This weekend I’m slaving away at a intensive class that will be held Monday and Wednesday for visiting high school students in Tsukuba.

For a break, I went to the Nagareyama City central library. I find it fantastic to go to these libraries, for there are always people from all ages reading different stuff. Today, a large number of “ojisans” were reading newspapers in a long table, while two school-aged girls were peering over some musical score. This library had a CD selection, and right on top of it I found a disk with Dragon Quest musics performed by the NHK orchestra. Awesome.

On the way out, I saw this tiny coffee shop. The owner probably fancied himself (or a close friend) a cartoonist, for there were a bunch of different picture books from the same author, along with many drawings in the same style as the books along the walls and menus of the coffee shop.

As I was having some coffee, a group of 10-15 small kids were doing their own version of a matsuri parade, carrying a big box that said “Ice cream” in the style of a mikoshi shrine.

And that was my small break. Now time to go back to work…