Book heaven

I love a good book store.  There is just something about being surrounded by books that makes me so happy.  Whenever I am in a bookstore, I get lost in all the thoughts and dreams and telling of imaginative stories by authors young and old.

In Japanese class the other day, another student told me about a companion book for our textbook that could aid in our studies.  She mentioned she picked up her copy at a bookstore in Ikebukuro that was 9 stories.  A 9 story bookstore?!?  I had to check it out.

My family and I headed to Ikebukuro this morning on a bus.  The trip takes about 45 minutes, but is quite relaxing since someone else is doing the driving.  According to the GPS, the bookstore, Junkudo, is just a few blocks from the train station (which is the last stop on the bus route).  We meandered over and as we approached the building, my excitement got stronger and stronger.  I couldn't believe how big this bookstore was!  I was actually expecting a narrow, yet tall, building.  But it was vast!  I would venture to say it was even bigger than Powell's in downtown Portland Oregon.  (Which if you have never been to that bookstore, you should!!!  It is one of my favorites in the whole world.)

We entered the building and headed right up to the 8th floor to find my textbook.  The staff were very busy on the phone and running around, but I was able to get some help and the woman took me right to the textbook.  I was amazed at how many textbooks, variations of dictionaries, and other learning aids were available to learn Japanese.  It was practically and entire aisle - 10+ bookshelves - of aids!  In addition to my textbook, I also grabbed some wipe-off hiragana and katakana cards to practice writing.

Once I had thoroughly perused the Japanese language section, we moved onto the children's area.  In all honesty, I can usually be found in one of two sections of a bookstore - children's literature or cookbooks.  For most novels or biographies or other books, I know what I am looking for and go directly for that book.  But I get enraptured in these two sections.  There are so many possibilities and interesting things to see. 

My husband and I looked at so many children's books.  Many are translated from other languages into Japanese.  We recognized many popular titles from the US.  But there were many that we had not seen before, too.  After looking for over 30 minutes, we found a chapter book series for my husband to read to our son.  They sat in the "baby" area and read a bit of one of the books before confirming it was the series they wanted to read together. 

"The Dragons of Blueland" (left)

"Elmer and the Dragon" (middle)

"My Father's Dragon" (right)

by Ruth Stiles Gannett

With his new books in hand, we went down to the cookbook section.  I knew I wouldn't be able to read any of the Japanese cookbooks (and for some reason the English cookbooks were located on the 9th floor, while the Japanese cookbooks were on the 2nd floor), but I wanted to look nonetheless.  There were many beautiful books to peruse.  I got a kick out of the large bento box section - 3 bookshelves worth! 

We also swung by the gardening section, where to my surprise, we didn't just find books, but also seeds!

Before my husband and son's patience ran out, I knew it was time to go.  I may want to spend hours in the stacks, but they do not.  But what that means is I can go back again and again.