Japanese Bookstore That Sells In USA

[Guest ___]

While in New York this week on a whim, I went down to the Palisades (the second largest Mall in the USA behind The Mall of America) in Nyack where I found a large chain in Japan of bookstores called, Kinokuniya. sadly being in suburbia, 90% of what they sold was anime and manga with no trains.

 

Luckily that night I went in to the city where, I knew they had a bigger store. On 6th and 40th, was the super store. (Thanks to Bernard for help in locating the store itself) Sadly it was near closing time so I only managed to find a copy of Japan Railfan, but they had some nice pocket sized roster books for ¥1200 in the children section, a popular place to stick train books.

 

Sadly they have no physical store for me in DC (which is off since DC has the thirds highest concentration of Japanese in North America)

 

The store can also order anything you want which would offer a pretty decent savings over ordering from Amanzon.Jp (who ships everything FedEX at a cost twice that of EMS and about eight times that of SAL)

 

http://www.kinokuniya.com/

[CaptOblivious]

Sadly, the one in LA also sucks; one old beaten-up railfan magazine, but they can special order anything you want—provided you know what you want in the first place.

[cteno4]

Yepee, i think i can go over to this bookstore sunday. its only about half a mile from our hotel! only bummer is if i find a bunch of good stuff ill have to schlep it along with me! oh well the price you pay i guess.

 

any other good stores in the area?

 

we take the train early monday morning to Toronto. get to meet bill next week as well! then the train to ottawa.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Guest ___]

Yepee, i think i can go over to this bookstore sunday. its only about half a mile from our hotel! only bummer is if i find a bunch of good stuff ill have to schlep it along with me! oh well the price you pay i guess.

 

any other good stores in the area?

 

we take the train early monday morning to Toronto. get to meet bill next week as well! then the train to ottawa.

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

There's a few other J-bookstores around mid-town that I found but selection was really poor, as in nothing. These guys are easy to find on 6th and 41st. Not too far from Red Caboose, Times Square, Port Authority , though a little hike from Penn Station, not too bad a trip on the 1-Train

[cteno4]

cool, one should be enough. its only about half a mile from penn station, our hotel is right around the corner.

 

unfortunately red caboose is not open on sundays it looks like...

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[bc6]

cool, one should be enough. its only about half a mile from penn station, our hotel is right around the corner.

 

unfortunately red caboose is not open on sundays it looks like...

 

cheers,

 

jeff

 

The Red Caboose is open some Sundays, just call ahead. When going to Kinokuniya bring an ISBN # or a copy of the magazines cover, they'll call you to pick it up or ship it to you if you pay in advance.

 

 

Oh Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater NJ has a bookstore with a handful of train magazines mainly prototype trains.

[Guest ___]

I was at the Red Caboose w/ Bernard this past Friday around 2030 and the hours said they closed at 1900, but turns out they were unofficially semi-opened. BTW: I'd've never found that place on my own otherwise.

[cteno4]

is there anything there worth stopping by for? i do doubt that they may be open later on sunday afternoon though, i can try and call.

 

jeff

[bc6]

is there anything there worth stopping by for? i do doubt that they may be open later on sunday afternoon though, i can try and call.

 

jeff

 

 

Hmmmmmmm, there may be some Tomytec buildings if youre into that kind of thing. Every once in a while I pick up a bit here or there depends though.

[Bernard]

Jeff - Aaron will tell you it's a very crapped basement store. He does have some unusual items like a replica of the new NYC subway trains in N & HO scale. They look great but are expensive. It's one of these stores that's like going into an attic, there is so much in there and it's really crammed up to the ceiling (no joke look up and you'll find models) You can send hours just trying to find things. It's located at 23 West 45th street between 5th & 6th Ave and not to far from the bookstore. It time is an issue, I would say go to the bookstore first, it's 3 well organized floors.

[Guest ___]

It's very Japanese in that it's totally choas. Actually, the Japanese have reason to their madness, this guy. man has none. It was crazy.

[cteno4]

Sounds like ill wait till late sept when i head to nyc next for a few days to play and can drop buy during normal business hours. sounds like a fun place to visit! im only here late sunday afternoon this week in nyc.

