A humble hello! ☆ Reintroducing Ray's Journal & Jazz
He remembered he has a substack 🥲 Reintroducing myself, my journal journey, & journaling for 2026 ecosystem
It’s been a while
How are you?
Hopefully this isn’t a sudden surprise if you happen to get an alert (haven’t posted in a bit!) and you’re wondering who this is this. My name is Ray and I started Journal and Jazz Substack early last year as a digital garden for my journaling process. This is where I post my journal spreads and document the journal journey with benchmark posts such as one month of journal, 2 months, etc. Rest assured, I never stopped journaling! In fact, very proud to say that I’ve completed a year of journaling.
Though proud of my goal, I’m starting this new goal utilizing this platform better. Because it’s been so long, I thought I’d reintroduce myself as if we are meeting for the first time.
My name is Ray, I live in Las Vegas, and welcome to my journal space. To paint a visual of myself although I most likely will post a photo above, I wear funny round glasses and scuffed yet loved brown loafers. I start my mornings with a cup of hot green tea and I put on my rosy red cheeks before heading out. I have a quaint vintage sweater collection and a love for antiques and old movies.
I have never been the best at words, both with writing and speaking. I’m awfully shy and my writing may look like a grammar nightmare, though I am getting better at it! I have been reading more books and articles as of lately to further improve my skills. I keep a mini notebook in my travelers journal where I jot down words I’d like to learn the definition of while reading. Joining a book club last year has also helped tremendously with my speaking skills by describing and retelling. Hence, I communicate best visually through creative expression and journaling. Some of my 2025 journal spreads:
My earliest memories of journaling and creating art was childhood. In Kindergarten, I remember not liking the way I was writing the letter ‘(ɑ)’ so I taught myself to write my (ɑ)’s with a serif (a) because I thought it looked better. Then in 1st grade, our class was making animal masks in art. I didn’t like the books provided for inspiration so I created my own (mythical) animal mask from my imagination and loved every of the creation. My electives in high school usually have to do with art because I enjoyed the subject, even joining the art club after school. I was also the kid that carried a sketchbook in my backpack and doodled between class periods. I wasn’t the best student academically, especially in math and science, yet I loved expressing myself every chance I could get in school.
In college, I took a class learning about contemporary art which made influenced my the passion I have for journaling. The works of Robert Rauschenberg and Jerome Robbins’ accordion diaries inspires how I view and create journal spreads. I admire art that is both personal and uses mixed media.
My first journal that I consistently kept up with was a spiral lined notebook used for a class. In that class, we had 30 minutes to write whatever the topic of as provided. Looking back, it probably wasn’t written well but I filled those pages front and back. I also added sketched little doodles (really wasn’t suppose to) and used different color ink for each journal day. You know one of those fat pens that had many different ink colors? Anyways, I cherish that journal so much because it’s my only physical memory of high school. Till this day I still have it!
Now, I won’t force you to watch this long video but if curious about my journey with journaling, I have a 11 minute video of my presentation from my first journal workshop back in 2024! A bit hard to watch for me since I was so painfully shy.
Fast forward to present day, I’m still journaling! Of course, my journaling style went through an evolution, which is beautiful because each of my journals are reflective to my age. The journal I do now is centered towards junk journaling however, I have an ecosystem for 2026 that organizes my thoughts and creative outlets.
2026 Ecosystem
Now I do have multiple journals, but for this post I will be focusing on four.
The two planners I am using daily is my Hobonichi Weeks Planner (Left) and my Letts of London 2026 Diary (Right).
Last year, I used a Hobonichi Cousin and expressed my frustrations with the size. I found that planner to be too big and stopped using it mid-year. Swapping that size out for the weeks this 2026, I have nothing but great things to say. I love this planner so much for it’s portability and size. I’ve learned with my journal style, I much prefer to travel light and I have no complaints with the weeks size. I remember being at the dentist and easily whipping my planner out to schedule. Compared to my cousin planner of 2025 that felt like a brick taking it out of my bag.
Not only that but I have been using my Hobonichi planner as a junk journal as well by adding in the collage of the week.
As for my Letts of London, I use this planner as a work/detailed life planner. Nothing too much to share there other than I love it’s classic and simple design.
Junk Journal
My junk journal. This is a pocket-sized leather tri-fold journal sleeve from Mira Kirumi that currently holds two journals inside. The cover is decorated with Edgar Degas inspired ballerina charms (A MET keychain that I turned into journal charms), A soda fountain charm from a gachapon, and a Ichigo Daifuku charm from Portland. The pen I use is the Kaweco Student Pen in Jazz.
The inside holds two instant photos from my trip to Boston in December of 2025.
(Pictures of oysters and an art piece I really liked behind)
The mini journal is from Rollbahn and that is my common place for every quick thought. Inside are notes, journal/video ideas, book notes, words I want to learn, etc.
My junk journal of choice is usually a Muji Passport notebook (They discontinued those...Muji why??!) but i’ve been enjoying Field Notes! This is Field Notes retro line.
The inside of my junk journal. I admire the “lived in” look where my spreads look a bit chaotic yet eclectic. Though not much has changed with my journaling style compared to 2025, I am being more intentional about colors and mixed media. I learned that my favorite spreads of last year are those that play around with one to two colors throughout a spread. Here I am using a mix of red and continuously adding onto it. I’ll add in a photo of one of my favorites from 2025:
And lastly, one that is the newest addition: My travel journal with friends
There is a journal trend, specifically on tiktok, where a journal is passed around among a group of friends. Each person would contribute by writing a prompt, checking-in, etc. My dearest friend Alma started one with our group of friends and I am so excited to begin. I am using a Hobonichi journal I found at Barnes and Noble, though I may have to swap it for another one due to its thin paper. I am so excited to begin this!
I believe that is it with my journal ecosystem. Regarding Journal & Jazz Substack. I do like the saying that goes, “Make it now and refine it later” or something like that. I figured that this post would be the start and soon I’ll discover the best tone for this substack, although i’ve been liking the idea of treating this like a mixure of a digital journal and a blog! If you read this far, thank you so much! I am not the best at writing, but it means a lot that you are willing to stick this long reading.
Now, I am not the best at ending really long posts so I usually end it with a song that I have been liking. Towards the end of last year continuing to now, I’ve been listening to Yuta Orisaka more. I love the mixture of classic Japanese folk, jazz, and pop in his album Heisei.
This is one from his latest album that is jazzy that I like:
Also, this song from Public Library Commute:
absolutely adored!
i love this 💘