Japanese Weekend Book Haul and Adventures

27 Jan, 2025

The title is a bit of clickbait, I only got one book. And it wasn't even a book it was a manga. Not really sure if I can call that a "haul" lol

I'm fortunate to have a Kinokuniya¹ where I live so I can go to an actual store and buy Japanese books. However, the prices and markup are quite outrageous. Here's a good example below

If this were to be bought from Japan, at the current conversion rate of 154 yen to 1 usd, it would cost 26.55. Here in the states, it costs 60 and that's without the tax 💀. That's a 130% markup. Honestly at this point it might just be easier to buy online and pay the shipping costs and you still might end up with something cheaper.

Browsing bookstores is always fun, and it's one of my favorite things to do in Japan. It's great to know I can still enjoy it here, even if not on the same scale. Just look at all this manga—in Japanese!

They also had pretty much all of One Piece. Which was kinda dangerous because just looking at volume covers would've been spoilers for me lol

The manga in question that I bought was Ruri Dragon Vol. 2. Cute little slice of life about a half dragon high schooler and her adventures.

Other than that, also explored some of the Japanese shops around the area. Here's some skin care routine stuff

And here's some たい焼き that I bought. I've actually never bought たい焼き in Japan and was talking to a Japanese person and when I told them what fillings that I had - custard and chocolate - they were like yea those fillings are not a thing 💀. Still was tasty tho

All in all, a fun weekend.