Document 72 Hours

Kyoto's Too Quiet Library

Kyoto welcomes the autumn holiday. The setting is a library in a tourist area where talking is strictly prohibited. People head to their booths, maintaining absolute silence. Their reasons vary. Some are striving to survive in a rapidly changing industry. Others dream of finding new employment. Even elementary school students have clear future goals... Regulars who have been coming for over a decade say there's an odd sense of camaraderie among strangers. They want to be alone, but they don't want to be lonely. From the quietest place in program history, we glimpse the “distance modern people keep from loneliness.”