Exploring Tokyo Neighbourhoods - Jimbocho 📚 (Japan's Book Town)

hello and welcome to my new series where I'll be diving deep into local neighborhoods here in Tokyo and we're going to start off with a [Music] banger today we're starting in jimoto which is a Book Lovers Heaven this neighborhood is knowing for having tons and tons of book shops and they're literally on the street like this it's so beautiful it's very aesthetic as well I've seen on social media before but I've saw a few locals here just standing here and reading and pulling out books and I want to do the same so oh my God you won't believe what I just found they have delor request this is literally my childhood I grew up on this I canot believe they sell it for 110 Yen so about a dollar wow the store selling the books outside is actually called Wonder and if you come inside they have like lots of books but also like movie tickets and posters there's just like so much to dig through and I read online that they also sell Western Comics like Marvel and DC so I'm going to see if I can find something interesting this isn't the kind of stuff I'd normally buy but honestly just coming in here and looking around is so fun and it's very retro like you can just browse through giant movie posters like I can't believe they have these here that you can buy seen a couple of movies I've recognized they've had Harry Potter as well as Heidi the German animated film and there's some Disney stuff so there's a lot of like Classics and memorabilia but then they have modern things too I saw the Spider-Man like homecoming I think poster so yeah there's actually a lot of tourists in this area so it must be very popular I'm actually visiting jimoto during early uh March so there are sakura already In Bloom here this is very fun and very exciting I just had no idea what I'd expect and I've been discovering so many little fun things along the way what a great little neighborhood it's basically a Hidden Gem that's not so hidden I've just been slow to explore it I was just walking around and I stumbled across the cutest storefront it's a cat it's got the whiskers in the mouth and you literally walk through it to go inside and it's called boom of course like the storefront there's lots of cat items in here they have like cat coffee like drip coffee and all these other Cat theme things so that's really cute and they let you film in here so that's really awesome they even have sweet Cat Cafe tea bags oh my god look how cute these are they are selling the cutest cat Badges and pins and I a big fan of collecting these not that I have a place I want to put them on and I found one with like cats under the kotatsu eating like Mikan so I'm definitely picking this up and it's only 550 y on the second floor they have all kinds of stationery so if you like drawing they have the famous Japanese copy cor pens which one of my best friends loves using so I recommend checking that out but then I found those like themed erasers like rubbers so they have like shibba Inu ones but then they also have like traditional or classic japanese snacks in the shape of erases like yukim as well as like Magi chocolate oh my God they even have like this ice cream chocolate bar oh my gosh they have like literally everything this store actually sells a lot more knickknacks than I expected like it's not just stationary like you can find really fun like radios you can find accessories you can find just like fun things that you wouldn't expect it's really cool just looking around and finding things just while walking around I saw a book hotel and I'm very intrigued by it and it seems like it's like got like a manga space inside it's very Central to gym port and it's right outside the station so if I was traveling around here I'd definitely stay here it looks really fun maybe I should come back another time and do it let me know if I should do that this area is actually named after a samurai from the 17th Century called Jimbo nagaharu and of course his first name is Jimbo so now it is Jimbo Cho one interesting thing I learned is that early in the 1900s this place burnt down due to a fire and it's mainly because a lot of the buildings back then were made from wood but nowadays it's just packed with bookstores after the fire someone came and built a publishing house for books and the rest was history so now there's tons of bookstores in this area this area actually has lots of universities nearby including like ni dakui and Jose daku and there's actually a really really author that graduated from I believe it was Jose or no it was ni it was banana yoshimoto and I've read a couple of her novels so there's a huge like culture of students coming here and getting books and of course literature um it's very cool I feel like it's such an important historical place in terms of lra in Japan another interesting thing I read is that a lot of publication um head officers are in this area including shaan like the the famous manga publisher shaan jump is is right here in jimo very very cool whenever I'm traveling here in Japan I'm constantly using Google Maps to check where I'm going as well as my camera to film all these beautiful shots but I have a problem because my battery is dying all the time and today I want to share a secret weapon with you which is this product by snap Wireless I have been using it for a year and kindly today they are partnering with me so I can show you guys the power pack Universal which is so incredible everything is built in you have USBC lightning and you can just charge it on the go like this and you can charge wirelessly like on here as well as plugging it in this is all built in so you plug that into the wall you also have another spot to plug in like USB cables it is so convenient you have no idea this saves me so much and one of my other Favorite Things is like the digital like light here which shows me how much percentage is left on this pack so if you're interested in traveling like this and saving your life check out my link below and you can get 10% off oh and if you go to Asia or Australia or Europe you can also attach like a travel adapter here so check it out and let's keep exploring jimo I definitely recommend coming down the side streets because it seems like there's lots of cafes hidden down here I've already walked past a few that are really intriguing they're kind of like old style Katan but I have a place I've been wanting to visit for years and it's called glitch coffee and I'm headed there now this is glitch coffee roast is a really popular coffee shop in the area and I've actually had a lot of friends recommend it to me and it's my first time in the areas as I had to check it out and I got myself a cafe Lon and you could actually choose what kind of coffee beans you wanted and there was so much variety and some of the drinks were quite expensive as well but I went for one that had white chocolate noes and it was their recommendation and I already took a sip and it really does taste like white chocolate honestly whenever they had those pasting does like I can't tell but this one it really does taste like it and I love that the like shop has these clear glass windows so you can look out and just like observe