MIDORI Ueno Zoo Notebook A5

These A5 notebooks were made for Ueno Zoological Gardens in Tokyo, the park that has kept giant pandas since 1972. MIDORI printed two covers for the series: the zoo's twin giant pandas Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei on the grid version, and a shoebill on the lined version. Both are light, saddle-stitched notebooks that suit a bag pocket or a museum-day notebook.

What you get

• A5 size, H210 x W148 x D7 mm, about 98 g, made in Japan for Ueno Zoo.
• 64 pages, saddle-stitched so the book opens flat and closes without a bulge.
• Two versions: a lined notebook with the shoebill cover, and a 5 mm grid notebook with the giant panda cover.
• Small animal prints on the inside pages, so the theme carries past the cover.

How people use it

The lined version takes handwriting comfortably: notes, a packing list before a trip, or a page of things worth remembering from a day out. The grid version is the one people reach for when a page needs a little structure, from sketching enclosures to laying out a small table. Both are thin enough to carry next to a zoo map and sturdy enough that the cover does not curl in a tote bag.

Good to know

This is a slim 64-page notebook rather than a long-form journal, and the paper is plain writing paper, so heavy ink may show through. The notebooks come from the zoo's own product line, which means they are made in limited quantities and can sell out at the source; we list only what we have in hand. Cover art is printed rather than embroidered.

Explore more

Browse the rest of the MIDORI collection, or look at our other notebooks and paper and the kawaii stationery shelf. The same A5 format appears in the MIDORI color dot notebook, and for something with more pages there is the Yuru Log illustrated notebook.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is the Ueno Zoo series?

A: It is a small run of notebooks MIDORI produced for Ueno Zoological Gardens in Tokyo, printed with animals that live at the park. The series shows up mostly in the zoo shop rather than in general stationery catalogues.

Q: Which pandas are on the cover?

A: The grid version shows Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei, the twin giant pandas born at Ueno Zoo in 2021.

Q: Is one lined and one grid?

A: Yes. The shoebill cover comes on a lined notebook, and the giant panda cover comes on a notebook with 5 mm grid pages.

Q: How many pages does each notebook have?

A: Each notebook has 64 pages, saddle-stitched.

Q: What size is the notebook?

A: It is A5: H210 x W148 x D7 mm, weighing about 98 g.

Q: Will the notebook go out of stock?

A: The series is a zoo-shop product rather than a permanent catalogue item, so restocks are not guaranteed. We list only the copies we actually hold.