Over the past few years, my late October weekend routine seems to have formed without me even realizing it. Following the pattern of the these years, I once again made the rounds this year—starting with the “Used Book Festival” in Kanda/Jimbocho, then heading to the “Tadami Line Photo Exhibition (by Kenko Hoshi)” in Shinjuku.
So, this time, it’s a photo diary taken with my LUMIX GF10.
That Used Book Festival was plagued by rain this year.
In previous years, the sidewalks around Jimbocho would be packed with people browsing the used book wagons lined up side by side, making it hard to move. But this year, rain fell on the peak weekend. Most wagons were covered in blue tarps, taking a break.
Still, some stores were selling from their wagons with sheer determination. Amazing spirit.
In the used bookstore district, some long-established shops are closing down as time passes, but there are also energetic stores taking over those spaces to expand their sales areas. It’s impressive to see it as a vibrant, active shopping district. One of the expanding shops, Sawaguchi Shoten, is holding its fun “Autumn Book Festival” again this year.
Behold the artistry in parody crafting even a logo mark! (lol). I don’t know if the parody source company is aware of this, but even if it’s unauthorized, I hope they don’t take offense.
The photo above isn’t related to the used book festival, but it’s a belated discovery of a new trend in the used book town—one of the many “shared bookstores” already popping up. I’ll include the link here.
It seems to be a system where various people rent a corner of the store’s bookshelves to display and sell books they like. Please read the link for details. I was surprised to see so many tempting bookshelves lined up that made me want to reach out.
This time, I thought I might be able to capture the slightly chilly, rainy feeling using a LUT called “Smoky Color.” What do you think? Or did it end up looking a bit dry instead? LUTs are really deep, huh.
Well, that’s enough about Jimbocho. I took the subway to Shinjuku.
This year too, alongside the Fukushima Prefecture product fair, Mr. Hoshi’s photo exhibition was being held at the Hotel Listel Shinjuku.
Master was also present at the gallery, so I managed to say a quick hello. It seemed many people with local connections had come, making the venue quite lively.
I bought next year’s Tadami Line photo calendar, but regrettably forgot to get Master’s signature.
Now, for the past two years I went straight home from here, but this year I made one more detour in Shinjuku.
You can probably guess what photo it is, right?
I had a certain company’s mobile battery, which had caught fire, and some unused/malfunctioning camera batteries recycled and taken away at a certain camera retailer shop. Now I can rest easy.
So that was my photo diary from Jimbocho to Shinjuku on a rainy autumn day.
