Yesterday was my birthday, and I decided that a proper way
to celebrate it is, of course, to check out a few bookstores. Right? ^^ So I
made myself a plan, and headed out toward the Teramachi street, around which
seems to be some kind of a concentration of book and manga stores. (There is another concentration down by the Kyoto station; there some other day.)
The first place I stopped at was a small antiquarian
bookstore, Kikuo Shoten. The first thing I noticed inside was the wonderful
smell of old books. <3 I was going to photograph all bookstores I go to, but
somehow forgot to take a pic of this one.... Here's a googled photo with random Japanese text:
The shelves were full of old Japanese
books, but there were also some in western languages. John Batchelor’s The Ainu of Japan from 1892 caught my eye. I considered it
long, but in the end, after I was finished with my round, returned to buy it. I
guess it is a product of its time, written by a missionary (hence a religious viewpoint) back when
colonialism and evolutionism and whatnot were still acceptable and a norm, but
I still find the book intriguing. No matter his shortcomings (certain condescension,
like talking of children, even when describing them warmly), Batchelor did
speak for the ainu. As a side note, I think it’s funny that although he does
point out in the book that the hairiness of the ainu is greatly exaggerated and most of them are not a bit more hairy than ordinary Europeans, he has seen it fit to
give the book subtitle “the religion, superstitions and general history of the
hairy aborigines of Japan”…
(Yes, I know this book is available online for free, but a
pretty old book is a pretty old book….)
Next places were quite different from the first one, as I stopped by a couple of manga stores on Teramacahidoori. The first one I just
wanted to see, Melonbooks, an otaku paradise, I guess. Took a look inside and then left, before the
exclusively male customers would be too shaken by a gaijin woman among them.
Approaching...
Then, as I walked by it, Lashinbang, which is a secondhand
manga/anime store (though everything seemed pretty new to me?) Lot’s of stuff
from CD’s to figurines, but it didn’t feel like my place either, so I didn’t
spend a lot time there.
One more manga place: Kikuya shoten, which is apparently the
biggest bookstore for anime and manga in Kyoto. It is big enough, in two
floors, and I might have explored it more, but I was beginning to get enough of
manga stuff at the point.
You couldn't take photos inside, so here's one from outside...
Just by accident I happened to look in passing at some books that had nice-looking spines… and so I’d found Mushishi (蟲師), which is one of my favorite anime. Bought one volume. Next I’ll have to try to read it. At least it has some furigana…
The next place on the list was Maruzen. What a place. I
spent so long there. Bought a few books (only in English, though) and a pretty
letter set. Let’s see if I write to anyone. :p So many books…!!! Getting picture-heavy here... xD The bookstore's in two floors.
And just one general view of the English section.
The stationery department was pretty convincing as well. Where in Finland do you find a selection like this of writing papers?
I had another antiquarian on my list,
but after Maruzen I went to buy the ainu book, and then I was running out of time. Some other day. There sure are many bookstores in Kyoto I’ve not yet seen.
(And before you wonder, we did go for some drinks in the evening for my birthday too. xD)
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