It's not a bad Kinokuniya, but after going to the other ones, this one just doesn't stand out as much. It shares the same building with the Mitsuwa Market, so, of course, the shop is much smaller than the other ones out there, making it a bit more cramped. With this in mind, the books, stationery, gifts, and other goods here aren't as impressive as say a standalone Kinokuniya (common sense) or the ones that are located in malls. Or maybe I'm just spoiled by the options that I have in SoCal. It's not bad when you're in the area, but if you're a tourist and want a more comprehensive Kino experience, I would say your best bet is the Japantown SF location. However, it's still nice to stop by and see what cute stuff that they have. read more

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I love this Japanese bookstore. They have the cutest stuff, like stationary, felt pens, plushies, stickers, bags, comics, notepads, magazines (mostly in Japanese), and much more. It's all neatly organized and displayed nicely, the perfect setup to keep you wandering the aisles. I was there today, wanting to buy myself something cute. I saw lots of stuff that appealed to me, like kitty cat thank you cards, grocery shopping bags, and cute little doodad trays, but for whatever reason didn't buy myself anything. I still had a great time checking out all of the adorable merchandise. This shop is attached to Mitsuwa Market and you enter through the food court. This is a busy shopping center with lots of stores and restaurants; parking can be problematic on weekends. read more

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Cute bookstore with little gifts and pens and notebooks. I saw a cute Sanrio pencil pouch I was going to get but it was $30! lol. These tariffs are no joke and not worth the 30 bucks. Overall, it was nice to walk around and see the stuff. We didn't buy anything. read more

A pretty nice store that has a variety of Manga, books/magazines, stationary, and other items. It is pretty organized, however it does tend to get a bit cramped when there are a lot of people in the store since it shares the location with Mitsuwa. My daughter and I did purchase a few items here, and we were overall happy with our shopping here. read more

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Came here because I went to the in in JapanTown. JapanTown definitely has a bigger selection, but this is still a cool spot for little knick knack collectibles and if you're a Manga fan, definitely check this out. Located inside Mitsuwa market to the left. Magazines, calendars and even stationary can be found. The women at the counter were nice and greeted us when we passed the counter. I wanted to buy some stuff, but had already spent enough in the SF location, so I decided to hold off until next time read more

lovee this place to the bone spend like 60 dollars here at least every time i go love this place so much, where i get most my bsd merch from. so frickin awesome. i love my bsd stuff. selection is meh depending on when i go, usually good tho. love how kind employees at front are. read more

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Yall are sleeping on this, legit the best manga store in san jose. Im a regular and I love it! The staff are always nice and the service is beyond expectations. Whenever I cant find a book they always take their time away and help me find it. The value of the books are the right prices especially for japanese and English. If anything lets blame Donald Trump for these tariffs, but otherwise I love this store! read more

If i'm in the area, I Stop in here once in a while after grocery(snack) shopping. Especially if kids are along the shopping trip. The bookstore seem to have a pretty good selection of magazines, manga, plushies and stationaries. We browse most of time to see what's available. Store is clean and organized, the cashiers are always polite and nice. Worth a stop if you're in the area, find some unique gifts that's not always readily available elsewhere, prices vary depending on merch, some are reasonable and of course specialty items could be a bit up there. Parking spots could be limited depending on time of day. Conveniently Located near freeway exit. read more

First and foremost, parking in this plaza is atrocious! After seeing the amount of cars coming in and fighting each other for a parking slot, I just parked on the street and walked over. Street parking is also tough to find, but probably better off to do this than finding a parking spot in this plaza. This store is located inside Mitsuwa near the food court/stalls. Lots of merchandise to browse at. Prices are not cheap but again, it's Kinokuniya. I was able to find all the items I was looking for. As much as I like visiting, I don't think I can deal with the parking situation at this location. read more

Walking into this store makes me happy. It's so cute, and it's full of just trinkets and stuff that a cool influencer overconsumption girlie would have organized in her unnecessarily divided up desk drawers that she sets up wearing her hoodie sleeves over her hands. The workers are really friendly and theres never much of a wait to check out. The store is organized and clean, probably because they make you leave your food outside so stupid clumsy people and children can't spill. It is a little expensive, but everything is well made and you pay for cutesy wootsey-ness. read more

I go here every time I'm in the area. This location is not as big as the San Francisco location but I think it still has everything most people would need from here. They have huge collection of Japanese and English manga, Japanese magazines, Japanese learning materials, art books, stationary items, and a bunch of cute plushies and other cute items. I usually go here for Japanese learning books, some mangas, and some stationary items like my favorite pens and notebooks. For someone that buys alot, the yearly membership is definitely worth it. You also get a gift card at the end of the year if you spend enough as a thank you! The ladies that work here are always very very nice and helpful. I love the happy smiles that welcome me at the checkout. Anyway nothing bad to say about this place. Pricing for items is fair for the quality you get. Highly recommend! read more

Leagues better than the location in SF less packed even on a weekend and always able to buy sonys and smiskis at reasonable prices which is hard to find as even around here theseres places that sell them wayy over retail here youll get just the right price although my luck is bad and I always end up gettin dupes haha!! But the cashiers are always so sweet and patient! read more

Just a small and simple place full of Japanese foods. Featuring manga, light novels and so on.

