From: Eiki Ito HAL COM> Date: 5 mar 2001 Subject: Japanese Bookstores Overseas to get Shogi books (Re: Japanese Responding to an old mail... >There is one thing I wonder about - is there a site that lists Japanese >language books, with descriptions in English? > >I have often tried to locate lists of shogi books but this only seems to be >possible on purely Japanese language sites. I wouldn't mind buying Japanese >shogi books, but I'd like to know in advance more about what I was getting. > >jt I tried a little bit to find one, but the result was the same - Japanese only. The obvious reason behind it is that if you ever want to read a book, you should know the language, I guess. Unfortunately this is not the case with non-Japanese Shogi players who know only thirty or so Kanji's just enough to read Kifu (piece names, numbers, "drop," "promote," etc) and trying to follow Kifu. However, I found a list of Japanese bookstores overseas, in a book which I happened to buy yesterday. If you live near one, you might want to visit it and skim thru shogi books there. The list is attached below. I thought this might be a substitute for needs like Jonathan's. BTW, if you are looking for books on openings, one thing I would recommend for non-Japanese is "Joseki Hyakka" series from Mainichi Communications. Reason: it has "!" and "?" on moves and "++," "+-" and "--" on diagrams, to indicate whether considered good or bad. Many other books don't have those marks, and without them nor Japanese explanation, it's sometimes really hard to tell what is good and what is bad unless you are a really good dan-level player. (Take "Habu's Brain" for example...) thanks, eiki ------------- Notes: * Names of stores are written in Katakana, so I don't know how to spell them. In such cases, I just put Roma-ji spelling (in double quotes, e.g. "Bugis"). Pls try to figure out if it sounds unfamiliar. *The book is "Kaigai Shijo Kyouiku Directory 2000," published 7/2000 by Gakken. *All info subject to change. Feel free to send corrections to eiki hal com *Clerks should speak the local language, or at least English (I guess...) *I personally know Kinokuniya San Jose and SF. They both have quite a few shogi books. Not sure about other ones, though. ==== Asia ==== [Singapole] Kinokuniya Singapole 65-737-5021 Kinokuniya "Ryankoto" 65-337-1300 Kinokuniya "Bugis" 65-339-1790 Maruzen Singapole Takashimaya 65-735-1577 [Indonesia] Kinokuniya Plaza Indonesia 62-21-3107575 Maruzen Kyoei Prince 62-21-5723341 Maruzen "Pasaraya Mangarai" 62-21-8307642 Maruzen Block M 62-21-7268333 [Malaysia] Kinokuniya "Rotto" 10 60-3-2441689 Kinokuniya "Pusa Pandaraya" 60-3-2940722 Kinokuniya "Penan" 60-4-2275062 Kinokuniya KLCC 60-3-3820230 Maruzen "Banda Utama" 60-3-7162861 [Thailand] Kinokuniya Bangkok 65-255-9834 Kinokuniya "Sukunpitto" 65-664-8554 [Hong Kong] Asahiya HongKong Sogo 852-2893-6083 Asahiya HongKong Jusco 852-2886-0286 [Taiwan] * names for Taiwan stores are in Kanji, I don't know how to pronounce in Taiwanese. Here I put Japanese pronounciation, which I suppose is no use. Just call them. "Takao" is ... um ... "high, male." Got it? Kinokuniya Taipei "Chuko" 2-2721-2304 Kinokuniya Taipei "Tenmo" 2-2832-0406 Kinokuniya "Taichu Seisei" 4-321-0328 Kinokuniya Taiwan "Takao" 7-272-5120 Kinokuniya "Takao Santa" 886-7-335-8002 ==== Oceania ==== [Australia] JBP = Japan Book Plaza JBP Gold Coast 61-5595-7501 JBP Melbourne 61-9660-6517 JBP Sydney 61-9299-3733 Kinokuniya Sydney 61-9953-8855 ==== Europe ==== [London] Japan Centre 44-171-4398035 Books Nippon 44-171-2484956 Asahiya London 44-181-2000039 [Paris] Junkudo 33-1-42608912 [Dusseldorf] Takagi Shoten 49-211-172060 ==== America ==== [USA] Kinokuniya Portland 1-503-641-1059 Kinokuniya Seattle 1-206-587-2477 Kinokuniya San Fransisco 1-415-567-7825 Kinokuniya San Jose 1-408-252-1300 Kinokuniya Costa Mesa 1-714-434-9966 Kinokuniya Los Angeles 1-213-887-4480 Asahiya Los Angeles 1-213-626-5650 Asahiya Santa Monika 1-310-915-6633 Asahiya Torance 1-310-787-0700 Asahiya San Diego 1-619-565-0100 Asahiya Chicago 1-847-228-9851 Asahiya New York 1-212-883-0011 Kinokuniya New York 1-212-765-1461 Kinokuniya New Jersey 1-201-941-7580