Hobonichi 5 Year Techo Planner Leather Cover
Do you know what you were doing on this day five years ago? If you keep a Hobonichi 5-Year Techo, then five years from now you will. Each spread lines up the same calendar date across five consecutive years, so every time you write an entry you are reading back what you wrote on that date in previous years.
It is one of the few planners genuinely worth buying a good cover for, because you are going to be carrying the same book for half a decade.
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What the Hobonichi 5-Year Techo Is
The Hobonichi 5-Year Techo is a five-year dated diary printed on Tomoe River paper. It runs on a fixed five-year span, so a 2026 edition covers 2026 through 2030, and it starts in January.
Each spread gives you the left page divided into five dated blocks, one per year, and a grid page on the right for notes. In the A6 you get roughly a few lines per year per day, which is deliberate. The limited space is what makes the book sustainable over five years, because there is no room to feel guilty about a short entry.
Both sizes run to 752 pages and use thread-stitch binding, so the book lies completely flat without being held open. The front of the book has a five-year calendar spread, and the back has reference pages including a year-per-page memo section, gift tracking, addresses and personal notes. Those back pages are printed in Japanese in the Japanese edition.
The paper is the reason fountain pen users buy it. Tomoe River is thin, light and resistant to bleeding for its weight, which is how Hobonichi fits 752 pages into a book an inch thick. Very wet nibs and heavily saturated inks can still show through, and drying times run longer than on ordinary paper, so test your combination on a memo page first.
On the spelling: it is Techo, not Techno. "Techo" is the Japanese word for a pocket notebook or planner. The misspelling is common enough that plenty of people search for it, so if you arrived here typing "5 year techno planner," you are in the right place.
A6 or A5: Which Size Should You Get?
The 5-Year Techo comes in two sizes, and this is the decision most buyers get stuck on.
| A6 5-Year Techo | A5 5-Year Techo | |
|---|---|---|
| Cover size | 113 x 153 mm (about 4.5" x 6") | 156 x 214 mm (about 6.2" x 8.4") |
| Pages | 752 | 752 |
| Thickness | About 25 mm (1") | About 25 mm (1") |
| Writing space per day | A few lines per year | Roughly double |
| Best for | Carrying daily, short entries, habit tracking | Desk use, longer entries, sketching or pasting |
Note that both sizes are the same thickness. The A5 is not a thicker book, it is a wider one, so the extra space goes into the writing area rather than the page count.
Pick A6 if the book is going in a bag every day and you want a one or two sentence entry per day. Pick A5 if it is living on a desk and you want room to actually write, paste in ticket stubs, or add a small sketch. Memory keepers who found the A6 too cramped are the reason the A5 exists.
Which Covers Actually Fit the 5-Year Techo
This is the part that catches people out, so it is worth being blunt about it.
The 5-Year Techo does not fit standard single-year Hobonichi Techo covers. Hobonichi says so themselves on every 5-Year product page. At around 25 mm thick, the book is roughly double the depth of a single-year A6 Original, and a cover cut for the Original simply will not close around it. If you already own a Hobonichi-branded cover for your Original or Cousin, it will not carry this book.
Our A6 leather Hobonichi Techo cover is the one we recommend for the A6 5-Year Techo. Customers have written in specifically to ask which cover fits their 5-Year book, and this is the one we point them to. Because the cover is built around a strap and elastic rather than a fixed slipcase, it accommodates the extra depth rather than fighting it.
Browse the A6 Hobonichi leather covers
If you are working with the A5 5-Year Techo, the extra depth matters more, so it is worth checking fit before ordering. Message us with the size you have and we will tell you which cover in the range suits it.
See the full Hobonichi cover collection
One more thing worth knowing: many people use a clear plastic cover-on-cover over the Hobonichi's own printed cover. If you are putting the book inside a leather cover, you generally do not need both, and the extra layer adds bulk that works against the fit.
The Galen Leather Hobonichi Cover
If you are going to carry the same book for five years, the cover is doing real work. Five winters in a bag, five summers on a desk, five years of being opened and closed every day.
