Four minutes on foot from JR Takatori Station, in a corner of Suma’s residential neighborhood near a park, stands a small bookstore open from noon until 9 PM. Its name: “Sobi coffee and books.”
A neighborhood bookstore where you can enjoy coffee—this shop opened in October 2024.
Owner Sugii’s goal is to create “a bookstore where even people who don’t read books can visit.”
The name “sobi” comes from “asobi,” the Japanese word for play. It embodies the desire to return reading to its place as casual entertainment. This is the story of how that vision came to life.
More Than Just Books at a Bookstore
“I’ve always loved books,” Sugii explains. “I’d been vaguely thinking it would be nice to open a bookstore someday.”
Starting an independent bookstore is challenging these days. Dealing with major publishers requires hundreds of thousands of yen in deposits, creating high barriers to entry. However, as he researched, Sugii discovered “an atmosphere suggesting it could work without stocking everything.” The possibility was real. But having spent his career in the coffee industry, Sugii lacked bookstore expertise.
That’s when he arrived at his solution: create a bookstore where non-readers could also visit. His weapon would be coffee, backed by over a decade of experience.
“Even if there was a 100% guarantee I could earn enough to live on from books alone, basically only people who read would come, right? If I’d worked at a motorcycle shop, it would’ve become a motorcycle-and-books store. It just happened to turn into a combination that works well together—I got lucky.”
The Discomfort of “You Read!? How Smart!”
Sugii had long felt a certain discomfort.
When asked about hobbies and answering “reading,” the response was always the same.
“People react with ‘You READ!?’ They say ‘How smart of you.’ This happens almost 100% of the time.”
This reaction troubled Sugii.
“But this is entertainment, isn’t it? It’s just like watching Netflix.”
No one says “how smart” when you watch Netflix. Yet somehow, reading has been elevated to a “lofty pursuit.”
“That means the value of reading has been inflated. It’s become something a bit difficult. I want to turn it back into play, return it to its original position."
"I Want People to Choose Books Like a Treasure Hunt”
Spend some time in the store and you’ll notice the unique way books are arranged.
Picture books next to short story collections. Philosophy beside poetry. Rather than organizing by genre, Sugii connects books through what he considers their “context.”
“At a glance, people might think they’re placed randomly. But like at Don Quijote, I want book selection to feel like a treasure hunt. And for encountering genres you don’t normally read, I think this arrangement works best.”
His selection criteria start with design (jacket) and title. “You might pick up something titled ‘The Soviet Union Within Russia’ wondering what it is, and right next to it is a novel. I hope for encounters like that.”
In large bookstores, the philosophy section often stands empty. But here, poetry collections sell, and adults buy picture books for themselves.
The words “I don’t usually read this, but it looked good so I’m buying it” are Sugii’s happiest moments.
Coffee Calculated to Taste Good Even Cold
For drip coffee, customers can choose from about three varieties of beans selected by Sugii.
What’s noteworthy is the brewing method. Rather than the commonly seen hand drip, he uses a method of accumulating water before releasing it all at once.
“For drip coffee, I adjust the flavor assuming people will be reading, so the taste changes as little as possible even when cold. When reading a book, you rarely finish drinking while it’s hot. Same when talking with friends.”
To prevent the flavor from deteriorating over time, he deliberately avoids beans that are “too flashy.” Sugii’s love of books, combined with over a decade of coffee industry experience, creates the comfortable atmosphere of this shop.
“Books and Questions” Three Times Monthly—The “Useless” Accumulation AI Can’t Produce
Three times a month, an evening event takes place called “Books and Questions.”
Up to seven participants discuss “unanswerable questions” determined for that day, such as “What are the three conditions necessary for happiness?”
“In an era obsessed with time and cost efficiency, I want to deliberately think about useless things. We’re not experts or philosophers, so whether our answers are correct doesn’t matter. I just enjoy thinking itself, and you don’t naturally end up at Starbucks with a friend saying ‘let’s think about happiness,’ right?”
Recently, people have been joining for unexpected reasons.
“People who find talking with AI boring come too. ChatGPT gives you an answer in 3 seconds. You can have a back-and-forth, but something’s off. People carrying that discomfort gather here, saying ‘I was actually thinking about this alone’ or ‘I actually wanted to talk about this.’”
Sugii has decided to continue this activity until “vol. 300.”
“It’ll take about 8 more years (laughs). I think when we reach vol. 300, the accumulation of invisible things and visible things will create something. With that accumulation, I want to start a publishing house in about 10 years. I’m thinking of making this the first book—titled ‘Books and Questions.’ For now, it’s still a pipe dream.”
For Those Who Don’t Read Books, and Those Who Do
“People tend to think you have to be quiet, but that’s not the case here.”
Bookstores as quiet places—that’s the stereotype. But Sugii wants to break it.
“I want the ‘stillness’ of a bookstore and the ‘movement’ of a coffee shop to coexist. A mysterious entity where you don’t know what kind of shop it is, but somehow it’s a calming place. I want to gradually become that kind of space.”
After work, or during a walk, open the door with the same casual feeling you’d have watching Netflix.
Why not stop by Sobi coffee and books, standing quietly in Suma’s residential neighborhood, and “play” for a while?
Sobi coffee and books
- 📍 7-3-2 Ota-cho, Suma-ku, Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture
- 🚃 4 minutes walk from JR Takatori Station
- ⏰ Hours: Wed/Thu/Fri/Sat 12:00-21:00 (First Sunday 13:00-17:00)
- 🗓 Closed: Sun/Mon/Tue
- 📱 Instagram: @sobi.suma
- 🚲 Bicycle parking for 2 bikes available
*“Books and Questions” held 3 times monthly. Check Instagram for details.
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