everyone walking by it's a very modern place so if you're in the area check it out I'm just going to take a rest here and then keep exploring gimle another thing you can find here outside of books is UK which is the traditional Japanese wood block style of art if you've never heard of it before that's right you've probably seen it because hokai the Japanese wave is one of the traditional UK like designs and you can find like remakes of it all throughout the town here but they're not that cheap I was hoping they'd be like between 5 to 10 bucks but they're about like 50 to 100 some are a lot more and there's a lot of cool things that you can just like literally find if you have the time and effort to like dig deep there's three stores here that I've come across so far that do sell it but not all of them will let you film inside while looking around I just found the Uka for 500 yen so it does exist oh my gosh they have heaps of different designs I would want like one of the more traditional ones but this is still really cool that they have more budget friendly ones than like $50 to $100 ones [Music] ooh this is pretty I like that I love just walking by and the storefronts literally have all these books placed outside and this one is selling Sumo magazines for 300 Yen as well as posters and it's all vintage stuff so I'm going to check it out inside it looks so intriguing can't not go inside this Vint store I've stumbled into is selling like old movie like booklets which they sell at the movies here and I found old cool Pokémon I even found ente like this is my childhood and these are so well preserved this is so cool and that's like a really big part of Japanese like movie culture that when you go there you can buy like souvenirs and this booklet which usually sells I think for like 1,000 to 1,500 Yen like they've got the originals here and of course you can't buy it anymore cuz it's only when they're at the movie so I'm going to see what I can find but there is so much stuff here so I've also found Kimo Nawa Which is my favorite Japanese movie so I'm quite tempted to buy this one I don't know what I do with it maybe it's just like a display and then jile I could not believe they had jile and I found a mon Noah one this is a really beautiful movie and this is only 1,000 yen so it just looks so amazing it almost looks like a record I'm very tempted if it was house Moving Castle I'd definitely get it but I don't know care I'm not sure what should I do you could literally spend hours here looking through everything they have it is such an extensive collection my goodness wow so apparently they also have like Ruby flyers and this is all for Studio Jubilee that's a lot so I'm going to sort through this and see if I can find anything I'm looking for basically how ding Castle Spirit of the away these are only 100 yen I think or from 100 yen they even have the original like movie ticket so apparently in Jim Curry is really popular so I decided I had to eat some and I didn't feel like Japanese Curry so I opted for some Indian curry and this isn't just any Indian place this apparently focuses on like South India and their Cuisine and that's actually my first time ever so I have no idea what to order but something that stuck out to me on the menu was this thing called dorsa and they had two options it was either a plain one or one with um something called Masala inside and I don't really know what I've ordered I was asking the stuff like what is this so I'm just going to dig in um I do it look deep fried but apparently it's not so I'm excited it's just like a pan fried I guess for this dish I'm only paying 950 n because it's the lunch special I'm going to dip it in to this Curry I have here and this is all vegetarian friendly I believe oh this is spicy yummy I also have a sauce on the side I like both of these a lot I don't know what I'm eating but I like it I really love Indian food and I had an Indian friend um when I was in high school and I had soas and her family introduced me me do a lot also if you want to just have like a normal Curry there is so much variety here and it's all like basically under 1,000 yen if you come at lunch of course some Classics like n bread and then i' believe they would have something like chicken curry vegetable curry do yeah and you can also get like a drink if you get this set that's so [Music] good for only 200 yen you can order a masala chai and the person next to me got it and they did the whole performance so they're like pouring it and everything I was like I have to try this this looks awesome 200 y That's like so cheap oo yeah this is really creamy I love this and it's so hot like I could see the mcky in the kitchen it was very fresh but yeah this is a really cool place and check it out if you're here and lunch is cheap so highly recommend calling a go lunch this beautiful store behind me is K zawa and they have lots of English books but not what I was looking for I kind of wanted to find something that was a Japanese like fiction book translated into English like murakami's b or um kale hiashi I can't remember his name he wrote things like devotion of suspect X I haven't read a good fiction book in a long time and a lot of Japanese ones I enjoy so I want to hunt for that but no luck so [Music] far I'm actually visiting on a weekday and it's surprisingly busy so I could imagine on the weekends this place is popping I actually came across another tourist here who was looking for the original Japanese um print of Lord of the Rings so there are people looking for all sorts of things here which is really fun to just like imagine what kind of gems they'll find and bring back home oo this place looks really cool paperback Cafe books and coffee I might just head inside here I do like that there's this mix of like modern and traditional old style bookstores and this is definitely one of the modern ones so let me see if I can find some English books because I still haven't found anything I want that's in English I tried looking and I had no luck I must be searching in the wrong place but while walking around though I came across an entirely cat themed store selling hundreds of cat books including cat inspired recipes and photo albums they even had a cat gcha gcha inside with cat themed items it was all so cute so highly recommend I was just walking along the main street and I came across a melon plant shop and I love melon plant and this is a cinnemon one I've never seen that before they also had like choc chip as well as chocolate ones it was only 200 y too you dig the top is really crispy and the inside is so fluffy just how it should be I can't believe they have this just randomly here it's also kind of rare to see croissant as well as apple pies being sold here but they had them too so check it out it's only two bucks I had a pretty successful day hunting for books and all sorts of things here in jimble chour and had a blast let me know what you think and I'll see you guys in another to your neighborhood series let me know where you should go next bye

Channel: seerasan

Views: 33,216

Keywords: Japan, Japan Life, Japan Travel, seerasan

Id: yR_giAKUqsg

Length: 13min 35sec (815 seconds)

Published: Sat May 04 2024