In what’s become an annual event, bookseller Junkudo is letting lucky lovers of literature spend one night slumbering among its shelves.
If you’re of the mindset that a little light reading is the perfect way to get ready for bed, then you’ll be happy to know that Japanese bookstore Junkado is about to once again let bibliophiles spend the night in one of its branches. Actually, even if your taste in literature runs towards weightier fare than light reading, Junkado has still got you covered, as you’ll be allowed to read through any of the books or magazines within the store (excepting those that are sealed in shrink wrap).
The chain has picked its Tachikawa Takashimaya branch, located in west Tokyo, for the 2016 iteration of the Try Living in Junkado event. Just opened last February, roughly one million pieces of reading material are waiting in the shop’s 3,305 square meters (35,575 square feet) of floor space.
Participants will gather at the store at 10 p.m. on the night of October 29, one hour after the store is closed to normal customers. They’ll have the premises to themselves until 8:30 a.m. the next morning, with the shop opening its doors to the general public again shortly thereafter at 10 o’clock.
Since Junkado is a bookstore, not a restaurant, participants will either have to come full or bring their own provisions. You won’t need to bring a sleeping bag, though, thanks to offbeat office equipment company King Jim, which will be providing wearable futon sleep suits, so that you can stretch out and sleep wherever they want to inside the store.
Also showing some thoughtful hospitality is Cafe de Crie, a restaurant located in the same complex as the Tachikawa Takashimaya Junkado, which will be greeting participants in the morning with free coffee. And while there’s no shower facility inside Junkado, there’s a traditional Japanese bathhouse located just a 10-minute walk away.
Applications for the event are currently being taken online here, with five groups of two people each to be chosen. Participants won’t be directly charged for their one-night accommodations, either. Instead, each overnight guest is asked to purchase three items from the branch, and we’re guessing if you’re the type of person who wants to sleep in a bookstore, you’ll have no trouble finding three things you’d want to read the rest of after browsing all night.
Source: Maruzen Junkudo via IT Media
Images: Maruzen Junkudo