Booktown, Japan (Jinbocho, Tokyo)

So you’re in Tokyo and you’re wondering where’s a good place to get used books? Well by golly I’ll tell you –

KANDA-JINBOCHO (aka JIMBOCHO)

Jinbocho has its own subway station and is 2 stops away from the famous Akihabara station, it’s about a 16 minute ride.

It’s about a 15 minute walk from Tokyo Dome! Which has a theme park…

The roller coaster actually pokes out over the building above the sidewalk which, as a pedestrian is… disconcerting

Fun things we saw on our walk included stumbling across Anitouch petting zoo, where you can pet capybara, ring-tailed lemur, meerkat, and more typical farm animals (it was a bit sad seeing meerkats who wanted to dig in the dirt but they were trapped in a plastic area) and the Cappy Cafe – where it looks like they might be selling capybara burgers? Nah… probably just the name. Right?

There’s a Mos Burger nearby! Try the matcha shake, it’s not too bad! And of course the rice burger (the bun is made out of rice, there were only 2 on the menu and they were hidden out of the way, but they had them). There was also a frozen dessert that was really REALLY frozen and I had to let it melt a bit in my warm hand before the tiny plastic spoon could dent it

There’s tons of book stores around…

But the best one was definitely:

Komiyama Bookstore Tokyo

Which had multiple floors packed with cool books and tons of amazing art!

These photos are NOT from Komiyama Tokya Gallery, which is another location a few blocks to the East.

Around the corner we had tonkatsu at Butadaigaku Tonkatsugakubu, where you order at the machine by the door and they have a delicious mustard you can put on your tonkatsu! I forgot to take a photo of my meal before I ate it, but you can imagine

And here’s a photo of a random old style storefront, which I find aesthetically pleasing

Next: Return to AKIHABARA