 

cheers,

 

jeff

[cteno4]

Hey if anyone is in nyc yell and we can try to do a sushi lunch when im up in late sept!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[bc6]

Hey if anyone is in nyc yell and we can try to do a sushi lunch when im up in late sept!

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

Im down for a meet up.

[Guest ___]

Shame, I couldn't've met up with ya last week while I was in the city, bc.

[cteno4]

cool, as soon as i know the dates of the trip in late sept ill let you all know. guessing i should know it all by the end of the month here.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Bernard]

Yes, that would be great to get together for Lunch/dinner in NYC.

[cteno4]

well got to go to Kinokuniya today. took asking like 5 people about train books, most said they did not have anything, but i kept asking others, then found the girls at the basement info desk that knew where the kids and modeling sections were. didnt find anything useful in the kids section, but it was pretty messed up by sunday afternoon, i noticed stuff stuck all over the place. did get a copy of the JR pictoral roster book, which has a nice profile drawing of most jr stock! very nice book with larger drawings that i have seen in many of the other roster type books. also picked up the 2009 N modeling mag/book. lots of nice modeling examples.

 

nice store. could not find one of the big fat mags with the gobs and gobs of adverts in them (want the ads for billboards and signs), only thin slick more western style mags. actally good as schlepping the big mag to toronto and back would not be fun...

 

these were not cheap, but as aaron said cheaper than the current amazon.jp shipping charges. i miss the old 1500 yen for the first book and 300yen for each after that. we would get 3 or 4 people on an order and the combined shipping would be like $4-5/book, reasonable.

 

tired now after the week of the memorial stuff so i think just take out sushi from penn station and rest the evening at the hotel.

[cteno4]

Yes, that would be great to get together for Lunch/dinner in NYC.

 

looks like it will be more mid month if i make it up in sept. may have to wait as i am way behind in working on the new jrm modules and may need to double time it all sept to catch that stuff up. my wife heads up like once a month for business so i have ample opportunity to get up that way. also helps with all the acella rail miles she has built up that i can use! just have to pay for the bloody $20-30 museum tickets these days!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[bill937ca]

 

nice store. could not find one of the big fat mags with the gobs and gobs of adverts in them (want the ads for billboards and signs), only thin slick more western style mags. actally good as schlepping the big mag to toronto and back would not be fun...

 

 

Jeff, there is a Japanese grocery store on Queen Street west that has Japanese magazines. It's further along past Active Surplus. We can check it out on Thursday after Sushiman.....

[Bernard]

 

 

tired now after the week of the memorial stuff so i think just take out sushi from penn station and rest the evening at the hotel.

 

Jeff - There are a lot Japanese restaurants near where you are staying around 32nd street.

here is a link:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&view=text&gl=us&q=sushi+restaurants+in+nyc+west+32+street&btnG=Search+Maps

[Guest ___]

Hey Jeff, Bernard and I ran in to the same thing. We found them in the basement in the kids section. It was at that point when we asked the floor manager if he had anything else, and he looked on the PC. Didn't have much. They didn't have much in the way of books, but they do carry Japan Railfan and Railway Journal. I grabbed the last new issue of JRF, though they did have some back issues, which I decided not to buy at the time de to money issues and by that I mean the fact I only had 3 grand on my credit limit, and didn't want to max it out on J-mags.

[CaptOblivious]

did get a copy of the JR pictoral roster book, which has a nice profile drawing of most jr stock! very nice book with larger drawings that i have seen in many of the other roster type books.

 

Do you have the title of this book? Wouldn't mind a copy for meself, sounds interesting, but I have no idea how to locate it (not knowing what it's called).

[Guest ___]

I found that book on the Amazon.jp website. It costs like ¥9400. I had to pass.

[cteno4]

this is a paperback that was $33.45. its illustrations are in 1:150 scale (how convenient!). not sure how exhaustive it is, but most everything that comes to mind seems to be in there.

 

JR illustrated Reference book

ISBN978-4-86320-184-2

 

is exactly what i wanted for printing out on sticker paper and putting on the edges of the boxes. some are difficult to remember the train by whats on the label so this will help! im partially dyslexic so train ids can be difficult for me at times!

 

Dmitry picked up another interesting model train roster mag that seems to have just about every train made and small profile illustrations of each. need to get the isbn from him.

 

cheers

 

jeff