One for the Devoted Reader

When I first came to Japan, around 10 years ago, there was a fairly healthy English book scene. In Tokyo there used to be the famous Good Day Books in Ebisu, The Blue Parrot chain in Akihabara and Takadanobaba not to mention Japanese bookstores which sold English titles and magazines such as Kinokuniya in Shinjuku. 

Ichikawa City Chuo Library

Times have changed though and as the Japanese are, arguably, culturally looking inwards more than before, the opportunities to buy English books have become less and less. In Tokyo there is only one English book store – the newly located Good Day Books in Gotanda. Tower Records in Shibuya also hold a fairly good but small choice of English books and magazines as do the equally reliable and expensive Kinokuniya. 

 

As to be expected the Funabashi and Ichikawa areas have little or no opportunities to purchase English titles although the Maruzen in nearby Tsudanuma has a healthy selection of novels, children’s books, art and photography and fashion/culture magazines. Luckily, however, both Funabashi and Ichikawa have libraries which hold yousho洋書(foreign books). 

 

Funabashi municipal library, located on the main Honcho-dori, has a small pile of non-fiction and well-known Japanese novels translated into English on the shelves. You will find work by Natsume Soseki, Yasunari Kawabata, Natsuo Kirino and many others as well as biographies of world leaders such as Bill Clinton. If you’re looking for novels from foreign authors, though, you have to ask for the yousho list from the counter and the helpful staff will give you a very lightweight binder with a few pages detailing the books they have to offer including some Philip Roth, John Updike, Agatha Christie and Bret Easton Ellis. It’s far from comprehensive but if you want to read something it’s not too bad.

 

On the other hand Ichikawa library, next to Colton Plaza, has a great English books section. Rows and rows of new releases and classic titles including crime, mystery, beat fiction and more literary works in addition to a comprehensive section of non-fiction, philosophy and even a whole area devoted to Japanese study materials and Japanese novels translated into English. It’s a veritable goldmine compared to Funabashi library. If you live in Ichikawa you can lend five books at a time and if, like me, you live in Funabashi you can still join and lend three books at once.

So it’s not the most ideal place to be a bibliophile but Funabashi and Ichikawa do cater for all the devoted readers out there and if you look well enough you’ll be sure to find something to your taste. Let us know if you know of any other places which sell English titles and we’ll add them to the list. 

市川市中央図書館 (Ichikawa City Chuo Library)

1-1-4 Onitaka, Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture. 
Tel: 047-320-3333
 http://www.city.ichikawa.lg.jp/library/ (Japanese only)
 http://goo.gl/maps/nPf86 ‎ 

船橋市図書館 (Funabashi Central Library)

Honcho 4-38-28. 

Tel: 047-460-1311

http://tinyurl.com/9r9uuo8
http://goo.gl/maps/10VD3