Furuhon Matsuri: The festival of old books

It’s Matsuri (festival) day! After the Nihonbashi parade, I went to the Furuhon (furui=old, hon=book) Matsuri in Kanda. Kanda is an area well known for it’s impressing number of book stores. It’s not major book stores lined up you will find there but small stores packed to the ceiling with books. There is always a good selection of used books in good condition and that’s why this area is especially popular with students.

At the Furuhon Matsuri, people don’t dress as books and walk down the streets cheering. Instead you will find a lot of book stands and many bargains. There are food stands as well. Many book stands concentrated on a specific type of book, so there were history books on sale on one stand and children’s books on the other one. I did look for a nice art book but the ones I found weren’t that interesting for me.

Because the book stands were limiting the space for pedestrians, it was quite hard to get through. The weather was very nice so although I left the festival empty-handed, it was a good experience.