Kinokuniya Bookstore

I will put no star if possible. I have never seen more impolite Japanese business place in my life! Go to your local art and stationary store for better service and price. I will never come here again!

I am from San Diego so I was scouring the Internet for a Japanese book store in the Chicago area. They are rare here in comparison to Southern California so I am very happy to have found Kinokuniya! They have a lot of books and manga in Japanese. I am learning Japanese so if you, like me, are looking for Japanese material to practice reading in Japanese, this is a good place. They also have signs around stating they will order books if necessary for you so I am really thrilled about that. The prices were a bit «pricey» but it is expected for the shipping costs they incur. But otherwise, the prices weren’t that much more than the regular/​expected cost in my opinion.
They also had all of the Japanese language learning books that I have looked into or bought. It’s nice having textbooks to see and flip through to make sure they fit what you want for your learning experience. The Japanese language textbooks that you’d find at other US retailers seem to be the same/​regular cost here.
They also have manga in English and some books as well. They have a children’s book section in Japanese. There are also a lot of small cute knickknacks all over.
So overall a very good selection and a really great store. While I do miss buying a lot of used Japanese books/​mangas for $ 1 – 2 a piece at Book Off in San Diego. I think there is a great selection of reading material here for new items.

located inside mitsuwa market… this place is full of hard-​to-​find animé books and graphic novels, magazines, papers, and miscellaneous imported items… the prices are very expensive… there are plenty of parking but I would recommend you to park your car far and away from all the other cars because the parking slots/​space are made for tiny cars… but most who come here drive SUVs

I AM A TOTAL J-​NERD! This is the store for me. I can barely put together words to explain how amazingly great this store is. It is inside of Mitsuwa which is kind of like a Japanese department store. I am not quite into animé as much as manga so even though they don’t sell animé there it is still great for us otaku. Plus if you want animé, there is a small section in Mitsuwa behind the food court with DVDs. They have a decent section of animé. Kinokuniya has not only manga in both english and Japanese, but many other books, children’s books, animé figures, plushies, magazines, art supplies, school supplies and other random stuff. You never know what you’re going to get there. The only bad things are the prices. As a manga collector I am not used to actually getting manga at retail price, so just that could be making the difference, but all the Japanese books are at least two times the retail price. This is mostly because they are imported from Japan, but there are plenty of websites now that sell really cheap Japanese manga. Overall this is a great place to browse!

When I first moved to Chicago about 6 years ago, there wasn’t a Kinokuniya, and I was a bit disappointed. As fellow Unilocaler, S.M. pointed out, this location used to be another Japanese bookstore called Sanseido.
Gone is the music CD section, where I once purchased a Utada Hikaru CD album. I really hope that Kinokuniya can bring this section back, but I highly doubt it.
I’m a big fan of Kinokuniya since visiting their San Francisco and San Jose stores back in California, so I’m glad to see that they’re finally in the Chicago area. During my last visit, I managed to almost complete my Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon manga collection (I’m missing one) and I added another Japanese-​English cookbook to my bookshelf. I have a feeling I’m going to be trying out a lot of new Japanese recipes in the near future.

I’ve been waiting for this to open and it didn’t disappoint! Try to make it opening weekend and enjoy 10% off! More to come.

What was formerly Sanseido bookstore, the first shop on your way into Mitsuwa, is now Kinokuniya.
The good news: they stock realy cool stuff! From sideline toys to lots of stationery, origami paper and cards to oddities like fabric printed with Star Wars characters against traditional Japanese patterned backgrounds (cherry blossoms, temples), in addition to books and magazines and the rest.
The bad news: it’s wicked expensive! I was really stunned, to be honest. Mitsuwa and its shops run on the high side, but this really was sort of crazy. (The aforementioned Star Wars fabric was about $ 30 for a piece of printed cotton cloth.) Not surprisingly, staff is EVERYWHERE keeping an eye out so that tempted kids (or adults, for that matter?) aren’t pocketing erasers shaped like sushi.
This is a fun place to browse and maybe buy a gift or treat yourself to something (I bought some cards, which I used to do at Sanseido too), but I can’t imagine getting a ton of stuff, given the price. Still a fun shop, and a must-​stop as you start your visit to Mitsuwa.