I became a fan of Satoshi Yagisawa’s work with the Morisaki Bookshop books (read reviews here and here) and had to get my hands on Days at the Torunka Cafe translated by Eric Ozawa.

Yagisawa has gone the short-story-centered-around-a-third-place route with his latest book. Days at the Torunka Cafe is a short story anthology set largely at the Torunka Cafe featuring three stories. At 178 pages, this is a pretty short read, perfect for a weekend. You can grab your copy here.

The first story, titled “Sunday Ballerinas“, is of Shuichi, part-time staff at the cafe, and his encounter with Chinatsu Yukimara. Chinatsu walks into the cafe as a customer and as soon as she makes eye contact with Shuichi, claims that they were lovers in Pre-Revolution France. Shuichi is slightly more bothered by the fact that Chinatsu claims they were gender reversed back in France and insists on calling him Sylvie. What begins as a bizarre introduction blooms into a unique relationship that is not entirely new.

The second story, “The Place where We Meet Again“, sees a customer returning to the cafe after 30 long years. Hiro has fond memories at the cafe with his former lover. With time, the place and the relationships have changed and as he tries to trace his steps back to rectify some of the mistakes he had made in life, he meets Ayako. Ayako is a regular customer at the cafe introduced in the first story and has a quirky personality where she carries around a notebook filled with quotes by famous personalities and applies them to conversations somewhat inappropriately. But Ayako and Hiro have a connection from their past. As this elder gentleman builds a relationship with Ayako, she is afraid that he will leave and he is afraid that he might never be able to.

The final story of the book, “A Drop of Love” focuses on the cafe owner’s daughter, Shizuku, the poster girl of Torunka Cafe. Dealing with a rite of passage in life as she navigates the grief of her elder sister’s death and living away from her mother, Shizuku’s story found more depth in my eyes. Shizuku meets Ogino, her dead sister’s ex-boyfriend, randomly in the neighbourhood close to her sister’s 6-year death anniversary. This brings up a lot of emotions for a teenage Shizuku who does not know how to process them. With the help of a childhood best friend, Kota, and the cafe regular, Ayako, Shizuku parents herself out of a tricky situation in life with warring emotions.

The neighbourhood of Tokyo where Torunka Cafe is situated comes alive through Yagisawa’s writing. Apparently, it is a real cafe but the location is a secret because it has to be found on your own or, if you are lucky, you get guided here by a stray cat.

The overarching theme of the stories was blast from the past where somebody from the narrators’ past shows up in their life suddenly and the encounters give them perspective on life. Where there is an abundance of books teaching us the art of letting go these days, I liked that this book doubled (tripled?) down on embracing all aspects of the self and growing from there.

What are we but the accumulation of all the people we meet in life?

The three stories explore different aspects of human relationships. While “Sunday Ballerinas” is about finding love again, it is also about repairing relationship with parents. On the same strain, “The Place where We Meet Again” is as much about getting a redo in life with a paternal relationship as it is about the relationship with the self and “A Drop of Love” is as much about first love and jealousy as it is about grief and loss.

I liked the fact that Yagisawa experimented with his writing and deviated from his usual style of the Morisaki Bookshop. I am extra glad that this time when he added cats to the cover, he actually put cats in the story as this was my one complaint against the Morisaki books.

Japanese cozy fiction has the downside of being predictable and lacking depth, but they really help me break the high tension of the other books I am reading or life in general. I think just being able to slow down and sit with a book where there’s not too much at stake and you know that things are gonna turn out fine is also a much-required part of the reading experience to keep the taste varied.

If I have convinced you to read this, you can get your copy here.

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Do you read Japanese cozy fiction? Have you read any of Satoshi Yagisawa’s books?

Do let me know. I would love to hear your thoughts on this book or books in general.

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