Travel: Jimbocho Old Book Festival

Supposed to go to this event last Saturday, but the squall (well, not really but still it was harsh rain with lots of wind, made me more reluctant to get out of bed) made me stayed at my room. Went on a sunny Sunday instead. And apparently there's a lot of people who had the same plan.

This was my first time to go to this district, a very well known area for publishers, rights agents and book store it turned out to be! Duh! should have known that before... Passed the sign for Iwanami Shoten along the way...

As the name "festival" pointed out, me and my friend took the wrong turn and went to the less crowded part of Jimbocho and browsed around there, until we finally realized that we should went to the center of the festival first while the time was still young. By the time we got there, the place was sooo swamped with people, we barely can see anything that was displayed.

I went with a tight budget, and a more tighter strain inside my head, because it was the end of the month and the monthly life support hasn't came. But alas, "kalap" was the word, as I always do when it has anything to do with books, I went and got myself five books, one postcard collection of old jimbocho street and one Shinhwa CD (boy, I was such a sucker for cheap price! It was only 500 yen! A brand new CD!!!)--the little sis would probably like it.

So I got this:

1. The Charlie Brown Dictionary, cause I'm such a Peanuts' fan

2. Charlie Brown's Super Book of Questions and Answer, look at the reason above...

3. Lonely Planet: Korea, yup, I'm going there next month, might as well be prepared

4. Nihon wa naze sensou wo hajimetanoka (= Why did Japan start the war?), for my "light" reading... NOT!

5. Sumatora no Yoake (= Sumatra's Morning Star), also for my research

Right now, I'm a bit regretting the fact that I didn't go to Yasukuni Jinja and see what it's all about. Probably because my backpack was heavy with all those books... **sigh

Note: Jimbocho can be reach using several lines, but I chose the Shin-Shinjuku line from Shinjuku station to Jimbocho station. Jimbocho is weel-known for its rows and rows of book stores and publishers' office; guess this is why they called it the book area.