Just one book today, and that was more because I didn’t want to leave the bookoff empty handed 
I’m not sure if this branch (one of the Sapporo ones) had a poor selection or if it’s just that by this point I’ve bought a lot of the low hanging fruit (“anything by author X”) and am now more looking for specific wishlist books.
Speaking of Sapporo book stores, I picked this baby up at a lovely bookstore called 円錐書店 in Sapporo a couple of weeks ago. Not a huge selection but they had what I was looking for anyways. Bonus points because there is a great sandwich shop right near it called ハサミヤ!
Three from the bookoff south of Sapporo station:
and one bought new from Maruzen:
(it was on display next to 暇と退屈の倫理学 | L40 which I recently read and liked).
The results of my late-night auction site 大人買い arrived today!
Finally found Friends | L28?? in a little independent second hand bookshop near Sapporo university. 文庫版 狂骨の夢 | L40 I picked up because they had it relatively cheap, though I haven’t even started the previous book in this series.
Photo a bit wonky because I took it a bit hastily in this very definitely catering to the student crowd restaurant next to the bookshop. I think I’m about twice the average age of the other customers
How come you were so determined to get this one?
Partly just stubbornness: I expected it to be easy to find because it was a light-novel-ish book by what I thought was a pretty well known and popular author, and then I thought “oh well, I’ll buy it new” and it wasn’t in any new bookshops either, not even the multifloor Maruzen here. I haven’t actually been doing much differently for it compared to other authors or books on my wishlist, though (eg 獄門島 | L38 I also expected to be easy to find but hasn’t turned up second hand yet – though that one was in Maruzen, so I could have bought it new; I’m waiting til I get back to Tokyo before I do that). The difference perhaps is just that having recently read a recommendation for it it was top of my mind as “I’d like to read this now” rather than “I’d like to pick this up to put into my to read pile for later”
Picked up a few new books today! It’s been a while since I’ve bought anything!
On the left is 斉木楠雄のΨ難 1 | L27, which I already owned digitally but it was a pain to read the small text, and on the right is, of course, よつばと! 16 | L17.
…and the Mandarake in Sapporo turned out to have 獄門島 | L38 for only 200 yen plus tax, so my holding off on buying it new paid off.
(I tend to think of Mandarake as “mostly just manga” but they do have some books too; so I’m glad I popped in while I was passing by.)
やった！！ The cover is soooo pretty
Five random hundred-yen books from Ueno bookoff:
I am now definitely committed to the “foldable holdall as second checked bag” strategy. Helpfully, the hotel has a luggage scale for customer use on the floor where my room is.
(Also, I had forgotten how annoyingly hot and muggy Tokyo can get – it’s quite unpleasant after three weeks of cool through to pleasantly warm weather in Tohoku and Hokkaido. And I can’t really complain about all the tourists since I am one, but it’s very tempting…)
Edit: I just noticed that the three parts of 悲嘆の門 have covers that fit together to form a single image, though you can’t see it very well in this photo.
Three from Shinjuku Bookoff:
and more from Ikebukuro Bookoff:
I’m particularly pleased about finding あの子とQ | L30?? because it’s so recently out in bunko format that I was assuming I’d need to buy it new. Less pleased about the set of 香君, purely because I’d seen it at 400 yen a volume earlier in my trip but was still on the fence about buying it especially since I’d end up carting it up and down the country; but there seems to be a Tokyo premium and I had to pay 500 yen a volume except for volume 1 which was at least only 280 yen…
孤宿の人 | L30?? is another “cover images join up” set.
Now I’m just sat in the cafe in Ikebukuro Junkudo wondering whether I want to buy any last items new, and then I think that’s it for books for this holiday. (Supposedly this is the largest bookstore in Tokyo, so if they don’t have something here it’s definitely one to get online…)
So, not quite (I bet you’re all shocked):
from Akihabara bookoff, since it’s literally just outside the hotel and I was going out anyway to try to track down spare electronic dictionary styluses. (I could have saved myself some time on those if I’d done a web search earlier: turns out that Casio aren’t yet selling them for this year’s models…)
お探し物は図書室まで | L29 is the WK Intermediate club pick, the two Nezumi books are “next in a series” purchases, and I picked up 返らぬ日 (河出文庫 よ 9-6) | L30?? because I wanted something by 吉屋 信子 and they had this.
This sentence - and the picture - makes me so happy That’s one of her somewhat earlier books btw (she started serializing her first work 花物語 in 1916 and the whole thing was published in 1924. 返らぬ日 was 1926. Her last work was 1971). The one I’m reading now 小さき花々 is 1935).
Do you use a 電子辞書 a lot? I got one on a whim a while back, used it for a bit, and then haven’t picked it up much sense. I do sometimes think about whether I should try to use it (or my giant paper dictionary) a bit more tho
I have to admit I’m so curious about what this all looks like packed up on departure day 
It doesn’t look all that impressive: books are small, all things considered. I only need the holdall because my suitcase is a carryon sized one rather than a medium sized one. And even then it’s not too far over what I could have crammed into the suitcase and carryon rucksack.
Honestly, that’s more reasonable than mine looked, and you’ve been there way longer than I was 
Two more from the 100 yen section in the Bookoff in Mizue; coffee and cake courtesy of the Moriva Coffee opposite, which has a nice shady outdoor seating section.
Wow somehow I was imaging way more, but I forget books aren’t that big I guess when stacked well by size
I definitely only popped into the bookshop to kill some time before heading to the airport, but they had the newest Tokyo Bandwagon book…
Still, I did resist the temptation to buy 英語と明治維新 ――語学はいかに近代日本を創ったか | L30?? so I just put it on my wishlist for later.
