Library devoted to Japan novelist Murakami to open in Tokyo

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — A library devoted to Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami’s writings, scrapbooks and record collection opens next week in Tokyo for research, cultural exchange and a gathering spot for his fans. The Haruki Murakami Library, which opens Oct. 1 at Waseda University, his alma mater, features a replica of his study with a simple desk, rows of bookshelves and a record player, as well as a café run by students that serves his favorite dark roast coffee. Visitors enter through a tunnel-like passageway designed by architect Kengo Kuma, one of Murakami’s many fans. Kuma says tunnels are his image of Murakami’s stories, in which protagonists often travel between the real and the surreal.