Ohhhh, I was stomping and squealing in front of the TV as Japanese women’s ice hockey team struggled against the Swedes. Even though the Japanese was defeated with a narrow margin of 1 – 0, they played really tenaciously and made me proud. I am also very much looking forward to watching more ice hockey later on on BBC2.
Oh, what a treat!

Now, let’s rewind my memory to our escapade in Tokyo…
We got off metro at Jinbōchō, the heart of used book trading in Tokyo…

The first shop we headed to was Komiyama-shoten (小宮山書店), located along Yasukuni-dōri Street, 1 minute walk from the metro exit A7.
They were specialised in vintage art books & magazines…

Their shelves were crammed with valuable volumes. I imagined Hubbie would have gone nuts if he were here…

The magazine I was after was a copy of Harper’s Bazaar from the 60’s. Unfortunately, they had nothing in stock. So we headed to our second destination, Magnif (マグニフ) on Suzuran-dōri, stone’s throw from Komiyama-shoten…

Magnif was much smaller in scale but it made much easier for us to look for what we were after…

They did have more than a few HB from the 60’s and I was over the moon! The magazine was meant to be a souvenir for Hubbie who was an avid fan of Avedon & Brodovitch…

A trip down memory lane.
I was happy to find copies of “Olive” the magazine of my youth on the shelves…

The shop was so much nicer than that snobbish and unhelpful bookshop, Comptoir d’Image in Paris. And they had more stock than that miserable old man behind the counter did too.
And instead of being piled up on a filthy floor and covered with dust, each copy of vintage magazines was kept in a plastic sleeve and recorded meticulously. All in all, they were more professional…

I will definitely be visiting those two amazing bookshops again and exploring the area further.

Ta-dah!

Phew! So relieved that I managed to find something Hubbie would love. I could hardly wait to see a big smile on Hubbie’s face…

Kaori by Kaori Okumura