Infinity Books Japan — Local services in Tokyo

2025 update: I don't mean to rag on this place, but I'm back in Japan after a couple years and wanted to give this place another shot, knowing there are such good reviews and remembering there was at least a good selection of books. But as soon as I got within 4ft of the store, the cigarette smell emanating from inside was so strong, I couldn't bring myself to go in. I ultimately didn't go in again (I knew it would really aggravate my allergies and any book I would be interested in buying would smell terrible too) but while standing outside contemplating, I saw a Japanese woman and her son come out from the elevator that's right next to it and she was waving her hand in front of her nose as she passed, so I know I wasn't just being overly sensitive myself. Obviously it's the owner's prerogative to smoke in his shop and it seems most people don't seem to mind it, but I just can't get behind filling a bookshop with smoke, it confounds me. I have mixed feelings here. Very cute bookshop with a small but pretty good selection of English books—in my opinion, better than the few others I have visited in that regard. However, maybe it isn’t always like this, but when I went in, I had a hard time staying for very long because it smelled so strongly of cigarette smoke. To be fair, I am particularly sensitive to the smell (makes my allergies act up) but it also just feels like a poor choice to smoke in a bookstore—I certainly would prefer not to buy old smokey books. It’s unfortunate for me because I’d love to return and I think it would be fun to catch live...

I decided to come here after reading the comment mentioning Shakespeare&co in Paris and thinking this would be somewhat similar. The store lacks the charm to be comparable to Shakespeare, there aren't that many books honestly, and I found their way of classifying all fiction in one big alphabetical order quite lazy… I went with a list of ~50 books and high expectation that I'd find a lot of them there, but there were only 2. Most of the books I was looking for weren't even that obscure ! Finally, maybe he was having a bad day or I did something particularly wrong, but the owner stroked me as a particularly unpleasant man, who wanted us out more than anything. Definitely not a comparable experience to...

Highly recommended bookstore with its own distinct charm - and I say this having been to Shakespeare's in Paris. I came for a quick browse through the bookstore and ended up spending two hours of my time conversing with Nick and his friend. It was one of the nicest conversations I've had in recent time. Definitely a treasured memory from Japan for me.

Books are used but sold at very reasonable prices. Why not head on down to Infinity Books and experience some old-world charm rather than spend all your yen on a cookie-cutter commercial bookstore? Nearest metro station is Honjo-Azumabashi.

Just don't come by on Mondays when Infinity...