{"id":4520,"date":"2021-03-24T22:46:36","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T13:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/infinity-books\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T11:34:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T02:34:07","slug":"infinity-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/infinity-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Infinity Books is the calming oasis from the hustle-and-bustle you didn\u2019t know you needed."},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve done plenty<\/a> of<\/a> articles<\/a> about places and festivals in and around the Asakusa district<\/a>, usually reinforcing its position as the nexus of historical Tokyo, from the landmark shrine Sens\u014d-Ji<\/i><\/a> and its well-known lantern gate Kaminarimon, to the many winding shopping alleys that emanate like spider webs outward from the grounds, there\u2019s no doubt Asakusa is a must-see for any Japanophile who wants to feel connected to the long exhaustive past life of Japan without leaving Kanto for someplace like Kyoto. But there exists a place within this place that seeks to provide an oasis for us \u201cstrangers in a strange land\u201d that creates a very familiar aura of solace and warmth and invites one to slow down for a tick and breathe. Because at Infinity Books, you\u2019ll feel like you\u2019ll have all the time in the world to peruse their small yet expansive trove of secondhand books.<\/p>\n

Not just a place for books, though\u2026<\/h3>\n

Let\u2019s get this one out the way first: Infinity Books isn\u2019t just any old secondhand bookstore; it\u2019s sometimes the only bookstore<\/em> for some of us foreigners calling Tokyo home. There used to be many places in the city where one could count on finding an old copy of \u201cFlowers for Algernon\u201d or \u201c2001: A Space Odyssey\u201d in English<\/em>. \u201cThey\u2019re all gone; we\u2019re the last one standing,\u201d says proprietor Dominic \u201cNick\u201d Ward. Looking like any plain old storefront on the ground level of a condominium tower along Azumabashi-dori just on the other side of the Sumida River from the Asakusa district, you\u2019d be terribly deceived at what greets you upon entry into the shop: a warmly lit, inviting catacomb of narrow aisles flanked by floor-to-ceiling height shelves, within which lies layer upon layers of books of all sorts. Imagine what the inside of a Kaldi Coffee Farm<\/a> shop looks like if you replaced the food with books, and you\u2019ll have an almost perfect image in your mind. Just the perfect amount of order and clutter juxtaposed into a setting that invites long searches for the perfect reading material. On the day of my visit, Nick was buzzing around the store’s back office, getting an order ready to ship out. \u201cIt\u2019s just me right now, so I have to wear many hats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do One Thing, Or Be One Place?<\/h3>\n

\"\"\u201cWe didn\u2019t set out to be a bookstore. We wanted to be a place for all creatives to gather\u201d is the mantra Nick infuses into every nook and cranny of Infinity Books and is especially evident in the back corner of the shop, where there is a cozy open space for comedians to hone their stand-up skills, authors and scholars can hold discussions and give readings, and thanks to the collection of musical instruments that were sitting on their stands in the area, anyone with musical talent can hop into one of the informal weekly jam sessions as well. There\u2019s even a full bar with whatever libations you deem fit to pair up with the night\u2019s entertainment. \u201cI really want this place to become a real Third Space,<\/em> you know?,\u201d says Nick, who is alluding to the fact that most of us have our homes and workplaces as our first and second places,<\/em> respectively; the neighborhood park, coffee house, or bar is the so-called \u201cthird space\u201d where we can socialize (or not), in a neutral place. \u201cWe worked hard to make a good spot, and it was beginning to pay off, I think\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Pandemic Punch<\/h3>\n

\"\"For many small businesses here in Tokyo, the rug was snatched out from underneath them on April 8th, 2020, because that was the day the first \u201cState of Emergency\u201d soft lockdown in response to COVID-19 went into effect. Unlike many countries, Japan\u2019s businesses didn\u2019t have to shutter or else rack up hefty fines, but losing the trust of your customers is a lot worse than losing money for neighborhood businesses\u2013 most complied immediately, including Infinity Books. \u201cWe\u2019re kind of lucky since we already had an internet site, But there\u2019s only so much we can do for promotion. Backpacker\u2019s hostels surrounded our location near Azumabashi, and a lot of our business was from drop-in tourists, but it\u2019s all dried up for now.\u201d For the better part of 2020, Infinity Books was mostly a mail-order affair. Still, now walk-in traffic is welcomed, and the weekly jam sessions, comedy nights, and indie musicians are back on the calendar<\/a> again (with appropriate social distancing protocols, of course).<\/p>\n

Nick let me know straight away he\u2019s in it to win it: \u201cWe are the last foreign-owned secondhand bookstore in Tokyo. We\u2019re hanging by the skin of our teeth, but we are still here!<\/em> We don\u2019t plan on quitting anytime soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Infinity Books Japan<\/h2>\n

Address: Azumabashi 1-2-4, Sumida, Tokyo<\/a><\/p>\n

Hours: Tue~Thu 1p~9p, Fri~Sat 1p~10p, Sun 1p~6p; Closed Mon<\/p>\n

Access: Asakusa Station<\/a> (A)(G)[TS]<\/p>\n

Web: www.infinitybooksjapan.com<\/a><\/p>\n


\nPhotos by Jason L Gatewood<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve done plenty of articles about places and festivals in and around the Asakusa district, usually reinforcing its position as the nexus of historical Tokyo, from the landmark shrine Sens\u014d-Ji and its well-known lantern gate Kaminarimon, to the many winding shopping alleys that emanate like spider webs outward from the grounds, there\u2019s no doubt Asakusa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":4521,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103,37],"tags":[437,438,433,439,47,45],"class_list":["post-4520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-shopping","category-tokyo-2","tag-asakusa","tag-books","tag-music","tag-sumida","tag-tokyo-city-2","tag-tokyo-metropolis-2"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4520"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50187,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4520\/revisions\/50187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hrcjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}