Samantha Sotto Yambao

On a backstreet in Tokyo lies a pawnshop, but not everyone can find it. Most will see only a cosy ramen restaurant. And just the chosen ones – those who are lost – will find a place to pawn their life choices and deepest regrets.

Hana Ishikawa wakes on her first morning as its new owner to find the pawnshop ransacked, the shop’s most precious acquisition stolen and her father missing. And then into the shop stumbles a charming stranger, quite unlike other customers. For he offers help, instead of seeking it.

Together, they must journey through a mystical world to find Hana’s father and the stolen choice – through rain puddles, hitching rides on paper cranes, across the bridge between midnight and morning and through a night market in the clouds.

But as they get closer to the truth, Hana must reveal a secret of her own – and risk making a choice she will never be able to take back. 

Water Moon

Suzie

I may never get to where I want to go, but I can look back on my life and say that I did not waste a second of it being bitter that I was not someplace else. Happiness does not exist in a place. It lives in every breath we take. You need to choose to take it in, over and over again.

karina

“Because death is kind and swift. Longing is a life sentence.”

“What I’ve experienced here feels like it would overflow from just one lifetime. I feel stretched, struggling, every second that I’m here, to fit everything into a tiny room that used to be my whole world. There are times when I feel that if I breathe too deeply, speak too loud, or move too fast, I’ll crack wide open.”

Kiran Aftab

Every second he spent with Hana ripped a stitch from the fabric of all he knew. It was not going to take much more to leave him utterly undone.

Martyna Melania Anastasia

Losing your way is oftentimes the only way to find something you did not know you were looking for.

What more can a man ask for? Arriving at one’s destination is never promised. Only the journey is. Waiting is part of that journey.

Life is about finding joy in the space between where you came from and where you are going. I may never get to where I want to go, but I can look back on my life and say that I did not waste a second of it being bitter that I was not someplace else. 

Happiness does not exist in a place. It lives in every breath we take. You need to choose to take it in, over and over again. 

There is something beautiful about autumn that makes things more beautiful. Out of all the seasons, it is the most honest about time. Summer and spring blind you to its passing with their colourful displays. Winter paints over everything in white. But autumn is not shy about things coming to an end. It welcomes it, waving leafy flags of red, yellow, and gold. It celebrates its sadness. 

Water Moon quotes

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