Michael Cash <buggeroff@fake.com> wrote in message news:<1lunc05oegl861qvtpvi7s6remdoumcj7m@4ax.com>...
> On Sun, 13 Jun 2004 15:00:08 +0900, "John Yamamoto-Wilson"
> <johndeletethis@rarebooksinjapan.com> brought down from the Mount
> tablets inscribed:
> 
> >Second, a request:
> >
> >Anyone with any stories to tell about used bookstores in Japan? I'd be
> >interested to hear of stores (Japanese and foreign and mixed) that people
> >recommend, or places they'd steer clear of, whether as book-collectors and
> >bibliophiles or just in search of a good read.
> 
> Book-Off.
> 
> Clean, well-lit (or is that "well-lighted"?), neat, and most
> importantly.....ORGANIZED. Usually fairly spacious as well.
> 
> Anyone who has ever rummaged around through the rat's warren that is
> the typical mom-and-pop used bookstore in Japan will certainly
> appreciate Book-Off.
> 

Rakuten (furima.rakuten.co.jp) and Amazon (www.amazon.co.jp) both
offer used Japanese books online.  Rakuten used to have an arrangement
with Book-Off to list most (all?) of Book-Off's stock online, not sure
if they still do.  There aren't too many foreign books on Rakuten;
Amazon.co.jp's collection is larger but still pretty...
idiosyncratic...

-- J