Kinokuniya Bookstore

I figured since I'm in Los Angeles for a while I might as well give a report from the road. In addition to going to my usual haunts when I'm in town (In-N-Out, Tommy's, etc.) I always try to hit Kinokuniya Bookstore in Little Tokyo.

They have an amazing selection of magazines from Japan covering every subject manner including some amazing motorcycle ones. In addition there's a lot of hard to find art and design books as well. Although I'm not, if you're into anime this is the place.

New shipments come in on every Tuesday, the same day the magazines are released in Japan. They also carry back issues which is very cool. This brings me to the only drawback. As so often the case cool comes with a price. Most of the magazines range from $12 to $20 each. If you can escape under $50 then you're doing pretty good.

My technique for shopping there goes something like this. I'll go in an just start flipping through and grabbing. Then after the high from being there wears off I start the editing process. Chances are half the stuff I grabbed has similar or duplicate content. Then reason kicks in and more editing. Do I really need a $15 magazine about wallets and skull rings? No.

Here's the score from the latest visit.