Naomi Takayama Publishes Final Book of Twenty-Year Diary Series

Kobe-based cook and essayist Naomi Takayama has published the final volume of her twenty-year-old diary series, titled Hikaru Umi o Mite Itara (While Looking at the Shining Sea), with publisher Anonymo Studio announcing. Across two decades, the series documented her daily meals, domestic life, and the quiet shifts of a career transitioning from restaurant chef to independent food writer.

From Restaurant Kitchens to a Digital Diary

Takayama began the project in 2002 after leaving her role as chef at KuuKuu, a fusion restaurant in Tokyo’s Kichijoji district. Her then-husband, inventor Seisei (born Ikuo Ochiai), set up a website and suggested she publish her daily notes online. Two years later, the collected posts formed the basis of the first volume, Hibi Gohan 1, published in 2004. Subsequent installments captured approximately six months of observations per book, tracing domestic routines, weather, and the preparation of meals.

The series grew into a popular work with a cumulative circulation of 300,000 copies. Reflecting on the project as the final book released, Takayama noted that the act of writing transformed fleeting observations into tangible concepts. “If you write a diary there, what happens?” she recalled of the early digital experiments, describing the format as a way to weave the world into enduring language.

Takayama Documents Personal Milestones Before Closing Her Series

To maintain transparency with her readers, Takayama included major personal milestones throughout the later volumes, ranging from significant meetings to her mother’s death, her relocation to Kobe following a separation from her husband, and their eventual divorce. As the series reached its twentieth anniversary in 2022, she and her publisher discussed bringing the project to a natural close.

Around the time she decided to conclude both the book series and the accompanying website diary, she received an unexpected email from her former husband, unaware of her plans. An entry from April 17, 2022, reflected on the nature of the project: “When I read the diary, the dim light, the feeling of moisture, the scent, all emerge at once. My mother’s eyes and my eyes. Time rather than air. A time that was vividly there then. A time that is no longer. Is that why I write diaries, because it is unbearable for things to disappear?”

The final volume is priced at 2,090 yen through Anonymo Studio. While the twenty-year publishing run has concluded, Takayama stated her intention to continue writing diaries.