If you haven’t been by the Kinokuniya Bookstore in Japantown lately, you may not be aware that the store has beefed up its toy section, making the store a sublime place to shop for a birthday or shower gift. Just imagine the look of delight on a child’s face when she opens a box to find a tiny reproduction of a Mid-century Modern chair from the Reina Design Interior Collection! Actually, she should be grateful, the little brat, the things are all-but-unavailable online, sold out everywhere. But I digress.
Perhaps Princess would prefer the smiling, round Domino wooden figures or banks from You&I Toys, or the intense expression on the face of the Nara Yoshitomo-designed rolling dog toy from French toy makers Vilac. And surely no one could resist the pocket-size Sonny Angel Mini Figures, which come in Vegetable, Fruit, and Animal sets. You’ll be the only guest at the party to bring kewpie dolls with onions and cabbages on their heads, imagine!
All joking aside, all this stuff is pretty hard to find, even online, and to have it arrayed before you at the bookstore is pretty delicious. If the selection at Kinokuniya were bigger, the toy section would even rival that of the SFMOMA MuseumStore. And that’s saying something.
The Kinokuniya Bookstore’s San Francisco branch is located at 1581 Webster Street (at Post Street) in the Kintetsu Mall in Japantown, San Francisco. Call 415-567-7625 or visit bookweb.kinokuniya.co.jp.