Itoya Oasis Notebooks. Just the plain ones. Absolutely the best. They have their own Japanese style dot ruled paper which lets you use them flexibly. As for pens I use Ohto multipens, but I just like the gravity mechanism. They’re a lot of fun.

for me, it has to be a leuchtturm1917 notebook and a fountain pen (lamy safari, pilot metro/kakuno, doesn't really matter) but that's because i am autistic as shit and a pseudointellectual

Midori for notebooks and paper. Not sure for pens, never really used them (consequences of being east asian). Mechanical pencils though, Pentel's Graph 1000 or Graphgear. I prefer Graph 1000. Rotring 600 is nice, until you drop it once and the sheer weight of it misaligns your tip forever.

I've honestly had great results from the Oxford spiral bound single subject notebooks. I write in them with a Pilot Kakuno Fine nib (which would be comparable to Extra Fine from a non-Japanese brand like Lamy) using Waterman blue ink, and while there is show through, there isn't any bleed. They're cheap and hold up well, I don't need to worry about wasting paper, and the metal spiral binding doesn't get in the way. I'm considering trying some legal pads out next, and if I have any luck with those I'll let you know. My preferences for notebooks is that there isn't something blocking my hand (like a large spiral) or something I have to pin down with my free hand (like the other page in a staple bound notebook), so that's why I prefer a low profile spiral binding. My favorite pens are, like I said, the Pilot Kakuno with a size Fine nib and blue ink, along with the Bic Crystal Xtra Smooth in blue. I've tried other pens, the Pilot G2 in size 0.5 with a color you like (I always go for blue or purple) is a good one as well, but I always fall back on the Pilot Kakuno and the Bic Crystal. The Pentel P205 is a good option if you're looking for a good mechanical pencil. Also, caveat: I prefer my writing implements to be extremely light since I spend long periods of time writing, so all the pens I mentioned are chosen by me because they are lighter than more expensive pens.

@cook I love LT sketchbooks, but I found their classic journal paper to be too smooth for my taste. Not a dealbreaker but I think for now I’m going to try two different softcovers in the $10-$15 range (both made in Japan) that Wirecutter swears are amazing and see what sticks

as much as Jeff is destroying the world, the amazon notebooks are half the price as a moleskin and nearly as good

Leuchtturm1917 notebooks are very expensive but insanely high quality.

The only mass market, non-specialty pen you need is the Pilot G2.