At the start of the week I had work in Kyoto, so over the weekend I first traveled to Nagoya. I stopped by NAgoya BOOK CENTER. An event was happening at the time and the store manager, Mr. Fujisaka, was busy, but I managed to buy a ZINE I'd been interested in for a while during a break. I was also glad I could hand over the new pamphlet. They also said 'It's great!' about the iPhone app I'm testing, which gave me extra motivation to polish it. The appearance is mostly the same as the web browser, but turning it into an app lets you create new interaction flows, so it seems easier to improve usability. I'll keep working hard.

I'm continuing to polish the iOS app. It's a battle against the heat. (Not really related)

It's sweltering every day 💦💦 — I write that every time, but today, in particular, there are very few customers. At this temperature, going out to visit a bookstore might even be a dangerous idea. I did uchimizu (sprinkling water) for the first time this year. It was just after 4:00 PM, but the sunlight was still intense, and our shop gets strong late-afternoon sun; even after sprinkling, the water evaporated in no time. It was like pouring water on a hot stone. I sent a notice to all participants in tomorrow's event. The event starts at 2:00 PM, which is the hottest time of day, and most of the participants are probably visiting our shop for the first time. Many first-time visitors, especially older people, are not good with smartphone map apps and often get lost for 30 minutes to an hour. So I warned them, gave directions to the shop, and told them to look for the 喫茶リバー sign and the wooden hut as landmarks. I also reminded them of the shop's phone number. Tomorrow's venue is the gallery on the second floor, so I set things up today. All I had to do was line up chairs, but it was enough to make me sweat. Now, which book should I buy and take home today? I ended up buying one. A young man came in just before closing. When I spoke to him, he said he was from Moriyama and lived near a bookstore that helped me when I worked at the library. His workplace is in Endoji, and today he was walking around the west side of the station and happened to find the shop. I'm grateful.

An autumn event has been decided. I'm on the organizing side rather than a participant, so I need to prepare various things. Also, the iPhone app passed review (the issues were hardly a problem). I've already had several people try it out. I'm grateful.

Today's weather was unbearably hot again. Every customer who came in was drenched in sweat and cooled off at Café River. Very few people show interest in the bookstore, but today one person bought a book, which made me very happy.\n\nAt least one book sold, so I'm a little relieved. The rest of the time I was registering the books that arrived today and exchanging emails to arrange the photo exhibition by photographer Benico, which will be held in October.\nFor information about Benico's photo exhibition, see:\nhttps://note.com/benico_iromachi/n/na0d3f48f0d54?sub_rt=share_sb\n\nApparently there will also be a talk event during the period, so please look forward to it!\n\nAlso, regarding a manuscript request from a certain library-related magazine, it seems to lean heavily toward free papers, so I replied that maybe the company president should write most of the manuscript, and that for the ZINE it would be best to have Jizo, a member of the Zindies project, write it. Our shop has only been handling ZINEs in earnest for a little over a year, so we don't really have the track record to contribute to a specialized library journal.\n\nBy the way, I was off yesterday, but it seems someone made a bulk purchase of Noran Nijino's new books 'Akari no Tomoru Hello' and 'Ginban no Flamingo'! I don't know who it was, but thank you! I told Noran as well! I hope you'll come to the event.\nNoran will have a talk event at Nagoya City Kita Library on Sunday, August 2, before our event on August 15. And I'm the moderator — to practice for the 15th, lol.\nhttps://eventwebreserve.tackport.co.jp/eventUsr_ngy/main/view/11940\nThere's also Rubio, a bookstore with a popular shared shelf, right in front of Kita Library, so please join the event.\n\nBefore closing, regular customer Chiharu dropped by. She seemed to come to check whether there were any comments written on the tanzaku (poem strips) from the recent poetry gathering.\nChiharu holds a monthly poetry meeting at Kokone Books in Motoyama (is our poetry gathering okay?), so neighbors, please consider joining.\nhttps://www.instagram.com/reel/DaFOTPhyTdg/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\n\nWhile talking with Chiharu, a young man came to the register with a book from the Tokai Yūri History Study Group and other ZINEs. When I spoke with him, he said he had come to Nagoya from Tokyo for work and had discovered an interesting bookstore. I was grateful. He was very pleased to find books about the history of brothels and red-light districts, which are hard to find. Since he was from Tokyo, I also told him about Kasturi Shobo in Yoshiwara and about photographer Benico. And of course I told him about our shop's photo exhibition!

