Sawtelle Books & Music

I was looking for a Japanese craft book. They answer the phone in Japanese, and I asked if they could look up a book by ISBN number. «Sorry, we don’t have it.» Click.
Don’t even both with this place.

Such bad customer service. If you call by phone and answer ‘hello’ in English instead of in Japanese, they will hang up on you.

This small, privately owned book store is definitely not for the modern generation American teenagers and young adults.
The only reason why I stopped by here is because they had back issues of Japanese fashion magazines going for $ 1 on a small fold-​out table outside.
Inside, it’s definitely a very, very small book shop filled with Japanese-​only books and magazines. They have some figurines, but they’re the ones you can buy from comic book stores (think Samurai X aka Rurouni Kenshin). I only assume they have it there just to diversify their stock a little. Also, the selection of magazines is extremely small compared to Asahiya in the same plaza as Nijiya Market, but it is essentially a book store for older generation Japanese customers.
The only other customers there, other than myself and my friend, where two very polite Japanese older ladies. It was a bit small, so I said «excuse me» in Japanese (probably one of the few things I remembered taking Japanese for 2 semesters in college) when I had to squeeze through to the cashier to pay for my magazine. The clerks and the ladies beamed at me, which was incredibly gratifying, as in «Yay! I pronounced it correctly!!»
A little awkward going in there because it is such a small place and it’s privately owned. However, the clerks are really nice and spoke very clearly.
Without a doubt though, I’m definitely coming here on occasion to see what back orders of fashion magazine they have available (such as FRUiTs and JJ).