I first encountered Nakabayashi’s Logical Prime notebooks at Nota Bene in Montreal, where I decided to buy some sizes that I don’t typically use just because they seemed nice and I wanted to review them (see here). I didn’t realize Logical Prime made any notebooks in my favorite size, but I later stumbled across an interesting one on Amazon, and was very excited!

If I remember correctly, I found this Logical Prime Grid notebook because I was looking for the Stalogy “A6 Slim” size notebooks, and these popped up among the results. While Stalogy’s A6 Slim measures about 3.5 x 6″, the Logical Prime A6 Slim is 3.5 x 5.5″ so it was perfect for me!

This Logical Prime notebook actually reminds me most of the Zequenz notebooks I reviewed many years ago. It’s got the rounded spine and glued binding that allows the same 360 degree opening.

The notebook is nicely packaged– like a few other Japanese notebooks I’ve seen, it comes in a clear plastic slipcover that protects the exterior and keeps the branding materials attached while also allowing you to open the notebook and test its binding and see the paper. The slipcover is very very thin plastic, not much heavier than shrinkwrap, so I don’t think it would last too long with regular use, but it might be worth a try as longer-term protection, or could be saved to use from time to time if you sometimes carry a notebook in messy conditions.

The soft cover is a faux leather textured material, with grey endpapers inside. Aside from the front cover, there is no branding inside except for a small area on the inside back cover.

The notebook does truly open flat, except when you’re at the very beginning and end, where there is extra glue to hold everything together. When you force it open all the way, it does leave a bend in the cover, and the notebook will stay slightly open– but when it’s lying flat on a desk, it still closes completely rather than springing open.

I love how the grid lines appear on the page edges– so precise!

The paper is a very small 2.5mm grid, similar to the Kleid notebook I reviewed. Aesthetically, it’s pleasing, and easy on the eyes, even though the paper is a brighter white than Moleskine’s creamy ivory paper. But depending on your natural writing style/size, the grid may or may not be ideal. I find it a little too small– my handwriting is naturally quite small, but even when I am printing very neatly, I find it too cramped to use every line, and awkward to use every other line– I’m not sure why it’s awkward, as I use a 5mm grid in a squared Moleskine all the time. But if I’m writing more quickly and not worrying about staying in the lines too much, the grid is faint enough not to be distracting. And it’s fun for doodling. I think I could get used to this paper if I was using it on a regular basis.

Most importantly, it is smooth and really feels great with a fine point gel ink pen. The paper weight is not specified, but show-through is about average. Most of my fountain pens worked very well with this paper, but the first one I tried, a Pilot Custom Heritage 912 with an FA nib, was kind of a mess! That pen does write very wetly, so I guess that explains why it bled and feathered so much. But oddly, it didn’t bleed or feather when I actually gave the nib a little pressure to flex it and get line variation. On the whole I would say this paper is fountain pen friendly, but there may be some exceptions. It’s interesting that they say “Paper Material is made in Japan and production in Vietnam.” The page count isn’t shown on the notebook itself, but the Amazon listing says it’s 120 sheets, or 240 pages.

I bought the Logical Prime Grid notebook several months ago and the dark green color I picked no longer seems to be available. But Amazon has several other cute colors. Their listing is from Amazon Japan and the price includes free shipping. The $22-ish price I’m seeing at this writing is more than I’d really want to pay on a regular basis, but it’s also not an unusual level for a good quality Japanese notebook these days. The Stalogy Editors Series 365 Days A6 Slim notebook is $25 on JetPens, but that’s 368 pages. A similarly sized Zequenz notebook is about $21 on Amazon. As I wrote about a couple of years ago, notebook prices just aren’t what they used to be, and tariffs (and wars) have since made it worse! A pocket size Moleskine sketchbook or watercolor notebook is now $25 on Moleskine’s website and even the pocket size classic hardcover and softcover with the regular paper are $22 and $21 respectively (though they go for much less on Amazon). I’m glad I stocked up when the quality was better! (I still can’t believe I got some for 50 cents…)

But aside from my anachronistic notions about pricing, I really do like this notebook. I kind of wish they had just left the cover blank rather than printing the brand info and the big word “Grid” on it. But that’s a minor quibble. The paper is a pleasure to write on, and the shape feels great in the hand. I’ve been thinking about using a softcover notebook again once in a while, and may decide to give this Logical Prime Grid notebook a whirl!