For the last two years, I have had the opportunity to be the instructor at a workshop called Zatsudan Book Club at Daikanyama Teens Creative, a youth center in Shibuya.

I was instructor in name only, as the event very much lived up to its title—the children and I engaged in small talk (“zatsudan” in Japanese), eating snacks as we talked about our favorite books or manga. Over the past two years, we have had a number of participants in elementary and middle school.

At the beginning of the session, I wrote “Today’s Rules.” They were: “You can say or not say anything you like.” “Listen with intent when someone is talking.” “If you’re tired, feel free to rest.” “Don’t worry about if something is interesting or boring. If you found it boring, think about why that might be.”

We then moved onto self-introductions where everyone showed off the book they brought in. There was someone who liked reading the manga magazine CoroCoro Comic. There was someone who loved a mystery novel with a cool boy in it. There was someone who became interested in poets after reading some poetry. Some of the kids were shy at first, but they came to life as soon as they started talking about what they liked and the conversation that followed was really lively.

Putting aside the commonly spouted ideas that children nowadays don’t read and just watch movies or play games, everyone engaged with each other and enjoyed the moments we shared. People will always come together if an activity is fun—each time I’ve taken part, the children taught me this simple fact. I hope to carry this with me into the future too.