Recently I mused about the benefits of putting a bookstore in every mall and wouldn't you know Japan's leading entertainment retailer Tsutaya has just hit it out of the park with the opening of their latest store Shonan T-Site, located 30 miles outside of Tokyo. Tsutaya returned to architects Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham to help create their second retail outlet. Their first venture together, the Daikanyama project, won numerous awards including World’s Best Shopping Center at the World Architecture Festival and the 2013 Grand Prize at Design For Asia. Says Dytham: Shonan T-Site continues the reinvention of the modern-day bookstore as initiated by the Daikanyama project. However, the new space takes this...
In the Stacks: The Tokyo Sightseeing Photo Club
The latest installment of In the Stacks takes us through the Flickr archive of the Tokyo Sightseeing Photo Club, a group of photography enthusiasts who snap and click their way through the city. Here is a bookish sampling of their handiwork from their cache of almost ten thousand images: Previously on In The Stacks: First Visit to The New Digital Library of America Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Playing Cards at the Beinecke National Library of Ireland The Astor Free Library at the NYPL Women's Travel Diaries at Duke University Charles Darwin's Library The National Archives...
Books, Vinyl and Mushrooms
Talk about mixing it up! How about Tokyo's Rhythm & Books, a used bookstore that carries a selection of vinyl records and specializes in mycology! In addition to carrying a deep selection of books about mushrooms they also sell an array of mushroom products. Ken Iseki, the editor at between the books, visits the store and has a brief chat with the proprietors who opened the shop in 2011.