A ten-minute stroll from Palaceside Building, turn right at Jimbocho Crossing toward Surugadai-shita, and in less than 100 meters you find the Book and Town Information Desk (1-7-7 Kanda-Jimbocho, Chiyoda; 11:30–18:00, closed Sundays and holidays). A colleague shot photos on a sales round and looked it up. The izakaya-like sign is conspicuous, so many people must know it. Fewer may have actually gone in.
Jimbocho is a world-class “book town,” with some 170 used bookstores, 30 new-book shops, and publishers packed together. Officers at Jimbocho Police Station reportedly could not let go of the “used-book street map,” and voices saying “if there were a tourist-style desk, you could find the shop you want” had been around for quite a while.
That is how this desk opened in October 2007. The Kanda Used Booksellers League rented a vacant store, and groups active here — NPO Renso Shuppan, Navi-Bura Jimbocho, the Jimbocho Support Squad, NPO Kanda Zatsugaku University, Chiyoda Library, and others — run it together.
The “sell” is Renso’s “associative search.” Besides a used-book database of some 350,000 volumes from about 50 Jimbocho shops, you can search new books too: throw in a word or a sentence and related information gathers. Even a vague question brings up keywords on its own (?) and widens the world of interest. For the feel of a search, see the Navi-Bura Jimbocho site (http://www.navi-bura.com/special/annaijo_book.php). Volunteer guides are on duty, so you can relax.
Jimbocho is a gourmet town as well as a book town, and that guidance is solid too — also on Navi-Bura (http://www.navi-bura.com/special/annaijo_food.php). If anything, demand may be higher on this side.
I too often finish book-buying on the office or home PC. I used to walk Jimbocho a lot; lately my feet have drifted away. Now and then I should stroll and then eat something good… but I worry about heatstroke, so I will wait until it is a little cooler.