Kanda

If you're in Tokyo for a holiday, you're looking for fun right? You want to experience Japanese culture right? Kanda has very little of either of these things. Do you know anyone who says amazing things about Kanda? Probably not. Upon exiting the JR station you will greeted with pretty much nothing that cannot be found outside or around any JR station. I have wandered the area looking for some semblance of fun, but have yet to find it. Perhaps maybe I need to wander further, though perhaps there are just more exciting places in Tokyo to be explored. Kanda is not awful by any means. Be I have found nothing enjoyable here. The station is alright though.

Jinbōchō is named after Nagaharu Jinbō, a samurai who used to live here back in the days; although they took his name, there is little to no information about him on the signs here. Perhaps I can find something about him in one of the many history books on sale here today. At Book Town, one side of the street is exclusively used book shops. Little lanterns line the length of the street, and outside the usual shops, a massive corridor of small bookcases stretches the length of the event. On a normal day of book shopping, you would be spoilt for choice, but today, at the 55th Kanda Used Book Festival, the amount of used books in one area is more than anywhere else in the world. There is a shop specialising in only fashion books, another selling just manga comics, and another selling rare history books; they even have one book for sale for ¥350000. There is something I find calming about walking the aisles of a bookshop. Nobody is here trying to tout me into their shop, nobody asks me to enter when I am already inside, and nobody inside is speaking. The squeaking sound of my wet shoes the only thing disturbing the silence. The bookshops actually never end, and I easily get lost for a few hours in a world of words.