Tokyo City

If you’ve been hanging around Tokyo (or following our Let’s Tour Tokyo series) long enough, you’ll have no doubt found there’s a pattern with many neighborhoods in the central part of the city in that they sometimes specialize in some form of commerce or government. Harajuku and Omotesando are devoted to fashion, Kappabashi is famous for its cooking and kitchen supply houses, Tsukiji is home to some of the best sushi stands and restaurants; even if the wholesale market that started it all has moved 2kms east, and Tokyo wouldn’t be Tokyo without Akihabara and all things powered by electricity and Japanese pop-culture. Jimbocho Book Street keeps in line with a new rule I’ve dubbed, “Japan Rule 84: There’s a neighborhood for everything if you search hard enough.” A Short Historical Record The area was primarily residential until 1913, when a large fire razed the entire area. At that point, a local scholar and university professor Iwanami Shigeo opened up Iwanami Shoten, a used bookstore and publishing house he used to disseminate his own works along with those he thought to be intellectually valuable. Soon, it became a place for intellectuals and students to swap ideas and debate each other…