NABC Manager's Diary — August 14, 2026 (Fri)

This week my work days and the shop's closed days fell one after another, so I'll only be working at the store today and tomorrow — just two days. Since it's the Obon holiday it feels a little wasteful, but you have to rest when you can. At my age I shouldn't overdo things. What makes me feel it's a shame to take time off is less the lost sales than not being able to talk with customers. At this time of year some people even come from outside Nagoya or from other parts of Aichi Prefecture, so it's disappointing not to be able to meet those visitors. Today two people came in who I had met at the ZINE event “Ima ZINE” held at Wink Aichi this past Tuesday the 11th: one exhibitor I met there, and a ZINE creator who had been exhibiting but whom I hadn't met yet. One is Nando Nezumi, who published a sento (public bath) book titled 『そっと無言で湯につかる』 (Sotto Mugon de Yu ni Tsukaru). I bought five copies. Nando Nezumi has apparently researched Nagoya's chindonya (traditional street advertisement performers), and I'd love to see a ZINE about that too. The other is an artist who makes photo books and diary ZINEs; they didn't have any copies on hand today, so they'll bring them later. After that, a man from a family who had been at the café bought a book, and when I spoke with him he said he'd wanted to visit our shop once. He was delighted and said it's nice to have a bookstore that only sells books about Nagoya. He and his wife apparently go on sento tours and visit sites related to Akira Toriyama. Mr. Muramatsu from Nakamura Library dropped by. He said today is his day off. He asked if I would become a shelf curator for the "Hitohako Library" project that Nakamura Library is working on! The shelf curator doesn't just select books (about ten); it seems a lecture is also included. Sometime in the latter half of this fiscal year I'll likely do a selection and a talk at Nakamura Library. I'll let you know when it's decided. For the selection I'm thinking something like "bookstore + Hon'ya Taisho (Booksellers' Award) + library + ZINE." They'll have to buy my ZINE too.