Japanese Book Store in New York, Kinokuniya

Last week and over Labor Day weekend I was in New York with my husband's family outside the city.  One day we went in to see the Matisse show at MOMA, and walked around a bit.  We came across an amazing Japanese bookstore, Kinokuniya.  Some of the books were in English, but the majority were not. There were three floors of amazing books on all kinds of topics.  Besides the fact that they were in Japanese, another frustrating thing about this store was that most of the books were also wrapped in plastic so you couldn't look through them. I looked through some books that were open on woodblock printmaking, art and design, and crafts. I saw a Japanese version of the woodblock printmaking book I found in a thrift store. It was fun to look around downstairs through pens, little notebooks, washi papers, art and school supplies.  I found some very nice sets of woodcarving tools, which I did not buy since I have lots of tools.

I did buy some wood wrapped entirely in Japanese packaging so I have no idea what kind it is.  My guess is that it might be Shina. It looked like it would be fun to try to carve it.  I wanted to spend more time poking around, but my husband was ready to leave.  Besides New York, Kinokuniya stores are in San francisco, LA, San Jose, Costa Mesa, Seattle, and Portland.  The website is limited in English, so if you are in one these cities, be sure to stop by this very interesting store.