Futagu Vol. 3 -EN-
enui 8/4/2026
Yasuragi
Interest notes / Seeds of Semi-Sci-Fi Curiosity
Apparently, there are, almost certainly, at least over 100 million books in this world.
If you add new books, revised editions, translations, ebooks, self-published books, local publications, and so on, the estimate goes above 160 million. Probably around 200 million, they say.
If you include magazines, newspapers, maps, sheet music, videos, web materials, and all that, it is apparently something like six billion items, or something.
What would happen if a person read all of them?
Let’s make a fairly careless estimate and say that one book takes, on average, five hours to read.
Five hours of reading, 200 million times.
One billion hours.
One billion hours is about 114,000 years.
If humanity began farming ten thousand years ago, that is about eleven times that.
“That person is always reading quietly. How lovely. I wonder what kind of person he is. I want him to tell me what kinds of books exist in the world.”
A shy girl who watched the reader from far away with affection would have enough time to grow into a proper older woman who could say,
“How long does he plan to keep reading? Maybe I should write a book titled How to Stop Reading and give it to him.”
and then leave after tossing out one decent joke.
Or rather, it is such a long time that even saying that does not make sense at all.
Reading 200 million books.
History, literature, science, manga, religion, business books, introductions to guitar, and everything else.
The hearts of people, the ways they think, the ways they do things.
Every language, every phrase, every word.
Suppose all of that were hammered into the head and memorized. What would happen then?
Where would each judgment and action go?
Would the person start moving any differently from someone who has not even read ten books?
When falling in love at first sight, the kind that leaves you staring into space every day.
When finishing a rich film that makes you reconsider your future.
When someone important to you is going through something painful.
When you are caught up in a war, captured by an enemy soldier, and a gun is pointed at you.
When a speck of dust gets in your eye.
When a cockroach hides somewhere in your room while you are looking for insecticide.
It is deeply suspicious.
I can only think that, before knowledge, we are moved by everything that has already started to move.
Tarachine
Life logs / Transcript of a monologue
『A 190-Yen Mocha』
Tired of the 120-yen coffee at work, I try a 500-yen café and a 190-yen convenience-store mocha. A small record of reconsidering price, effort, and taste through one cup between tasks.
###
I stopped my PC work for a moment, got up from my seat, and headed to the nameless convenience store inside the office building.
There is one coffee machine there. You buy one paper cup for 120 yen, put it under the machine, and drink the coffee it brews.
I do not think it is delicious, but I do not think it is bad either.
It is just the right price for injecting caffeine, so I always buy it without thinking much.
Every day, that coffee makes my efficiency, once it has dropped, stand up again.
Even if I am not particular about taste, I still get tired of it.
I have always liked coffee, so there was a day when I wanted to drink something a little more proper: coffee from fresh beans, brewed in a more Japanese, careful way.
I heard there was a fairly new café about a three-minute walk from the office building, so I went there.
When I entered around two in the afternoon, there was only one group of customers. It was after lunch, so the place was quiet.
The menu said a hot coffee to go was 500 yen.
These days, with the specialty coffee boom, coffee can be 600 yen, 700 yen, and when it is expensive, over 1,000 yen.
Compared with that, 500 yen felt quite cheap. I thought so, and ordered it with gratitude.
Usually the machine finishes brewing in about thirty seconds, so the time I spent waiting felt a little long.
It definitely took more than five minutes, so I watched the TV in the shop and even borrowed the restroom once to kill time.
Just as I came out of the restroom, the hot coffee had been poured into a takeout cup, the lid was already on, and it was handed to me.
I paid by card, left the shop, and on the three-minute walk back to my workplace, I took one sip, then another.
It was reasonably good.
At least, there was less bean noise than the coffee from the machine.
The taste also had, probably, a light floral aroma like there might be Ethiopian beans in it. It was not bad.
But honestly, I also thought, “Well, not that much.”
After that, I went back for a while to drinking the 120-yen coffee from the machine in the building.
