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In Atarashii Mikan no Mukikata, discover a hobby to make even fuller use of a mandarin besides eating the fruit and composting the rind. Filled with wondrously imagined animals and creations.

A trio of tenants in a suburban Tokyo block find their disparate lives brought a little closer as their eviction deadlines loom. This subtle, modern tale imbues buildings with nearly as much personality as it does the characters within.

Written as both a field manual for an anime-phile’s next pilgrimage as well as an infopedia to the various incarnations of Japan’s pop media. An alternative title could as easily have been the Otaku’s Travel Guide to Tokyo.

A 4th grade boy has a crush on the lady who sells sandwiches at the supermarket, who he nicknames Ms Ice Sandwich due to her cool demeanour and ice-blue eyelids. At only 92 pages, this delightful and heartwarming novella is a quick but worthwhile read.

Every night, Japan’s host clubs serve a blend of reality and romantic fantasy in an addictive emotional cocktail.

For the theatrically arresting and visually flamboyant art of kabuki there is an entire world of subtleties to the actions of performers. Exactingly photographed and concisely annotated, this book elevates kabuki appreciation to the next level.

Told in a hyper-realistic, flowing stream-of-consciousness style with shifting narrative perspectives, Okada provides snapshots into the lives of low-wage Japanese people in the early 2000s.

Take a walk on the macabre side with horror manga poster girl, Tomie. This is a collection of Junji Ito’s addictive and unsettling stories featuring his original, and literal, femme fatale.