In Tokyo, a 24-hour bookstore where people try to overcome loneliness. 

Shortly after midnight, Takumi exits Ōtsuka train station with the same gesture he makes almost every Thursday. He really doesn't need a book; he could take the train home, spend forty minutes, and go to sleep. Instead, he crosses the street and enters the Yamashita Shoten Ōtsuka bookstore. The sound of the automatic door is always the same, the lights are white and uniform, the smell of freshly printed paper mingles with that of the canned coffee someone just bought from the vending machine outside. Takumi picks up a manga fresh from the new releases shelf, opens it, reads a couple of pages, and puts it back.

He's actually observing, not in an intrusive way; he's learned that in Tokyo, staring is almost considered rude. He glances fleetingly. There's a girl with a college backpack comparing two novels. A taxi driver still in his uniform leafing through a baseball magazine. An elderly man buying the morning paper just arrived. For a few minutes, he has the impression that everyone is there for the same reason: to delay their return home.

One evening, she notices a boy about her age in front of the science fiction shelf. She sees him again the following week. And the week after that. They begin to recognize each other—no words, just a small nod when they pass each other at the checkout.

Months pass. One night, a new volume of a very popular series comes out, and they both grab it almost at the same time. They laugh, and it's the first time they've spoken to each other. "You take it," Takumi says. "Thanks," the other replies. And from that moment on, they become friends, and discover they both work in IT, a few blocks apart. Every now and then, when their shifts overlap, they end up leaving the bookstore together for coffee at the all-night konbini. On a particularly heavy night, each knows there's a good chance they'll find the other in front of the science fiction shelf.

In a city as vast as Tokyo , sometimes that's all it takes to feel less isolated. Everyone in the city knows it as "the bookstore that never goes to sleep." Yamashita Shoten Ōtsuka, near Ōtsuka Station, is open 24 hours a day and sells novels, manga, magazines, and practical books (on travel, cooking, health, and wellness). Located right in front of the north exit of JR Ōtsuka Station, it's designed primarily for commuters, night shift workers, and manga and magazine enthusiasts.

But beyond books, an all-night bookshop has become a meeting place for readers, late-night office workers, and people simply looking to browse books at an unusual time of day. In this sense, some describe it as a place where you can feel the presence of others , without necessarily having to speak to anyone, but where you still have the opportunity to meet new people. In Japan, there's a certain value placed on these "third places": public spaces where you can share the space with others while maintaining your own privacy.

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