Best bookshops in Tokyo

[Maciamo]

I like books, so I decided to help the people living or just passing in Tokyo by starting a list of recommended bookshops.

Tokyo station-Otemachi-Nihombashi

In this area (what some would call the "center") you'll find, in order of importance :

- Yaesu Book Center, in front of Tokyo station. 7 floors, the last one for foreign books. It's a bit old. There are no lifts/elevators and escalators only go to the 5th floor, but the choice makes up for it.

- Maruzen, in Nihombashi (in front of Takashimaya). Only 3 floors of books (+ 1 for clothes and another one for maps, globes, wallets, pens, etc). Nevertheless, the selection of foreign books is one of the best in East Tokyo.

-Kinokuniya, in Otemachi, inside the Otemachi building (ground floor). Just one floor, but at least there are English novels and the last bestsellers. You'll also find LP guidebooks and magazines.

Kanda-Jimbocho

This is the Book district in Tokyo. They are too many bookshops to cite them all. The largest and most likely to interest foreigners is Sanseido. It's on the Yasukuni Dori (main street), just in front of the street leading to Ochanomizu and Meiji University.

Shinjuku

In the busiest part of Tokyo no need to say you'll find what you want. My first recommendation goes for Kinokuniya.There are 2 branches. The best is the one behind Takashimaya-Times Square. The other one is in near the Shinjuku 3-chome underground exit (on the street of Isetan, Marui, etc).


Shibuya

My favorite is Book 1st. You can't miss it, it's on Bunkamura Dori, 2 minutes walk West from the station.

Unfortunately, there are no more English bookshops in Ginza. There used to be Jena Bookshops, but it's closed since January.

[thomas]

Great info, Maciamo, thanks a lot!

I bought most of my books at Kinokuniya in Shinjuku. They have a huge assortment of J-related titles (not only). I remember one huge bookshop in Ginza (looked kind of old-fashioned, multi-storied), I hope that's the one that has been closed.

If you are looking for antiquarian books, there's a small store off Aoyama-dori, direction Shinjuku (forgot the street's name, but there's a little Italian coffee shop right opposite). I've found dozens of cheap books there, some first editions by Seidensticker, great stuff. I also heard that Kanda is supposed to the no.1 place for antiquarian books.

[moyashi]

sniff sniff, Sapporo's English selection is pretty limited.

At least we have Amazon.com's Asia service center up here though