NABC Manager's Diary — August 21, 2026 (Fri)

It's still hot even after Obon. Today was a busy day with more customers than usual. Kotomi-san, who writes tanka, stopped by. We chatted over tea about things like the Tokai Tanka anthology. Kotomi said she wants to make a new collection (a ZINE) and we discussed things like the size. She's someone who composes tanka every day, so she probably has a large backlog. It's amazing she can write tanka every day. Jizo-san, a member of Zindies, also came in. He said he had dropped by Kusamura Books in Shin-Moriyama. Kusamura is starting a ZINE festival from tomorrow, so their ZINE section seems to be getting even more substantial. I plan to go see it the day after tomorrow. Jizo and I talked about new services for Zindies and about the somewhat near future (mostly Jizo talking). I mentioned the idea of a service to support small-scale ZINE events — for example, helping produce a catalog that summarizes vendors and the ZINEs on offer. Chiharu-san, another tanka poet, also came. I was worried because she seemed to have had a fever, but she looked well, which was a relief. Chiharu is actively composing tanka and often participates in or hosts uta-kai (poetry gatherings). Perhaps because of that, her tanka are very beautiful and feel like they're heading farther and farther afield. A couple (maybe) from Tokyo also visited. They said they'd been here before, exclaimed "Nagoya is interesting!" and bought a lot of books about Nagoya — thank you very much. After that, a young man came in. When I talked with him, he said he's from Kuwana and is studying design, and is also interested in making ZINEs. I told him there's a ZINE event in Kuwana next February and invited him to exhibit. A customer who came in just before closing said they're in Nagoya from Fukuoka on an internship and found our shop while walking, so they came in. We talked about the newly renovated Tenjin.