On December 26th, the book cafe “Keyau no Ie” will open in a residential area in the Kikyono district of Hirosaki.

Tatsuya Kobayashi, who has worked as a system engineer in Tokyo for nearly 30 years, opened the store with the meaning of "friend's house" in the Tsugaru dialect, with the desire to read books and relax freely. Mr. Kobayashi himself said that he had many opportunities to invite friends because he had a home on his way home from school.

Kobayashi is from Hirakawa, and after graduating from high school, moved to Tokyo to work. He recalls that he started reading the book because he stopped reading books. "I used to read books while I was commuting, but nowadays it's a smartphone game. I buy books, but often I don't read them, and I realize that I may not read by the time I die." Said Kobayashi.

The company left the company in March this year and returned home in September. The store could be found by chance. Kobayashi says, “I was looking for a real estate that would also serve as a home and store, and I was able to find an apartment whose information had just been released about 40 years ago.”

The first floor of the apartment was renovated as a sales space. The store area is about 50 tsubo. There are 11 to 15 seats. You can freely use the power supply, Wi-Fi, TV, massage machines, musical instruments, etc. Inside the store, there are 2800 comics collected by Mr. Kobayashi himself and 2500 books such as paperbacks and magazines.

In addition to coffee (cup = 300 yen, pot = 500 yen), raw apple juice, cola (300 yen each), alcoholic menus such as bottled beer, highball, sake (500 yen each) are also available. We also have food menus such as home curry, home ramen, home spaghetti (500 yen each), "sweet sweets" and mixed nuts (300 yen each). No food or drinks are allowed. You must place an order before you can use it.

At the pre-opening on December 3, there were people who watched the videos on TV and students who studied only for a long time. Kobayashi smiles, "I like reading while drinking beer, but I'm sorry I haven't met someone who uses it in the same way as me."

"I want to spend my spare time as my reading time. I haven't touched the second floor of the apartment and there are four rooms left. I want to use it for something in the future."

Business hours are weekdays = 14:00 to 23:00, weekends and holidays = 12:00 to 23:00. Closed on Mondays.