Profile

This bookstore intermingles English and Japanese on its numerous shelves as a way to encourage customers to experience another cultural viewpoint—even if that means glossing over text and admiring pictures. Opened in Rockefeller Center in 1981, Kinokuniya is impressively stocked, with 20,000 book titles as well as magazines, DVDs, CDs, mini laughing Buddha figurines, and a bilingual staff. The store carries the latest issues of hard-to-find magazines such as the fashionista's Gothic & Lolita Bible, and displays attractive design and architecture books like The Very Small Home: Japanese Ideas for Living Well in Space (useful in both Tokyo and NYC). Various manga (comics), sushi and sake guides, and the animated films of Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) assert the Land of the Rising Sun's hip factor while thrice weekly shipments ensure the store stays on top of the latest releases in literature, gardening, martial arts, and tattoos. — Erin Coe