The Japanese tourists looked at each display for such a long time and bought such a devoted number of souvenirs, it was clear they had come all the way to Finland's industrial second city, Tampere, for the same reason I had — to spend the day in a library basement.
We had come to the basement looking for Moomintrolls. These creations of Finnish author and illustrator Tove Jansson are popular worldwide.
Jansson wasn't from Tampere but the library staged such a thoughtful exhibition of her work she bequeathed them her sketchbooks and her partner's colourful 3-D models of Moominland. These detailed constructions, along with Jansson's tiny, careful drawings, can hold the Moomin fan in the library for a long time.
Tampere was once all noise, a place of thundering mills and billowing smoke. Paper and cotton were the main industries. A Scotsman, Finlayson, built the huge red-brick textile factory that dominates the city centre.
Now converted into bars, restaurants, art galleries and craft shops, the waterside factory is a staggering piece of architecture.
Mellowed with age and surrounded by flowerbeds, it forms a restful centrepiece to the city.
When Tampere's factories were booming, so was international unrest among workers. Lenin lived in exile there for two years and it seems that every piece of paper he ever touched is on display in the Lenin Museum.
There are speeches, photographs, letters, bills, posters and heartfelt messages of hope from people around the world.
My guidebook to Finland overused the word "likeable" but, after a short time in the country, it clearly is the word to use. The Moomins are likeable. So are the people. The clear water of the lakes and tranquil birch forests around Tampere bring visitors to the region, if they haven't come to look at what's left of communism or to venerate the Moomin treasures.
But tracking down the Coffee Cup Museum, Museum of Refrigeration, Shoe Museum and Museum of Allotments made me glad of the long summer evenings this close to the Arctic Circle. It would have been such a shame to miss any likeably strange attraction.
