Last night we had a server trouble. It's not a service that suddenly gets a huge surge of traffic, so I suspected there might be a bug and checked how it was behaving. No matter how many times I accessed it, it was definitely slow. The data hadn't suddenly increased, and I couldn't find the cause anywhere. In the end, the problem was with the service that manages the server, not something we had caused. I posted an update on X asking people to try accessing it around tomorrow in a fairly relaxed tone, but inside I was worried about what would happen if the issue wasn't resolved. There was nothing to do but wait, so I gave up and went to sleep. When I woke up the trouble had been resolved. It seemed to have lasted about an hour. I checked the site and there were no data inconsistencies. I hadn't received any messages from users. Good. I didn't get much development done today because of other tasks, but I was playing with the part of the site that lets you download the diary as a PDF — it's interesting, so I tried extracting just that portion as a separate service from Zindies. Ideas keep coming, and using AI you can build things really quickly. But if we leave users behind it's counterproductive, so I want to proceed carefully. The rain and wind are picking up and letting up intermittently; you can tell a typhoon is approaching. More worrisome is a slightly odd earthquake I felt, but worrying won't help. For now I'll probably spend the weekend relaxing at home.

My shifts are every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 13:00 to 19:00, so today I watched the World Cup match Japan vs Sweden at home in the morning before going out. I returned a book to the library, borrowed a picture book I had reserved, read it inside the library and returned it immediately (since it was raining and taking it home might make it wet), then went to work. The rain kept switching between light and heavy today, which is unfortunate for a street-level bookstore. Kissa River (喫茶リバー) also had few customers. There were no additional deliveries, so I printed this month’s book sales list and checked the inventory on the shelves. For items that have inventory data, there should be stock somewhere, so I searched around. There isn’t an obvious storage place, so some copies were hidden at the back of the shelves. I hid them myself, but that was a long time ago so my memory is fuzzy. Looking at the sales data, I found sales I had missed at the time, and I reconsidered whether to reorder them in bulk. I’d like to reorder everything that sold, but that would lead to excess inventory, so I’m cautious. Our shop set up a returns arrangement with Nippan last year, so in principle we can make returns, but the owner has never returned anything, and we’ve managed without returns so far — probably we won’t return items until we close the shop, I guess? ZINEs are almost all bought out, so inventory is increasing, and I’m a little worried about what to do next. In the evening, regular customer Chiharu came by. Chiharu plans to open a shopless bookstore in the near future, and today she brought a used comic she’d picked up as a gift. It was a manga anthology by Ako Mutsu, whose work I’ve been a fan of since my student days. Thanks! Next time I’m hoping for Yumiko Tabuchi. Chiharu was a baby when I was in university, so our conversations about favorite manga don’t really line up at all. Well, it’s almost closing time. The register was quiet again today, so I ended up buying one of the books I had been holding back.

An event that was scheduled to be held at NAgoya BOOK CENTER on Saturday was canceled due to the typhoon forecast. Come to think of it, I realized we hadn't made it possible to cancel events. We could delete it, which wouldn't be impossible, but if people had signed up I thought we'd need to contact them by email, so I handled that as well. Also, I changed the event listing page so that entries remain faintly visible for a while so people aren't surprised by them suddenly disappearing. The typhoon looks like it'll sweep across Japan over the weekend. I hope there won't be major damage.

This is a tanka gathering for beginners. The host is Chiharu Itō, supported by Satsuki Suzuki. If you would like to participate, please compose one tanka on the theme 'Nagoya' in advance (it's OK whether or not you explicitly include 'Nagoya' in the poem) and email it to [email protected] ⇨ Please send your email to the Ekinishi Small Tanka Gathering (by July 10).

Last night, since a typhoon looked likely to hit Nagoya this weekend, I coordinated with the lecturer via SNS about whether to hold the 'Nakamura Yūkaku' lecture scheduled for Saturday night. It's a very popular lecture with many attendees, so we wanted to go ahead, but with two typhoons (one of them maybe a tropical depression) approaching the Tokai region almost simultaneously, I felt it would be irresponsible to force it, so we decided to cancel. We can send a mass cancellation through the reservation site, but many people might not check it right away, so I sent the cancellation notice this afternoon as soon as possible. By the way, we are planning to hold the lecture again, so please look forward to it. It was raining from the time I came to work today, and there were fewer customers. A woman who had come on a day trip from Tokyo bought 'Bookstore Girl ②'! I thought she might be a bookstore worker, but she didn't seem to be. Still, she was a much-appreciated customer before the typhoon. Please take care on your way home. In the evening, our regular Chiharu stopped by. She said she had read the previous business report and complained, 'You didn't write that I came to the shop.' So today I'll make sure to write it down. Chiharu is going to hold a utakai (poetry gathering) at a bookstore in Motoyama soon. By the way, she will also hold a utakai at our place on July 18, so please join our utakai. For details, see the event page: https://peatix.com/event/4885883 https://zindies.co/events/273?locale=ja Because the register was quiet today, I decided to buy a book I'd been keeping aside for myself for times like this and take it home.

