru is the smoothest of the three papers. Tsuru tsuru is a mimetic word in Japanese that means the feeling of slippery or smooth. And it really is a good way to describe this paper.
To tell the notebooks apart, Kokuyo has a little key - tsuru tsuru is the flat line, sara sara with the wave, and zara zara (the most textured) with the zigzag.
When I first tried it out I thought that it was too smooth, my pen was running away with me. I was a solid sara sara fan… until I used it some more. What’s interesting with the paper being so glassy is that you can really feel the feedback in your nibs, especially italic style grinds. That smoothness lets words flow onto the page when I’m writing fast with my italic style grinds (my favorites).
One of my favorite features of this paper is how it shows off shading and sheen. While all three of the Perpanep papers handle ink well (no ghosting or bleedthrough), the tsuru tsuru shows off sheen and shading the best of the three (sara sara comes in second, zara zara comes in third). It’s probably an effect of tsuru tsuru being a coated paper. It also handles ink swatches like a champ.
Ferris Wheel Press Poison Envy, a sheen and shimmer ink, on tsuru tsuru paper.
Another feature that I really enjoy about this paper is how subtle the grid lines are (and the lines on the lined versions). They are there to guide, but disappear in the face of the ink once it’s on the page. Ink and ruling is not in competition here.
One more feature beyond the paper is the fact that it is very easy to tear pages out of these notebooks. Now this won’t matter to most people, but as someone who likes to make A6 inserts out of my various papers for my TN? An important feature as well.
Have you tried the tsuru tsuru notebook? If not, I recommend checking the Perpanep line out!
While I originally just took the notebooks to the Chicago Pen Show 2023 to let others try them out if interested, the tsuru tsuru was my go to for trying other people’s pens on.
Currently Inked
Had to use a dramatic light source to capture all of the shimmer that was happening this week.
Kaweco Smoky Grey - Kaweco Sport Macchiatto 1.5 - this ink was coming out drier than I would like this week, so I added a little bit of white lightning and now it flows like a champ!
Ferris Wheel Press Adventurine - Kaweco liliput copper 14K B - gray with copper shimmer still going strong!
Colorverse Office Blue with Wearingeul Mind Control - Kaweco liliput fireblue 14K M “journaller” - Ran out of my fill with gold shimmer, so now I added some purple shimmer to a new fill! Mind Control is a shimmer that I’m still trying to get used to - it’s really subtle in most ink mixes.
Ferris Wheel Press Poison Envy (affiliate link)- Kaweco Art Sport Tiger’s Eye 14K BB “journaller” - this ink is epic in this wide nib, all the green/gold sheen and blue shimmer! This is from Ferris Wheel Press’s most recent launch.
Colorverse Milky Lavender - Esterbrook JR Paradise Purple B - Still rocking this color, seriously one of my favorite purples.