My favourite English bookstores in Tokyo

February 12th, 2012By Category: Shopping

Visiting bookstores has always felt like a somewhat sacred experience. The perfect bookstore requires the ticking of many boxes and few seem to fall into this niche as stores get bigger and bigger, with escalators, uniformed staff and glossy “buy now mega-sale one time only!” catalogues. The owner of a bookstore I once visited chased me around the aisles swearing, after I looked through a magazine and didn’t buy it. “This is not a library,” he hissed. So much for customer service.
The perfect bookstore:

– smells of musky second hand paperbacks and offers you the chance of finding an inscription on the inside cover.
– plays music so good and eerily familiar that you have to ask the shop assistant what it is.
– stocks books on the shelves that you had assumed were all but extinct after hours of fruitlessly searching through other bookstores, galas, fairs, car boot sales, second hand stores, amazon.com and auction houses.
– has new and exciting books from the works of all your favorite (and soon to be favorite) writers, painters and photographers.
– allows you to relax, take your time and flip through whatever takes your fancy without being under the watchful eye of surveillance cameras, or, at the mercy of a hundred bustling shoppers.

When I first arrived in Japan, I quickly became aware that the availability of English books was nowhere near as expansive as what I had once anticipated. Despite my initial disappointment, I soon learned that I was more than spoiled with a selection of amazing bookstores throughout Tokyo.

The following are my favorite bookstores:

Shibuya Publishing Booksellers, 17-3 Kamiyama-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
The selection here is incredible. There is a great mixture of Japanese and English books and magazines as well as a few well chosen records. You can fossick, talk to the friendly staff and agonize over what to buy. Located five minutes from Shibuya train station, it is tucked up a quieter street meaning you can relax and take your time away from all the flashing lights of Shibuya. Last time I was here, I purchased “Magical Transit Days” by Yayoi Arimoto. Dreamy.

Cow Books, 1-14-11Aobadai, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-0042 AND Dragonfly Cafe 2F, 3-13-14 Minami-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0062
This is the kind of store that holds unexpected gems as well as a few you were keeping your fingers crossed over. Mainly out of print books from the 1960s and ’70s, everything is in mint condition and reasonably priced. The selection is very eclectic and quirky with books on the beat generation, social movements, progressive politics and first editions of forgotten modern authors. You’re unlikely to see a bookstore like Cow Books, it is really quite remarkable. The icing on the cake is the free coffee you get when you make a purchase AND  they sell a touch of stationery. Mmm stationery.

Colobockle, 1-1-54 Nakameguro, Meguro-ku
Definitely at the craftier end of the spectrum Colobockle is a quaint little store that has cute books, posters and stationery that have been made with plenty of TLC. Admittedly I did find the shop a little hard to find, but once I got there, I realized it was worth the hunt. Stocking plenty of things that would be great for kids or craft/art-appreciating adults, Colobockle is a total delight to visit. When I made a purchase, the man behind the counter placed my book in a cloth bag, casually jumped on his sewing machine and sewed my book safely inside its bag!

Book Off, (all over Japan!)
Heading outside big cities in Japan can be disheartening if all you can read is English. There is however, a shining beacon of hope. Book Off is a massive chain which buys secondhand books, comics, magazines, CDs and DVDs and sells them for rock bottom prices. Every Book Off is completely different and their English selection varies from place to place. On the bright side, it is always an adventure trawling the giant neon lit aisles. Here I have purchased an amazing array of Japanese interior and cooking magazines, back issues of Egg that I am still trying to comprehend and children’s comics and story books which are good if you want to teach yourself to read Japanese.

Author of this article

Gemma Rasmussen

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Comments

  • Toru77 says:

    Not an exhaustive list but a nice selection.
    Another great store is the new Tsutaya Books in Daikanyama T-Site which opened recently. You could spend all day there.

  • David2618201 says:

    List Book-Off but not the Blue Parrot or Good Day Books. Something is wrong with the person who wrote this article- They have no idea about bookstores!

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