In my neighborhood, there's a tiny library next to a tiny city-office branch. It's walking distance, a convenience I can never hope to find in my home country.
Still, I had never visited this library because I thought it would make me sad. That's what happens when you're a gaikokujin book lover and you can't properly read a single darn thing in libraries and bookstores (except gigantic, brightly colored books for infants that teach you words like "poop").
But it's been 2 years since we came to Japan. So when an errand brought me to the city office, I couldn't resist peeking at the library next door.
"It can't hurt to look. Maybe I'll find a nice kids' book," I told myself.
I found myself at the librarian's desk, already getting my library card made, which took only 2 minutes.
I also found myself understanding what the librarian said about regulations. And what the signs on each shelf said, like "Geography" (地理) or "Japanese literature" (日本文学) or "Zoology" (動物学). (My friends, this is why studying kanji is never a waste of time!)
That made me happy because I tend to underestimate what I can do.
Anyway, I spent almost an hour browsing, getting a sense of the layout. I spotted translated titles, like J.K. Rowling's A Casual Vacancy, and sci-fi anthologies I didn't recognize. Older foreign literature, too, like The Brothers Karamazov broken into two huge volumes.
I had really enjoyed reading Brothers Karamazov in college. So, out of curiosity, I scanned the tiny Japanese print for the opening line and read it. And holy crap, I actually understood it.
Then I went to the children's section. "Let's not be ambitious," I thought. "Find something I can finish reading in 2 weeks without neglecting housework or busting my brain out. Something relaxing." A book about rabbits or easy fiction, maybe.
I ended up discovering two picture books that piqued my interest unexpectedly. They were neither fiction nor about rabbits. But more on that in future posts.
What excites me most is that I now have a book haven to lose myself in. In my very own neighborhood.
It's a small and humble library, but that suits me just fine.