So, SO cute! I loved my visit to this store. A little on the pricey side, but offers many products that are not available elsewhere. I was really interested in Sanrio products and luckily I found a really nice tote bag for ~$17. Very nice folks working here. The bookstore is located in a grocery store, so you can even grab lunch after you shop! read more

Kinokuniya - Bookstores Near Me - San Jose, California

Not only has selection been dwindling in recent years but now they no longer accept cash as payment. Very disappointing that they used to be a place I was excited to go to. I suggest going to jetpens.com they have a much bigger selection and if they are not going to accept cash might as well go there. Service was very kind but... might as well shop where it's cheaper and has a much larger selection. read more

I love that San Jose has a Kinokuniya bookstore! I usually go to the location in San Francisco so when I saw this was in the plaza, I had to go in! They offer a variety of plushies, pens/pencils, notebooks, cookbooks, etc. The right side of the store has a huge stationary area with pens/pencils ranging from 0.7mm-0.25mm. They have cute notebooks, erasers, and fountain pens too. I have to say if you're looking for cute gifts for someone this is the place to go to for sure. Every employee here was nice and helpful if you ever have questions. read more

Who doesn't love a Japanese Bookstore with an abundance of stationary. I collect fountain pens so I'm very familiar with the current pries of things when it has to do with those products so trust me when I say that those items are at least about 50% marked-up from their MSRP or what you can get them on the internet. I suspect that the other items in the store are also a little more expensive than their internet counterparts. What I do vey much love about this store is that they have a lot of Japanese imports that are very hard to find even on the internet. Service is impeccable. read more

Love shopping and browsing the Kinokuniya Bookstore..usually while waiting for our Santouka Ramen orders. It's connected to the Mitsuwa Japanese Grocery store! There are so many unique stickers, stuffed animals, pens, books, etc here. The amount of books and magazines here take up almost half the store! I found a cool Sushi: Jiro Gastronomy Paperback book. I had no idea he had written one after the show a few years back. If you shop here a lot they have a pretty good loyalty program that you can purchase into but gives you a lot back. The employees are always so polite, friendly, and helpful. read more

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Best Japanese bookstore/gift store around here, inside Mitsuwa grocery store. I never gave them a review, but they're definitely 5-stars here. You can pretty much find something you like across all aisles inside the store. I always look for cute gifts, aprons, gift bags, idol magazines, office supplies, letter sets, note cards, animation books, cookbooks, dollhouses, puzzles, and teacup sets. Whatever you're looking for, they probably have it here inside this Japanese bookstore. I didn't expect to find the cute dollhouses or store displays, but they definitely have beautiful ones here. Love the petite cafe, bookstore, and garden shop displays. Great collection and inexpensive around or under $50 each. Kids and adults love them. I would likely buy a set in the future. Good holiday gifts. It's the variety of good selections that makes the store great. Excellent customer service too as needed. Staffs are helpful. Good environment to be poking around anytime of the day. At least you won't have to drive up to Japantown in San Francisco for these items. Highly recommended. I'll come back to buy some calendars and home decor items in future too. Very tempting and attractive bookstore right outside of the food court area. Not easy to miss. read more

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There is a good selection of stationery, and they even have fountain pens. I enjoyed the time I spent here.

They did not have what I was looking for this time, but still had a great selection for browsing, as always. Staff was friendly. I wish they'd had what I needed, though. read more

This branch is located inside the Mitsuwa mall. It's smaller than the SF store but still packed with lots of books and cute items. I found some Japanese Sanrio books. Prices of course are more expensive but you're buying stuff you can't get anywhere else. The clerks sort of ignore you so it's ok. read more

v good service, there's gotcha machines around too, and price is p normal as well. i was p impressed, not as big as other kinokuniya stores but still big for being inside mitsuwa market ! read more

Kinokuniya - so cute - Bookstores Near Me - San Jose, California

Great selection, great staff, good prices. Overall a very nice experience. Definitely plan on going back, as they constantly update their stock with the newest releases. What stood out to me was the abundance of niche titles that they had available, which I thought was very cool. read more

Cute bookstore within an asian shopping center/market. They have a lot of stationary ítems as well. I love their notebooks!

I am absolutely in love with this place. I always stop by this location when I'm in San Jose they have unique stationary. I always like to buy a little gift for everybody. You can find so many things I highly suggest this location and you can never go wrong with a bookstore. read more

Kinokuniya - Bookstores Near Me - San Jose, California

It's a super cute bookstore. I love shopping here. Besides magazines and books, there are stationary, cups, keychains, bags, pens, and more. The store is clean and organized. read more

Came here for the first time I was very excited to find a Japanese bookstore! I really like the store and will be back again!

