More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness and death.

“And from time to time, we come to a stop and disappear silently into one of the many bookshops along the way like we’ve been swallowed up.”

One of the key elements of Yagisawa’s writing in More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop is the use of descriptive and figurative language to not only bring the Jimbocho neighborhood to life but also amplify the emotions of characters. In this excerpt, Yagisawa uses a simile to describe the experience of shopping in the secondhand bookstores of the neighborhood. It is like being swallowed up, enveloped, and overwhelmed, much like the experience of being drawn into a good book. The simile not only evokes the immersive nature of bookstores but also mirrors how characters use reading to lose themselves in emotion and memory—an idea central to the theme of The Personal Nature of Reading.

“I could hardly distinguish one type of customer from another. But when a new customer walked into the shop, my uncle seemed to be able to tell at a glance whether they’d come to buy a book or if they had just wandered in on a stroll. He said his intuition was the result of years of experience.”

Satoru’s many years working at the Morisaki Bookshop have familiarized him with people and their intentions. He builds relationships with his customers, particularly his regulars, and is able to assume their intentions. Takako is shocked that he has the intuition to know what a customer wants and needs when they arrive at the store, demonstrating Satoru’s own ability to anticipate the needs of others. Satoru’s “intuition” functions as a quiet