But of course, even then, I got tired of it.
I wanted to drink some other coffee again, but I already knew the taste of that café’s coffee. Thinking, 500 yen for that, I avoided it for the time being.
Then, on the same road as the café but in the opposite direction, there is a convenience store.
A major convenience store based in white and green.
Inside, there is a coffee machine advertised with beans selected by a famous barista, and machine-dripped coffee supervised by a famous barista.
There, I ordered a hot Mocha coffee.
The price was 190 yen for a hot takeout.
I got the cup from the clerk, set it in the machine, and pressed the button.
This machine also finishes brewing in about thirty seconds.
And the walk back to work is, again, two or three minutes.
It is about the same distance as the café, so I took a sip on the way back.
I did not even need a second sip to feel that this was quite delicious.
Compared with the 500-yen coffee from that café, the aroma was much more vivid, and there was an easy-to-understand sweetness.
I felt a tiny bit of noise.
But against that 500 yen, this was 190 yen, with not much difference in the amount, and this level of taste quality.
The brewing time was overwhelmingly faster than the café, and the taste was satisfying, solid.
Normally, if I am buying the spec called serving speed, and the spec called taste, then of course I should be paying a higher price. But for some reason, this coffee costs less than the coffee that falls below it.
A strange gap in the money economy, or capitalism.
Feeling that, I drank about half of the Mocha coffee.
Bisho-An
Micro fictions / narrative works
Work: On Set
The Work
Director: Cut! Do you want to get killed?
Actor: ...
Director: Do it properly!
Actor: I’m sorry.
Director: What’s going on?
Actor: I truly do want to die.
Director: Then perform it that way.
Actor: All right.
Director: Here we go. Three, two, one.
Actor: “I want to die.”
Director: Cut!
Actor: ...
Director: I don’t feel anything!
Actor: I’m sorry.
Director: You want to keep living as an actor, don’t you?
Actor: Yes.
Director: Then show me.
Actor: “I want to die.”
Director: No. You want to live as an actor, don’t you? Again.
Actor: “I want to die.”
Director: Still no good. Again.
Actor: “I want to—”
Director: You’re already dead. As an actor.
Actor: ...I’m sorry.
Director: That’s enough for today. We’re done. Clear the set!
(Later)
Director: You came back.
Actor: I am truly sorry! Please give me one more chance!
Director: ...You understand, don’t you?
Actor: ...Yes.
Director: If you fail, act as though someone is really going to kill you.
Actor: Understood.
Director: Show me.
Actor: Thank you.
Director: Three, two, one.
Actor: I want to die.
Director: Cut!
Actor: ...
Director: ...Hey.
Actor: Yes?
Director: That’s it.
Actor: Yes.
Director: You’re alive.
Actor: Yes.
Director: That was perfect. That’s exactly it!
Actor: What?
Director: You can do it after all!
Actor: Thank you!
Director: Why? What changed?
Actor: Well...
Director: You found it inside yourself, didn’t you?
Actor: No. I didn’t find anything.
Director: Hm?
Actor: I only stopped trying to make it look good.
“The performance came alive when he removed the quotation marks he had put around it to make himself look good.”
Rinri
Soundscapes / auditory meditations
0:00 - 0:05:21:00
🎧 Track: ClothesDrying
🧠 Field Note / Background
🗂 Technical Info
- Recorder: RODE Wireless PRO,ZOOM M2 MicTrak
- Format: 48kHz / 24bit / Stereo
🪶 Metadata
- Recorded: 20260706, Home
- Duration: 0:05:21:00
- Genre: ambient,lifestyle
- License: All Rights Reserved
Endnote / Reflection
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© 2026 不得井（enui） / Futagu
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This work is part of the Futagu series — a four-layered cycle exploring consciousness through curiosity, reflection, creation, and sound.
Follow the flow, or just drift.
© 2026 不得井（enui） / Futagu — All Rights Reserved
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