Jimbōchō Book Town

I visited Jimbōchō today, a neighborhood that’s home to more than 100 used bookstores. Many sell only Japanese books, but some of them have books in English or sell magazines, posters, or visual books that are interesting to browse no matter what language you speak. I visited maybe 20-30 of the stores; here are four of my favorites.

Sawaguchi Book Store features larger format books on art, design, photography, fashion, and architecture. The walls of the staircase are covered in wonderful posters; it took me awhile to climb those stairs. On the second floor, I found a Princess Mononoke movie poster for ¥50,000; tempting. Also on that floor, there’s a small seating area where you can enjoy a beverage out of their two vending machines and quietly read a book or look out the window.

Kitazawa Bookstore. A beautiful old bookstore selling mostly English titles. I spent a lot of time in here browsing. I found a nice leather-bound Pride and Prejudice and a copy of Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls from the 40s. They had these little notes scattered amongst the shelves gently reminding patrons of the store’s guidelines: “Here, silence helps words to grow. How eahc book with both hands, as if to embrace it.” Another one: “Don’t rush or force the pages wide. Stories, too, are most beautiful when they open slowly.”

Komiyama Shoten is another bookstore specializing in books about art, arcitecture, design, photography, and fashion. I found a cache of old Raygun magazines from the 90s along with a ton of other design books & magazines — on the third floor, I think. On that same floor, they have a collection of erotica and LGBTQ+ books, including a couple of amazing books by Tom of Finland. Lots of great posters throughout the store as well, including a poster for Kids (1995) signed by Larry Clark.

Ohya Shobu features books, woodblock prints, and maps from the Edo and Meiji periods. Super old stuff. The huge map of Edo (Tokyo) in the window is worth the trip by itself. Because everything was so ancient and presumably delicate, I was a bit timid about picking stuff up to look through it, but I’m gonna go back when I’m feeling bolder.

• books
• Japan
• travel