It has been 8 years since my grandfather passed away. He was nearly 80. 

I know about his work. I know about his family and social life. 

But, I hardly know who he really was. 

My mother’s father, Haruo, was a successful businessman. 

After returning from a military service for WWII, he started his small business in Osaka. By the time I was born in 1982, his company had more than 50 employees. 

People say: he was a very outgoing person.

He played golf with his mates almost every weekend. He belonged to various clubs and societies. He regularly treated our family to luxury dinners or weekend getaways. 

I, however, never felt close to him. Maybe because he was hardly at home. 

Even though I have lived with him more than 10 years, I cannot recall having any particular conversation with him.

He was still an important authority figure to me as the head of the family.

Possibly, what connected us was our love of books.

I remember a massive amount of books in his study. He was a book collector rather than a reader. He would buy a book and put it on the shelf without even glancing a page.

My grandmother often complained and argued with grandfather about the size of his collection and the money he spent on books and magazines. 

But I would get excited every time a book was delivered to our door. When he was not around, I sometimes sneaked in his study and looked at the spines of his books. His collection covered almost every genre in a bookstore; Business, history, novels, science, encyclopedia… most of the books were far too difficult for me to read at my age, but they spiked my curiosity.

His books were sold very soon after he passed away. They may have held some insights as to who my grandfather really was. I don’t know, he never had much time to read those books. Maybe he treated people like he treated books: Who knows?

January 8th would have been his birthday.