Ours is made from 100% vegetable tanned cow leather, hand stitched with waxed polyamide thread. The planner slides under a strap that holds it securely in place, so it will not work loose in a bag.
Inside you get three main pockets: a larger one that takes a phone, passport or a second slim notebook, and two card holders. There is a pen loop on the inside, which is where it belongs if you want the cover to sit flat. An elastic band wraps around the outside to keep everything closed.
When you open it, the cover lays completely flat. That matters more with this planner than most, because you are writing across a five-year block and you do not want the book fighting you halfway through an entry.
The leather is thick, which is the trade-off worth naming. It is durable and it will resist scratches and scuffs for years, and it also means the cover has some bulk to it. If you load every pocket at once, expect it to sit fuller than the photos. Several customers have told us this, and it is fair.
Vegetable tanned leather also changes over the five years you use it. It darkens, softens and takes on a patina from being handled. By the time you finish the planner, the cover will look nothing like it did on day one, which suits a book whose whole purpose is recording the passage of time.
You can purchase a Hobonichi 5 years planner cover here.
Ways to Use a 5-Year Techo
The short daily space is a feature, not a limitation. Approaches that hold up over five years:
- One sentence a day. The most common approach and the most sustainable. Whatever was most notable, in a single line.
- A fixed format. Weather, one thing that happened, one thing you felt. Same three items every day. Comparing five years of the same three prompts on one page is where this planner earns its keep.
- Habit or health tracking. Sleep, exercise, mood, symptoms. Five years of the same date side by side makes seasonal patterns visible in a way a single-year planner never can.
- A record of the people around you. Who you saw, who called, what your children said. Parents tend to use it this way and it is the version people find hardest to put down.
- Work or business notes. What shipped, what closed, what broke. Useful for anyone whose year has a repeating shape.
- Reading and watching log. One title per day or per finished book, with the grid page for thoughts.
The grid page opposite each daily block is where the flexibility lives. Some people leave it blank for the whole five years and use it later. Others fill it with monthly summaries, sketches or pasted-in ephemera.
A practical note: the first year is the hardest. There is nothing to read back yet, so it feels like an ordinary diary. Year two is when the book becomes compelling, because every entry you write comes with a reminder of where you were a year earlier.
Hobonichi 5-Year Techo Cover Questions
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No. Hobonichi states directly that the 5-Year Techo has its own specially designed covers and is not compatible with standard single-year Techo covers. At around 25 mm thick, the book is roughly twice the depth of an A6 Original, so a cover cut for the Original will not close around it.
Our A6 leather Hobonichi cover is the one we recommend for the A6 5-Year Techo, and it is what we point customers to when they write in asking. If you have the A5 version, message us before ordering and we will confirm the right cover for it.
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It comes in two sizes. The A6 measures 113 x 153 mm, roughly 4.5 by 6 inches. The A5 measures 156 x 214 mm, roughly 6.2 by 8.4 inches.
Both run to 752 pages and both are around 25 mm thick, so the A5 is wider rather than fatter. The additional size goes into writing space per day, not into extra pages.
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In the A6, roughly a few lines per year, per day. Five years share one page, so each year gets a compact block of grid.
The A5 gives you roughly double that. If you want to write a proper paragraph each day rather than a sentence, go A5. If you want a one-line record you will realistically keep up for five years, A6 is the better choice and the constraint works in your favor.
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Yes. It uses Tomoe River paper, which is the reason so many fountain pen users choose Hobonichi in the first place. It is unusually thin and light while resisting bleed-through far better than its weight suggests, which is how 752 pages fit into a one-inch book.
Two caveats. Very wet nibs and heavily saturated or shimmer inks can still show through, and ink takes noticeably longer to dry on Tomoe River than on regular paper. Test your pen and ink on one of the memo pages at the back before committing to the dated pages, and consider a finer nib if you are writing in the A6 blocks.
3 Responses
Renee
I’d be interested in buying one of your covers for the Hobonichi 5-year, too.
Tiffany
I currently use a planner that’s only good for a year and isn’t protected by a gorgeous leather case. If I won the Galen Leather giveaway, I’d very likely opt for a Hobonichi Planner.
Martin
Is this still available? I click on the link and can’t find it.
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