[Special Peer Review Meeting] We have organized a peer-review session for submissions to the literary contest "Kotonoha Nagoya" ✨ Open to residents of the Tokai region 🉑 The Inukai Creative Workshop produced last year's prize winners 🙌 Recommended for people like this: ✅ You feel uncertain or have questions when writing alone ✅ You want to boost your motivation toward the deadline ✅ You want to experience a peer review session ✅ You want to meet fellow creators ✅ You're a first-timer but want to apply! Let's all enjoy the midsummer special peer review session ✨✨ Peer review sessions will be held on August 1 and 15 (two days). Because we value careful revision, it's preferable to attend both days if possible, but one-day participation is also fine. 📩 [email protected] For contest submissions, please check the application guidelines on the official website. Kotonoha Nagoya official site ⬇️ https://kotonoha.nagoya-bungei.com

A well-received literary creative writing class since 2025. While the group critique-style workshop continues, the 1-DAY, 45-minute private lessons that started in May have scheduled dates in July 🙌 We’ve received positive feedback from students who have used the lessons so far 🥰 The location is LBIO, the bookstore in Kita-ku, Nagoya that has been supporting us. Dates are set for July 7 and July 18. ✅ Have you written something but aren’t sure if it’s good? ✅ Prefer a private lesson to a group critique? ✅ Want quick advice in a short time? ✅ Want to use it as motivation to meet a deadline? ✅ Want consultation about contests, zine production, or publishing? These lessons are for you. No restrictions on literary genre 💡 Repeat participants who previously attended the workshop are very welcome 💡 💎 No prior manuscript submission is required, but if your manuscript is 10 pages or more we will need time to pre-read it, so please consult in advance. (Pre-reading is available for an additional fee.) 💎 Private lessons take place during the shared bookstore’s opening hours, so there will be people coming and going. Please understand. 💎 Payment on the day by cash or PayPay. 🖋️ For inquiries and applications, please DM Inukai on Instagram or email [email protected] with your preferred date(s) and the genre of your manuscript.

This literary creative writing workshop, popular since 2025, continues its critique-style classes, and starting in May we began 1‑DAY, 45-minute private lessons. The July dates have been decided 🙌 We've received lovely feedback from students who've used the lessons so far 🥰 The location is the bookstore LBIO in Kita Ward, Nagoya, where we are always grateful for their support. Sessions are scheduled for July 7 and July 18. ✅ I wrote something — is this okay? ✅ I prefer a private lesson rather than the group critique ✅ I want quick advice in a short time ✅ I want to use it as motivation for a deadline ✅ I want consultation about submissions, zine production, or publishing These are the kind of people this is for. Any literary genre is welcome 💡 Repeat participants who previously joined the workshop are also very welcome 💡 💎 You do not need to submit your manuscript in advance, but if your manuscript is more than 10 sheets of genkō yōshi (manuscript paper), we will need time for pre-reading, so please consult in advance. (Pre-reading is available for an additional fee.) 💎 Private lessons take place during the shared bookstore's opening hours, so there will be people coming and going. Please be aware. 💎 Payment by cash or PayPay on the day. 🖋️ For inquiries and applications, please DM Inukai on Instagram or email [email protected] with your preferred date and the genre of your manuscript.

I'm grateful that so many people find it interesting that I can now write a diary. So I took the opportunity to make it possible to generate PDFs today. You can create Japanese and Traditional Chinese in vertical writing, and English and Hangul in horizontal writing. The generated PDFs are in a format that can be submitted to various printing services and include crop marks and such, but since there's no cover, they aren't really complete yet. Sorry. When I look at the PDF formatted in vertical writing, it looks like a proper 'piece' — different from how it appears on the screen — so the vertical-writing effect is surprisingly powerful. (laughs) However, the underlying process is heavy and it inevitably takes some time. I don't think it takes as long as five minutes, but five minutes on the web can feel almost like an eternity. Therefore, I've set it to send an email when creation is finished. I'd like to work a bit harder to make that faster. I'll keep improving it little by little.

