I'm still learning Japanese but I want to start writing anyway, I got a normal
notebook with horizontal lines but I would like to write vertically so I just
rotated it, my question is with this setup, which side of the notebook should
I start writing from?
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handwriting
Writing vertically in horizontally lined notebook
top to bottom, right to left - so write in columns starting on the right
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The vertical writing style based from traditional Japanese writing named "縦書き"
(tategaki) or "縦組み" (tategumi). It starts from top-rightmost column, writing
characters vertically in right-to-left column order and ended at bottom-
leftmost column.

Definition from
[Wikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E%E3%81%AE%E8%A1%A8%E8%A8%98%E4%BD%93%E7%B3%BB#.E8.A1.A8.E8.A8.98.E3.81.99.E3.82.8B.E6.96.B9.E5.90.91):

>
> 伝統的には日本語は「縦書き」で書かれた。文書は縦行に分かれ、各縦行は上から下に、縦行の間では右から左に書かれる。ある縦行の最下部まで読み進んだら、次は左隣の縦行の最上部に移動することになる。これは中国の文と同じ順序である。
>
> Traditionally, Japanese is written in a format called _tategaki_ , which is
> inspired by the traditional Chinese system. In this format, the characters
> are written in columns going from top to bottom, with columns ordered from
> right to left. After reaching the bottom of each column, the reader
> continues at the top of the column to the left of the current one.
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[進研ゼミ explains](http://blog.benesse.ne.jp/tutor14/99k1/note/) how Japanese
high school students typically use normal (i.e., having horizontal rules)
notebooks for vertical writing:

[![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/cH6a9.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/cH6a9.png)

(This is a notebook for 古文, or classical Japanese classes)

So you can just rotate your normal notebook 90 degrees _clockwise_. With this
orientation, the page order remains unchanged, and the front page of a
notebook will be the same. The first line comes at the right.

Elementary school children usually use a dedicated notebook for vertical
writing. They are bound the same way normal Japanese novels are bound. ジャポニカ
is a famous notebook brand for elementary school children, and if you look at
their website carefully, you can see [a different side of a notebook is bound
depending on the subject](http://www.showa-note.co.jp/japonica/first_grader/).

In case you're totally new to vertical writing, you can easily find resources
for that, including
[this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_and_vertical_writing_in_East_Asian_scripts).
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