Story time

As a child, I loved books. I would go to the library and get stacks and stacks of them. I would devour them and go back for more. I’ve passed this love onto my son. He never really had a chance. I was buying him books since before he was born. When we moved to Japan it was the one thing that I didn’t make him go through. We brought his books with us. All of them.

We've made great use of the library in Hikarigaoka Park.  They have a small English book section in the children's area that we've read through most of.  My husband and son have explored many new (to them) Japanese language titles.  It's been nice for them to have such a large selection of books to choose from because we were limited in Seattle. 

A while back we went to Ueno for the day and I saw a sign for the International Library of Children's Literature.  My curiosity was peaked and I made a mental note of going there one day.  Today was stormy as a typhoon was blowing through in the west and we were getting the edge of the nasty weather.  As my son and I walked to the train station, the weather went from windy to extremely humid to sprinkling and back to windy.  It was crazy, as is typical with any major weather event.  But the time we arrived at the station, we were quite damp and happy to be indoors.

The library is a 5 minute walk from Ueno Station.  It is a beautiful old multistory building.  The entrance is a modern glass box with heavy meatal electric doors that really didn't match the building.  It was a strange addition. 

After walking through a lobby with two uniformed ladies that give directions and answer questions, we walked down a long corridor to a bright lit room filled with children's books.  The main room was filled with Japanese literature and encyclopedias aimed  toward young children.  There was an area with mats on the floor.  Shoes immediately came off for the mats, and my son started pulling books off the shelves.  He flipped through books as I wandered the stacks.

I loved seeing the displays with the same book in various languages all lined up next to each other. 

In another section, books were shelved based on the original country they were written.  It was so interesting to see, as books are usually shelved by language.

My son and I read book after book.  We were there for over two hours reading and exploring.  It was a fun adventure for us.  Afterwards, we ate lunch and played at the play structure in Ueno Park.  The weather had cleared and while it was still cloudy, it was great park playing weather.

My son asked if we could go back to the library again.  He loved how there were so many books in various languages.  He'd grab one from the shelves and inquire "what language is this?"