NABC Store Manager's Diary — October 24, 2026 (Sat)

Today we had two events: one at 1:00 PM and another at 7:00 PM. The 1:00 event was the second Reading Otaku Talk with Henri Ohara and Ruko. Since it started relatively early, I arrived after 11:00 to set up the second-floor venue, but to my surprise a participant was already here. They bought Henri Ohara's and Ruko's zines, and even my zine. They said they learned about the event via social media from Hamamatsu. I'm grateful. The two did a reading-talk where they introduced books and zines they’d recently enjoyed, and talked about reading goods they use — for example, sticky page labels. I was surprised to hear from attendees that many of them put sticky notes in books while reading: rereading books, copying out lines they liked — there are many ways to enjoy a physical book. Ohara is someone who rereads the same book many times, while Ruko reads a lot — about 40 books a month — so she rarely rereads. Ruko buys only around five books a month; the other roughly 35 she borrows from libraries, and if new releases are hard to borrow she reads them at book cafés. She said she’s read almost everything at her local library, so she’s registered at nearby city libraries as well to borrow more. The evening event started at 7:00 PM: a reading group hosted by mystery novelist Kenji Kuroda. The book of the theme was Keigo Higashino's Shiratori to Koumori (The Swan and the Bat). Kuroda mentioned that when he was young he used to hang out with Keigo Higashino, and that episode is written about in Higashino's essay collection. Because The Swan and the Bat was recently adapted into a film, some participants had also seen the movie and we discussed differences between the book and the film. Between and during the two events I was manning the first-floor register. A young man came in and bought a tanka collection; when I spoke to him he said he writes tanka and that someone at a tanka gathering had recommended our shop, so he came in. I hope he’ll join our tanka gatherings too. Around 3:00 PM a party of eight from the Nagoya Gengyūkai came by — they were using Cafe River — apparently they had been handing out informational tissues near Nagoya Station on October 22 for International Stuttering Awareness Day, and after finishing they came by for tea. It was great to see them again this year; they remembered us from last year. They gave us many of the leftover tissues they had distributed, so I put them in front of the register. In the late afternoon a young woman came in to say hello. She had a free paper she produces in the second-floor free-paper corner, and that led to her being invited to today's event “Hen'ai Yoriai” held at Nishiki 2-chome 7-ban — she had come from Tokyo for it. While talking we discovered we had a mutual acquaintance and the conversation about work really took off. Her free paper is called Geinin Shinbun (Comedian Newspaper). It's published once a year and has been running for more than ten years. She had once made a zine compiling back issues and said she had one or two copies left, so I decided to stock them. I'm looking forward to receiving them. Just before closing, right when the 7:00 reading group was starting, two young women came in. I thought they might be looking for a café, so it was unusual that they came to a bookstore. They were traveling from Tokyo — childhood classmates since kindergarten — and had been touring Mie Prefecture by car; they had returned to a hotel near Nagoya Station and stopped by because they saw a bookstore. They bought a tanka collection. They said they’ll go to Higashiyama Zoo tomorrow. I told them there is a long-established bookstore nearby called ON READING; I hope they go. After they left I locked the door to go upstairs to prepare the second floor, but they returned and when I asked why they said, “We want to eat tebasaki (chicken wings); could you tell us a place?” So I recommended Furaibo nearby. I mentioned how to eat them, too — I wonder if they tried them.