Book Cafe Culture

The latest edition of REALTOKYO editor Ozaki Tetsuya’s OUT OF TOKYO column takes us on a tour of a developing bookshop and book cafe culture in Tokyo, and takes a look at the new PAPER SKY produced BOOK246 shop. If Tokyo is to have wars, then let them be book/cafe wars!

Shortly after the “golden week” this May, Book 246 opened in Aoyama 1-chome on the front side of the first floor of Lattice Aoyama, an old building that has been in the headlines when it was “R”-ed into a designer apartment. The rather small space is produced by bilingual travel culture magazine and self-proclaimed “in-flight magazine for the living room”, Paper Sky, and in its shelves a total of about 2,000 new and old books, magazines, as well as about 100 different accessory items that are related to the travel topic in one way or another are lined up in a tasteful way. At the cosy Cafe 246 that opened at the same time right next door, I talked to one of the shop’s initiators, Haba Yoshitaka. He is a veteran book coordinator who has been working among others for Tsutaya Tokyo Roppongi.