Several times a year, a group of Hobonichi Techo fans meet up in Metro Manila, Philippines. This Hobonichi Meet Up crew consists of people who first met on social media, and it numbers over a thousand members! We wondered what the meet ups were like, so a few members of our techo team 
went to go check it out. This is our report of the event, complete with video footage.
Vol.1
The Philippines is roughly four-and-a-half hours from Tokyo by plane. The national language is Filipino, and the weather in this island nation is warm year-round. Many people here have imported the Hobonichi Techo from Japan, and some have even taken the next step, connecting with others over social media to establish several independent meet up events every year.
We wondered what everyone was like in this Philippine group. With our hearts pounding, we headed to the Meet Up venue, an upscale shopping mall called SM Aura.
The mall was enormous, and absolutely beautiful!
Waiting for us were the event organizers, Michelle and Helen. You may remember Michelle from the fan-run Traveling Hobonichi event we introduced on our website last year.
Michelle (left) and Helen (right) guided us to SM Aura.
SM Aura must have a very strong air conditioner. It was nice and cool inside, and the floors sparkled!
Hey, there’s a Uniqlo!
Some of the major bookstores we checked out also sold stationery.
Before the Meet Up started, we had a bite to eat at a fast food restaurant inside the mall.
- Thank you so much for inviting us to the event today! What kinds of people come to these events? And how many do you expect to see today?
- We’re all members of the Facebook group Hobonichi Users PH. Our first meet up in Manila was August 2015, and there were four people! But now the group has 876 members [*has since reached 1059 in August 2017] and there will be 61 people coming today. Everyone’s very excited to meet the techo team from Japan.
- Wow, 876 people! What’s the range of ages and occupations?
- It’s nearly all women in their 20’s to 50’s, but there’s a wide range of professions — we’ve got lawyers, doctors, artists, pharmacists, architects, office workers, students, homemakers, you name it. And we all share a common love of stationery!
- It must be hard to find a venue for 61 people.
- The mall always lets us use a corner of the food court. It’s spacious, and there’s plenty to eat if anyone gets hungry. Actually, the food court manager is also a fan of the Hobonichi Techo, so they let us use the space for free. (laughs)
- Wow, that’s so wonderful! How long do the meet ups last?
- From 2 to 5 PM on weekends. But some people come in the morning and don’t leave until the mall closes at 10 PM. (laughs)
- That’s a long day! (laughs)
- What do you do to organize the events?
- We have a monthly online meeting on Facebook Messenger where we decide the theme for the next meet up and discuss ways to get people involved.
- We’re staying in a district called Bonifacio Global City — we heard it was one of the safest places in Manila, with great public transportation. When we got there we discovered there were also lots of cute stationery shops and cafés.
- Yes, it’s a safe place where everyone’s comfortable meeting up, so we hold our meet ups here every month. People are also free to shop before or after the event, since there are so many stationery and art shops in the area.
- Do people come from far away to attend the meet ups?
- Yes, our furthest participant is from up in the mountains, and it takes her three or four hours to get here by bus.
- Whoa!
- Oh, it’s almost time to begin. Let’s head over to the food court!
There were many tables in the food court, so participants settled down into smaller groups.
Some groups traded washi tape. (They measured out 30 cm pieces and swapped those!)
Some people traded ink for fountain pens. (Fountain pens looked to be quite popular among the group.)
There wasn’t any single guide or itinerary for the event. It was more like a group of enthusiasts who gathered in one place to share tips about the Hobonichi Techo and the tools and utensils they use.
Two hours passed in the blink of an eye as everyone showed us their techos. The event wrapped up with a lottery drawing, a special event they hold at the end of meet ups to see who wins the pile of items the members brought in to donate. Some of the products, including some fountain pens from local online sellers, were pretty high-end!
For the climax of the event, everyone stacked up their Hobonichi Techo in a single pile. It made for a very unusual sight. Everyone gathered in front of the stack of 60-plus techos for a group photo — a tradition of these events.
The techos were stacked by book size: Original, Cousin, and then Weeks.
Wow, it can go even higher!
Amazing! It’s a great tower of Hobonichi Techos!
Everyone took a group photo at the end.
They were all so excited that we had come all the way from Japan that, after the event had ended, we spent time just writing in each other’s Hobonichi Techos.
MOVIE
(Next up is a collection of sample pages from the members’ Hobonichi Techos!)