Job Discussion Forums

tokyorabbit · Joined: 15 Feb 2004 Posts: 30 Location: Tokyo, Japan

I recently heard that there is no used English bookstore in Osaka. Is this true? What do you folks in Osaka do for books?

(I have been to Osaka once so I know there's plenty of great bookstores that have new English books.. but what about cheaper used ones or hard to find titles?)

Apologies for the fact that this post is not directly related to teaching.. I am making the huge assumption that most English teachers are bookworms (this seems mostly true from my experience).

JaredW · Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2005 4:04 pm Post subject:

Why don't you just go to Amazon.com and have the person ship it internationally. Maybe it will cost US $10 more but consider the selection you'll have and the time you'll be saving.

freddie's friend daniel · Joined: 17 Apr 2005 Posts: 84 Location: Osaka-fu

You can pick up used books in English on Yahoo Auctions. The selection isn't that great but I've got a few that way (100 yen is a typical price because there's not that big a market and you generally don't have a lot of people bidding against you). There's also Wantage Books in Kobe but, granted, it's a bit of a hike.

The last poster suggested Amazon.com;obviously ordering second-hand from individual sellers isn't going to save you any money but you can probably find just about every book you would ever want that way so that's "hard-to-find titles" covered. As for value, try Amazon.co.jp. The prices for popular English titles are generally the equivalent of the discount prices from amazon.co.uk and there is free postage if your order is over 1500yen. I was in one of the lauded second-hand English bookshops in Tokyo a few weeks ago and paid maybe 500yen less than Amazon for a second-hand book. Yes, 500yen is 500yen but it wasn't even a particularly good-condition copy. Amazon.co.jp also has the individual second-hand sellers but the prices tend to be higher than Amazon.com

casual · Joined: 13 Oct 2003 Posts: 105

[quote="tokyorabbit"]I recently heard that there is no used English bookstore in Osaka. Is this true? What do you folks in Osaka do for books?

(I have been to Osaka once so I know there's plenty of great bookstores that have new English books.. but what about cheaper used ones or hard to find titles?)

Apologies for the fact that this post is not directly related to teaching.. I am making the huge assumption that most English teachers are bookworms (this seems mostly true from my experience).[/quote]

We buy new ones, cheapskate!!!

The English book selection in Osaka is complete tripe IMO

Brooks · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1369 Location: Sagamihara

you should go to Kobe then.
There is a bookstore by Shin-Kobe station.

freddie's friend daniel · Joined: 17 Apr 2005 Posts: 84 Location: Osaka-fu

Yes, Brooks, that's the "Wantage Bookshop" I mentioned.

shallots · Joined: 01 Nov 2005 Posts: 6

hi!
I'm coming to osaka next week to teach. Now I hope its ok to talk about another website on this website but here goes:
I have noticed that the Osaka Craig's list site is not seriously frequented. - i.e. there are not many posts for anything there.
Now i'm bringing some books with me to read. I will want more books after I've read these. I'm suggesting that people take advantage of that site for selling and buying and trading things (unless its ok to do that here - not trying to steer people away from Dave's). There's certainly enough westerners in Japan to make this worthwhile when it comes to books or anything else. I'm bringing some Balzac and other french novels i've been wanting to read - i would love to trade them for other interesting books when i'm done.

by the way:
anyone looking for a tennis partner in Osaka? Does anyone know if there are low-cost places to play over there?

ndorfn · Joined: 15 Mar 2005 Posts: 126

We should start up some kind of monthly book swap thingy.

agree with the above posters re. amazon etc. expensive to ship second hand books and takes over a month.

Iwantmyrightsnow · Joined: 12 Feb 2004 Posts: 202

anyone tried bookcrossings.com ? It is a kind of international book exchange. There are group of people who meet bi-monthly in Kyoto. Another why is to use a book exchange at a bar such as The Blarney Stone in Umeda. PM if you want more info about bookcrossings.