Japan for booklovers

I’d certainly visit this place if I was ever in Osaka.
My inner child still loves a good picture book (despite the almost inevitable lack of kanji!)

Feel free to add other places that might appeal to members of the book clubs!

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This might be stretching the topic but…
My next trip to Japan is gonna be Sendai/Hirosaki/Aomori. 4 those that don’t know, Hirosaki and Aomori are part of a region in the Aomori prefecture called Tsugaru. So I’m reading Tsugaru by Osamu Dazai. It’s a travelogue he wrote because he needed money but now it’s recognized as a work of literature. He’s from Tsugaru ^o^ There’s a museum about him too. I don’t know if the book club has ever read a book by him but he’s a famous author…Mika Ninagawa just did a movie about him, too (I haven’t seen it so idk if it’s good). I’m reading his work in English btw :X
I don’t know very much about Sendai in literature but there is a Literature Museum in Sendai.

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I really liked the manga museum in Kyoto. On top of giving a great overview of the history of manga, it has many manga that can be read freely. I spent a solid half day just reading there last time (nb: I don’t know if it’s allowed by the rules, but no one complained)

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I’ve always liked the idea of staying a night at a Book and Bed. It’s like a capsule hotel but inside a library :relieved: Apparently you can visit in the daytime, too, without staying the night (it’s an hourly fee, I think). There are a few different locations around Japan (mostly in Tokyo). Normally, I wouldn’t consider staying in a place with such small quarters (which is why I say only 1 night…I need my space and my privacy, yo). But, like…you can sleep…inside the bookshelves! How can I not want to do that? :smile:

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I’ll be in Kyoto at the end of this month and I was thinking about going to that manga museum! I’m glad to hear that it is a fun place to visit.

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Be careful that it might be closed because of the coronavirus. (So far, it’s only until the 15th, but it may be extended) :frowning:

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I stayed at a hotel similar to this in Nagoya, the night before I flew back home!

Lamp Light Books Hotel

It’s a 24hr book shop, cafe, and hotel all in one! They pick out books to put on display in your room, too.

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I stayed here! I was just going to post about it but then I saw you beat me :grin:

I stayed at the one in Tokyo for one night. It was absolutely awesome. I wouldn’t want to stay there more than one or two nights, because it’s not exactly the most comfortable sleeping situation, but the place itself was incredible. There were hundreds of manga pages hanging from the ceiling, which looked pretty cool, and I did indeed have to climb up some bookshelves to get into my capsule. I was in a double capsule with my partner; I think a single might have felt substantially more claustrophobic. There’s not a lot of head room.

It had a super relaxed atmosphere, with people gently shuffling around in slippers reading books. There was a cafe service so you could sip on a nice hot drink while you read, and when you arrive they will have left a book on your pillow as a suggestion (though you can pick any book off the shelf you like). There was a pretty decent if eclectic selection of English-language books on offer.

Bonus factoid: the toilet lids automatically opened when you pushed the cubicle door open, so it felt disturbingly like some toilet beast was opening its maw to consume you as you entered the cubicle.

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Yeah, unfortunately the coronavirus is restricting activity options, but I’ll do what I can. It should still be fun. At least my hotel costs will be substantially cheaper.

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The Shiba Ryotaro Museum in Osaka’s east has a library that looks like this:

I confess I don’t entirely know how entertaining it would be to visit if you’re not a Shiba Ryotaro fan specifically.

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Maruzen. That’s all!

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Add this one to my wish list!

image

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Hmmm…Do I risk the 'Rona for a cute book cover?

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