NABC Store Manager's Diary — Thursday, September 10, 2026

Since the heavy rain the day before yesterday, Nagoya's weather has been unsettled and I feel like we haven't seen the sun for a while. It rained again this afternoon. It wasn't very heavy, which was a relief, but I heard the shinkansen and other trains were delayed. Despite the weather, quite a few customers came by and I had many conversations. Picture-book author Yukako Minami, a big fan of Noran Nijino, stopped by the shop while she was in the Meieki (Nagoya Station) area on other business. She even brought me a souvenir! She shared some Nontan gachapon toys that she loves. The shop was quiet, so we went to Kissa River and had a long, leisurely chat. Most of our conversation was about Noran Nijino's work. Since she liked Noran so much, I asked if she would join a reading group. I'll let you know once we set a date. By the time I had written this it was closing time. I'll continue later. In the evening, Chikura, a member of Zindies, came by. He stopped in on his way back from Kyoto. He reported that when he presented Zindies at the recent Code4lib, people from libraries didn't seem very interested in zines — only the tech crowd might have been. I encouraged him to try exhibiting at a general fair. While I was talking with Chikura, two young men came in one after the other. One of them was very interested in zines about yūkaku (the old licensed pleasure quarters) and said, "I don't really have any particular interests right now, but yūkaku sounds interesting, so I might look into it." He didn't seem to know much about what yūkaku were, so I'd be happy if he looked them up. The other young man was on his way from Hamamatsu to visit his older brother in Hiroshima and stopped by while waiting for a highway bus. He seemed to like bookstores and often goes to Yajimaya at Meiwan. It was unusual and fun to talk with a book-loving young man.