Polite and helpful staff! I like to browse here whenever I'm in the area and checking out the market to see whats new. They usually update their stuff often, and the store is a good enough size to have just what you need, even niche stuff (even if your fav manga isn't popular in the west like mine is). I've visited this place for over a decade now and I feel like I've never seen it in a mess or disarray. What I found really helpful is that the staff is able to order items to the store if it's not in stock, I've had to do this a couple times- the first time they need to take a while to type in your info, but after that it should be saved to the system and the process is quicker. The prices at Kinokuniya are pretty expensive compared to how the original prices for the items in JP are, but being able to buy something like manga in-store is easier than having to order and import stuff online sometimes. The higher pricing is just the cost of them importing the items as well. It's also nice browsing manga in-person. read more

the people were very nice! i lover everything there!!!! amazing workers, clean, and good vibes :)

I'm not a fan of manga, sanrio, or anime. However, this store never fails to impress with its books about sushi, sashimi, and ramen. This is the largest bookstore chain in Asia and based out of Japan. They have many locations up and down the West Coast (Seattle, Portland, the SFBA, and SoCal). A great selection of pens, envelopes, writing books, and books. I bought a children's book (holiday gift) for my nephew last December from here, and will buy another for him from here this year as well. read more

They did not give me my Blue Lock pin even though it says comes after spending 50$ on Blue Lock merch. They were very stingy and looked at me strange. I used too like this place. read more

Their store is pretty decent and they have a wide variety of Japanese books, toys and crafts. I wanted to get Japanese books for my baby and they had more than what I expected. The pricing...they are about 1.5 to 2 times of the original yen pricing. Pretty much the same as what you see on US Amazon...but they have far more books than Amazon. I wish the store is a lot closer than 2 hours from me, but it seems they have online store as well. read more

This place is inside of the market! It's such a cute bookstore with different things you can buy. If you're a fan of stationary things, cute little plushies, or just random cute fun things, this place is the spot! I specifically went here to find some Smiskis! You have to get in line and tell them because they are behind the register. The two ladies working there were very calm and nice & helpful. Will definitely be back to support and buy all the cute things! read more

Kinokuniya - SMISKI - Bookstores Near Me - San Jose, California

It's a super cute bookstore attached to a Japanese market. They mainly sell Japanese comics here, and my preteen has been really getting into anime. Books are brand new, and super reasonably well priced. 2 books for under $20. They also sell cute little stuffed animals, stationary, and milk pens. Yes! Those milky pens from the 90's!! Also they have some Harry Potter stuff here as well. Knowing my preteen she'll be back. I'll use this as an excuse to make her do her chores. read more

I absolutely love kinokuniya bookstores. My first store experience was in nyc n I love it so much. I was so delighted to find out there's a kinokuniya bookstore at the mitsuwa supermarket plaza in sj. It was the perfect time to check out the bookstore after stocking up on Japanese grocery. COVID19 protocols Social distance enforced. No food or drinks in store. A lot of hand sanitizers outside of the store and you will need to use it before entering. Customers and staff must wear a mask. There are so many ghibli theme stationary, gifts, puzzles, books. I was mostly there for the totoro small puzzle. My bf loves to read manga and it was a great place for couples to do different things. The store was very spacious to me. There wasn't a crowd or anything. I was able to get by each aisle easily. A few stationary caught my eyes. Cute tiny figure with different poses for the desk, Handcraft wooden earrings, and dog lover play cards. The price and value of the items are $10-15. It was very reasonable priced. It was the perfect gift to others. I'd visit again next time. read more

Kinokuniya - Figure in poses - Bookstores Near Me - San Jose, California

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This Kinokuniya is attached to the Mitsuwa Japanese grocery store. It's a lot smaller than the Kinokuniya in San Francisco, so as a result inventory is a lot smaller. But it's a lot more curated here. There are Japanese books/manga obviously, but less of the kitschy items like blind boxes and keychains (WHICH I LOVE AND SPEND TOO MUCH MONEY ON). It's still a good selection to browse! There are some English novels but I find that the majority of it is in Japanese. There is a fun gift and home section too, with things like stationery galore. read more

Good place to go for Japanese stationary and books! Prices are a little high but when you consider having to import many items, I'm okay with it. If you are Japanese and want to order Japanese books or mangas (or for me, light novels) you can always order online and have it shipped to the store for pickup. The Japanese ladies working the shop is so nice and friendly! A staple bookstore in the Bay area!! read more

Best place to eat and read anime and graphic novels ................................................................................................................ read more

Love this store! It's my go-to place for xmas presents and birthday presents always. They always have super cute Hello Kitty stuff, lots of different anime merch, and lots of manga. Their stationary is also super cute! This location has a really extensive selection of pretty much anything you'd ever need. The prices are a little high just because all of the things here are Japanese goods, and those always seem to be pricy. It's to be expected though! I wouldn't come here expecting it to be cheap. Staff are super sweet too, they're always very polite and helpful. read more