Books

All the bookstores I've seen in Tokyo are called bookstores. The English word. But they don't carry English books. There ought to be a law about that.

I saw this seven floor Borders-like bookstore in Shibuya and figured they must. Went inside. Not only does the store use the English work "book", but the categories are in English too. I couldn't find the English books. I asked a helpful young store clerk, "Where are the English books?" She smiled and nodded and took me to a section of English authors translated into Japanese. "No, no," I said. "Books in English language?" She shook her head. "No, we don't have," she said. "You should learn Japanese books," she said and smiled. I wanted to say, "Yeah, and you should use your own word for books so you don't confuse dumb-ass English speakers," but I am being super-polite on this trip.

"Japanese books are very nice," she said and handed me one. She was right. Beautiful binding and paper and a ribbon bookmark built into the book. I started flicking through the book from right to left, but she stopped me. "No, no," she said. "You must read book backwards. That is how we do it in Japan." I said: "Agatha Christie novels must suck for you people."