The Ship Model Forum

Topic is old, but I wanted to give my 2 cents since I travel to Japan regularly.

1. If you are expecting the books in Japan to have different or better photos than their English counterparts, don't.
Most books use the same photographic sources. If you read a lot of books you will see the same photos used again and again.

2. Try to look for a book that is dedicated to a particular class of ship, such as the Fubuki or Tama, there.
You will have much better luck finding unique information going that route.

3. Go to the Tokyo Metropolitan library. Dead serious. If your mission is to hunt down books for reference then go there and take down the ISBN of those that you want to buy.
The amount of WWII material they have their is extensive.

Argh, there is a small Japanese books (as opposed to English language books) bookstore in...........................well, argh, errr,....... unfortunately I can't remember where, but my now deceased friend sure bought me numerous - mainly WWII IJN photo books - there that would have, at the time on-line cost and arm and, sometimes, both legs.

So, sorry about not having the address, but..............................there are some deals to be had in Japan, that's for sure, depends on what your looking for I guess.

Thank you very much, I will check both Ikebukuro and Shibuya out, as it’s an easy train commute for for both places (hooray for Japanese transit systems!).

Sorry about the late reply, but I was hoping someone else who might be more knowledgeable about this subject would respond sooner. I would recommend the Junkudo book store in the Ikebukuro neighborhood of Tokyo. It is a very large multi-story bookstore that would have several shelves of naval books. In the Shibuya district of Tokyo there is a Maruzen & Junkudo store. I haven't been there, but it should be comparable.

Hi guys,

I hope this is the right place to ask this question, and it is this:

I am going to be in Japan in just a couple days, and I was wondering if anyone might know of a place/bookstore I could stop by to pick up some books.
I am primarily going to be in Tokyo, and currently I am looking for the Gakken books on IJN ships (Battleships, cruisers). I know these are a valuable resource, anyone know where one can go physically to buy them? But I'm also open to other national navies (USN, RN etc.,) as well as other reference books that are invaluable to our craft!

Thanks!