Friday, October 20, 2006
CHICAGO ASAHIYA CLOSING, SALE
I made a day trip to Chicago two days ago, and discovered that the Japanese-language bookstore Asahiya, in the Mitsuwa shopping center in Arlington Heights, is shutting down. Its last day of operation will be Oct. 29. The situation isn't as dire as it could be: a new Japanese bookstore, Sanseido, has opened in another part of the shopping center, and they will special order books. But the new bookstore is much smaller than Asahiya, and its manga section is proportionately smaller, which means you're much less likely to discover new series browsing the shelves. It's at times like these that I really wish I was still living in New York City, or at least could afford to take frequent trips there.
The silver lining is that Asahiya is having a going-out-of-business sale. Through Oct. 22, books (not magazines), CDs, and DVDs are 40% off. (I asked the cashier if prices would be lowered further after the 22nd, and she said "probably.") I scored some manga at that price, including Fruits Basket vol. 21, a collection of short stories by Usamaru Furuya called Happiness, and the eighth and ninth (and final, as it turns out) volumes of Furuya's comedy about breast obsession, Pi.
I made a day trip to Chicago two days ago, and discovered that the Japanese-language bookstore Asahiya, in the Mitsuwa shopping center in Arlington Heights, is shutting down. Its last day of operation will be Oct. 29. The situation isn't as dire as it could be: a new Japanese bookstore, Sanseido, has opened in another part of the shopping center, and they will special order books. But the new bookstore is much smaller than Asahiya, and its manga section is proportionately smaller, which means you're much less likely to discover new series browsing the shelves. It's at times like these that I really wish I was still living in New York City, or at least could afford to take frequent trips there.
The silver lining is that Asahiya is having a going-out-of-business sale. Through Oct. 22, books (not magazines), CDs, and DVDs are 40% off. (I asked the cashier if prices would be lowered further after the 22nd, and she said "probably.") I scored some manga at that price, including Fruits Basket vol. 21, a collection of short stories by Usamaru Furuya called Happiness, and the eighth and ninth (and final, as it turns out) volumes of Furuya's comedy about breast obsession, Pi.
Comments:
Oh, that's too bad. I was there a year ago and the selection was fantastic—my kids loved getting Fruits Basket in the original Japanese and their first manga magazine.
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