'Being useful' was all I could think about and I felt tired. This small zine is for the moments when you want to quiet that restless feeling a little and return to the time of simply moving your hands. When I'm threading beads, I sometimes get a strange feeling. More than making something, I just want to keep my hands moving. In that simple repetition, old memories resurface and I become aware of my own state. In time that seems like nothing is being created, my senses quietly came back to me before I knew it. 'Just Threading' is neither a bead pattern collection nor a how-to book. This is a short book of words and photographs about the comfort of simply moving your hands, seen through beads. After you close the pages, I hope you can feel that the time spent just moving your hands was also an important time for you. [Bibliographic information] Title: 'Just Threading' Author: mimamorineko Publication date: July 2026, First edition Pages: 16P Format: A5

That said, it isn’t a real release — it’s a preparatory stage so various people can run tests. Unless there are any particular problems, it should pass review. Even so, having something reviewed makes me a little nervous. It’s not that I’m weak before authority; I think it’s just that I worry I’ll have to do something else if it gets rejected.

・For those who have chosen ZINE Fest when attending a market-style event for the first time. ・For those who may have experience participating in corporate-style doujinshi markets with fanworks but are exhibiting at ZINE Fest for the first time. This is a frank "ZINE Fest manual" that covers advantages and disadvantages, differences from doujinshi markets, and so on. It is not a promotional guide meant to push sales. The book aims to help you have a smooth, successful first day when you attend ZINE Fest for the first time.

Nagoya recorded a high of around 40°C — it's dangerously hot to go outside, but even today, though only a few, customers have dropped by. A young woman who had dyed her hair red came in. She looked through the shelves and bought a ZINE. When I asked where she was from, she said Onomichi! She's originally from Aichi Prefecture, but went to university in Onomichi, and now she's employed by an Onomichi ramen company and is working hard at the shop. She talked about her work with such enthusiasm, and we got excited talking about Onomichi. I was born and raised in Kure, but I've probably never eaten Onomichi ramen, so I asked, "What kind of ramen is Onomichi ramen?" She said it's basically just topped with a lot of back fat (seabura), and there isn't a strict rule about the broth. She works at the flagship store in the Onomichi shopping street, and recently their sales have been rising — apparently because they see customers all the way to the outside to send them off. Indeed, it's unusual for ramen shop staff to escort customers out, but if tourists happen to see that, it certainly leaves a good impression. Come to think of it, when I asked why she came to our shop, she said she had seen our storefront briefly in a short video by her favorite comedian and tracked us down. I immediately asked who the comedian was, and when I checked the video, our shop did appear, just for a moment! I was impressed — people do come in because of such little triggers. The power of a favorite is something else. After closing today, two people who want to hold a ZINE event in Mie came by, and we held a catch-up meeting at a nearby izakaya. When we first met last month I had suggested they reach out to the prefectural library and local libraries, and they promptly went to the prefectural library to propose it. The prefectural library said its budget for this fiscal year is already set and there will be renovations next year, so that would be difficult, but they asked if the two could hold an event involving students at a prefectural high school. I was surprised at how quickly things developed. After that, they were introduced to a high-school librarian, and when they went to talk, the librarian introduced their initiative at a gathering of librarians in the prefecture and also introduced local librarians who could help — things moved amazingly fast. Also, a new library had opened near the high school they visited, and when they went to see it they found a cafe that looked suitable for events. When they spoke to the staff, the cafe's owner came out, listened to their story, and agreed to talk to the city official to make it possible to hold an event. I was really surprised at the rapid developments. I cheered them on to first succeed at the event requested by the prefectural library (it seems to be a workshop) to build up a track record, and the report meeting ended. Oh, I almost forgot. The boss consulted me. It turned out a certain library-related magazine had asked him to submit an article on the theme of free papers and ZINEs. Since it's library-related, he suggested I write it, so I replied that perhaps the boss could write about free papers and I could write about ZINEs and that we could submit it jointly — let's ask them. I don't know what will happen yet, but if we end up writing it, it should be interesting.

