Saturday, April 18, 2009

Japanese visit Tonbridge....

Just had a really strange conversation about ex-libris book plates in my shop with a Japanese girl student visiting out fair Isles. You try explaining to a Japanese person, with only a very basic command of English, why you would bother to put a label on the inside page of a perfectly sound book to claim ownership of it. It is a little odd anyway if you start analysing it. Of course she bought them anyway, at £1.99 for 12 they were a bargain, and then we had the inevitable photo session of me outside the shop holding a pile of books for effect. Why do the Japansese want to do that everywhere they go? And another thing: did you know that the Japanese are obsessed with Winnie the Pooh? Bizarre I know but, curiously, true.

2 comments:

Andy Lloyd said...

It seems you have ushered in a new era for anglo-japanese relationships. They'll have you appearing on a bizarre gameshow next stuffing live rats down your trousers. I'll search the japanese blogs to see if I can find the picture taken outside your shop!

Sunny_Tonny said...

They also love Alice in Wonderland - there's a whole shop in Oxford dedicated to it which they flock to, and it's run by Japanese people too!