First of two parts
In these fast times of visual candy, instant gratification and attention-deficit disorder, how can book lovers pursue their "slow food for thought" pleasure while avoiding both Amazon.com and the impersonal big chain bookstores? For foreigners who live in or around Tokyo and are used to visiting small independent shops back home, the go-to places have traditionally been the English-language used bookstores.
Due to many factors, including economic difficulties and the shifting nature of the expat market, these shops all too often survive only a few years before disappearing and being replaced by other stores. People who have lived here for 15 to 20 years will remember the tiny Dragon's Egg in Asagaya and the sorely missed Caravan Books, which occupied a two-story house on the west side of Ikebukuro Station. Both of them have closed, even though the folks who used to run the latter have since gone online and opened Infinity Books Japan.