The mobile app development is progressing in a steady, matter-of-fact way rather than especially smoothly. Today I was working on the login part integrated with external services like Google, Apple, and LINE. Although 'working on it' mostly meant I was watching the code the AI generated, testing those external services requires real accounts and you have to operate the test smartphone yourself. It would be nice if everything worked perfectly, but this part is rather tricky. I'll skip the finer details, but since we're not making a smartphone-only app and are repurposing something that runs in a desktop browser, getting the connecting pieces to fit together was difficult. Still, the UI now looks good enough that it doesn’t appear to be a bug, so I'll call it done for now. This is still just the entry point; the real work is organizing and refining the displayed content from here. Somehow it feels like doing a summer vacation craft project, which is fun in its own way.

Host: ててさん This is a reading group hosted by ててさん who wants a relaxed, fun time rather than a stiff book presentation. The theme this time is "the one book that changed your life"! Please tell us the book that changed your life!

This is an event (a tanka meeting) for beginners interested in tanka and uta-kai. Please compose one tanka on the theme "Books" in advance (it's OK if you don't explicitly mention "books" in the poem) and send it as a message to the X account @seihitsudou. Deadline: October 10.

Do you have a cookbook that's indispensable, a favorite you can't put down? Share your top-recommended recipes you want everyone to know, recipes you'd like to try next, and lovely cookbooks. Bring your cookbooks and let's talk about cooking. The host is Chiharu.

Journalist Shinichi Ikeo, an editorial board member of the Chunichi Shimbun (Tokyo bureau), will be invited to commemorate the publication of his latest book, 'Children on Provisional Release: Targets of Japan First'. Through his reporting on children and their families who, despite being born and raised in Japan, are not permitted by national and local governments to live in Japan because they lack residence status—and therefore cannot envision future dreams—we will hear in detail about the realities and problems of Japan's immigration policies.

Today is a public holiday, so the shop is closed. I'm off on Mondays, so I'm off too. Even though it's a day off, since around last night I've been working with an instructor to exchange ideas and create flyers for new events. One is a talk event by Shinichi Ikeo, the author of the nonfiction 'Children on Provisional Release: Targets of "Japan First"' that I learned about on social media. Ikeo is a commentary writer for the Tokyo Shimbun, so he fits our shop's concept of 'connections to Nagoya', and although the theme is on the serious side, in my last year at the library I worked on initiatives using 'simple Japanese' (やさしい日本語) for people of foreign origin, so I connected with the author on social media, greeted him by message, and asked him to hold a talk event. Mr. Ikeo kindly agreed, so we immediately set the event date and started making the flyer. The other is that our regular customer Chiharu asked, 'Are you looking for someone to run a book club?' so I asked her to hold one right away. I had Chiharu decide the book club's theme, and she also provided a flyer design draft, so I made the flyer based on that draft. As for the two events, we'll publish them after confirming dates and details within the company. Please look forward to it.

Even though I'm inside the house... For now, I'll just fix some small bugs and call it a day...

A zine exhibition and sales event. It will be held on Sunday, April 4, 2027, from 11:00 to 16:00 at the Matsuyama City General Community Center, 3rd-floor large conference room. Admission is 500 yen. Information for exhibitors, including booth rules, exhibition fees, and assembly time, will be provided. Organized by BOOK CULTURE CLUB.