Yesterday the USB that stored my PC data died. The data inside still seemed okay, so although it looked like a USB on the outside, it had a microSD card inside — a bizarre construction — so I was saved. I confirmed that last night. I went to ask if it could be salvaged as-is, but I was shouted at. They said, "This is a knockoff, it's already impossible," and insulted me. It was a hassle, so I went to another shop. There was a kind of consultation counter, so I told them the whole story. Can it be salvaged? They said maybe it could, but it would cost ¥6,000 just to produce an estimate, and if they could salvage it, it would be from ¥60,000. So I tried to think of the next proactive option. I explained the situation to a young staff member and asked about stock of HDDs and SSDs. Then I went to another store. It was an OUTLET, but I bought a 2TB HDD for ¥15,000 — the box was only sun-faded. The man who listened to my story was a good guy. I rescheduled today's plans and spent the whole day on data salvage after salvage after salvage. I did get yelled at by a man earlier, but the last older gentleman who served me was the kindest.

An essay collection about the frustrating, unmanageable days of a gay man in his mid-30s. B6 size, 114 pages.

I'm gay. I work at a publishing company. I'm the host of the podcast 'If That's the Kind of Gay, I'd Like to Meet Them Again!'

When I talked to Fujisaka-san about the store diary, she wrote it right away! https://zindies.co/fqpi#diary I also sent notices to creators and shop owners registered on Zindies, so the release work is complete for now. We'll probably post an announcement on Note and similar platforms a little later. Thank you for your continued support. 🙇

Good evening. I'm Fujisaka, the store manager. I'm also a member of the Zindies project team. Thank you all for using Zindies! I started this internet service because I thought it would be great to have a site that shows the ZINEs being created around Japan, the creators making them, the shops that carry them, and the events — all in one place. I don't have the skills to write the program myself, so I asked my friends to build it. It's evolving every day, so please look forward to it. Once again, before I knew it 😁 a “diary” feature appeared, which surprised me! I decided to try writing right away. So today is Tuesday, June 23, 2026. Our store opens at 10:00, but I start work at 13:00. Until I arrive, the owner or staff of Café River on the same floor handle the register. This morning I was told that a manga artist from Tokyo visited. They seem to be researching food from the postwar black-market period and were also looking into the west side of Nagoya Station where our store is located. I was sorry not to meet them, but I'm looking forward to seeing it turned into a work. After I arrived and a while had passed, a woman pulling a suitcase came in. I thought she might be heading to the café (most of our customers, especially women with suitcases, are aiming for Café River), but she said she wanted to see the book section. I took care of her suitcase and talked with her; she lives in Nagasaki, had come back to Nagoya for a visit, and stopped by the bookstore before returning to Kyushu. When I asked, “Do you like bookstores? What kind of books do you read?” she said, “I love books, especially nonfiction and reportage, and I'd like to buy nonfiction about Nagoya to take home,” so I showed her a few. We got excited talking about bookstores — in Nagasaki you think of Metro Shoten and Kōbundō — and of course she bought a lot of books! A very energetic young person who runs a company nearby came in with their secretary. We discussed holding an event this fall using the second-floor gallery. They're the kind of person who thinks on a huge scale, so it's hard to keep up 😁 But it looks like we might be able to hold an event similar in direction to what I used to do at the library I worked at before, so I'm excited. Near closing, a dandy bearded gentleman (probably younger than me) dropped in. “Do you have free papers?” “They're on the second floor.” He told me he'd come from Nagano on a business trip and had found an interesting bookstore and brought it to our attention. He bought a few free papers and a ZINE about Nakamura Yūkaku. He's renting a shared space near Nagano Station and said he'd like to exhibit at a ZINE event someday. So young! He seemed to really like our shop. Please come again. Even though it's Tuesday, many customers bought books today (compared to usual). I don't usually ring up many books, so today was a very good day. Thank you everyone ❤️

Drops fall from a girl; cactus growing in the desert of silence, bloom. The word 'thank you' from you soaks in, and in the depths of the heart the wind (Pneuma) has risen. An anthology of thirty poems that feel the 'wind' = 'Pneuma' blowing over us, a little lonely.

In the heart that tries waiting for a new morning to come, there is a rising sun. A new morning standing barefoot on the muddy ground made slick by the rain through the night. An anthology of thirty poems, primarily composed of pieces that sing of hopeful hearts and poems related to sound.

Chuutarou and Chuunosuke, two mice, head into the forest to look for acorns. A picture book created for the first time by a 3rd-grade elementary school student as a summer vacation independent project!

Author of picture-book ZINEs for elementary school students! I make handmade picture books! I appear at events in the Tokai region together with Yumi Emoto.

A collection of short stories chronicling the worries and bittersweet feelings that come with growing up.

Today I mainly worked on improving the event page. Some time ago I received a request from Fujisaka at NAgoya BOOK CENTER to display the event page images larger. However, making them larger made the title and description harder to see, and pushed the sign-up button toward the bottom of the screen, so I spent some time wondering what to do. On apps it's common to fix the bottom area of the screen, so I tried the same approach and it worked easily — the sign-up button is now always visible. I hope this increases event sign-ups.