{"id":2445,"date":"2025-09-01T11:30:37","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T02:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/?p=2445"},"modified":"2025-09-01T13:39:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T04:39:12","slug":"book-off-in-phoenix-az-brings-a-japanese-shopping-experience-to-arizonans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2025\/09\/01\/book-off-in-phoenix-az-brings-a-japanese-shopping-experience-to-arizonans\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Off in Phoenix, AZ brings a Japanese shopping experience to Arizonans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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On my trip to my hometown of Phoenix, AZ during my summer vacation, I was able to visit a Book Off on Bell Road! It opened within recent years. There have been Book Off stores all along in California. When Mayu and I used to live in America, we would visit the Book Off locations in Torrance, Garden Grove, Los Angeles and other areas. But now both Book Off and Daiso stores have opened in the Phoenix area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here are the signs outside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Look at all the books! The books are in English, of course. Otherwise, the experience is just like a Book Off in Japan. This makes Book Off a direct competitor with the long-standing Bookmans store locations in Arizona. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The store clerk says that so much of this stuff is imported from the Book Off locations in Japan. I guess they buy so much stuff that they just export it to the USA for sale there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So many anime figures for sale in the display case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So many pin buttons, keychains, and small figures. Just like a Book Off in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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They have import Famicom games from Japan! Star Wars, Red Arima, Parodius, Galaga… neat stuff!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Import Famicom and Super Famicom games too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Domestically-released modern games are sold used there as well, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is the Grave of the Fireflies movie soundtrack on vinyl record. I was surprised to find this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Huge selection of used, English-language manga. I bought several used volumes of Spy Family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gunpla! There were also other model kits there too. I even saw an Eggplane Girl resin figure by Hasegawa there, and for a good price. This is so cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dollar books. Very neat. I didn’t have time to look at the SF book selection there. It would’ve been nice if I had more time to spend, but I had quite a busy itinerary with my friends Kevin and Brian. (Our next destination was Andy’s Hobby HQ which I featured in my previous blog post.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On my trip to my hometown of Phoenix, AZ during my summer vacation, I was able to visit a Book Off on Bell Road! It opened within recent years. There have been Book Off stores all along in California. When Mayu and I used to live in America, we would visit the Book Off locations … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Book Off in Phoenix, AZ brings a Japanese shopping experience to Arizonans”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,246,4,84,2],"tags":[311,310,297,71,12],"class_list":["post-2445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anime-manga","category-books","category-modeling","category-music","category-video-games","tag-az","tag-book-off","tag-gunpla","tag-manga","tag-retrogaming"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2497,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2025\/09\/04\/a-visit-to-tiltstudio-arcade-at-arizona-mills-mall-in-tempe-az\/","url_meta":{"origin":2445,"position":0},"title":"A visit to TiltStudio Arcade at Arizona Mills Mall in Tempe, AZ","date":"2025-09-04","format":false,"excerpt":"So while I got to spend time with friends on my recent trip to Arizona, on the day which I visited Andy's Hobby HQ and Book Off, we also went to AZ Mills Mall in Tempe. TiltStudio is there, and this is where I found the Pac-Man Capsule Factory I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "video games"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG_1676.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2549,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2025\/09\/25\/a-daiso-store-in-chandler-arizona\/","url_meta":{"origin":2445,"position":1},"title":"A Daiso store in Chandler, Arizona","date":"2025-09-25","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the places I visited with friends in the Phoenix area is a new Daiso in Chandler! It provides an identical experience to a typical Daiso in Japan. Items just cost more than 100 yen, of course. When we used to live in Arizona, these types of items were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "life"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/IMG_1750-2-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2369,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2025\/07\/25\/images-of-jean-and-nadias-wedding-in-the-novel-jean-and-nadias-longest-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":2445,"position":2},"title":"Images of Jean and Nadia’s wedding in the novel, “Jean and Nadia’s Longest Day”","date":"2025-07-25","format":false,"excerpt":"I posted before about how the Nadia movie was a real dud, especially since it reset the characters and failed to feature Jean and Nadia's wedding in this post here although it was featured in a doujinshi manga I included scans of here. Well, I recently learned of this novel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "anime\/manga"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/NadiaNovel1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1497,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2024\/05\/19\/172-y-wing-sofubi-kit-by-argonauts\/","url_meta":{"origin":2445,"position":3},"title":"1:72 Y-Wing sofubi kit by Argo Nauts","date":"2024-05-19","format":false,"excerpt":"On my nerd shopping expedition with my friend Lou at the end of April, I was at a Book Off Plus in Maebashi and took a look at this kit. I've seen it at that store for many years now, but they had reduced the price from something like 4000\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "modeling"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Argonauts-Y-Wing.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":580,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2022\/10\/17\/my-backpack-is-covered-in-neat-o-nerd-buttons\/","url_meta":{"origin":2445,"position":4},"title":"My backpack is covered in neat-o nerd buttons","date":"2022-10-17","format":false,"excerpt":"I get a lot of comments on the buttons covering my backpack. I appreciate it when somebody has something to say about a button they've identified as something they know and like so that I can have a meaningful interaction with somebody, but if they are a boring person and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "anime\/manga"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/DSCN7188.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2342,"url":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/2025\/07\/11\/a-look-at-modeling-magazines-and-books-at-bookmans-academy-in-maebashi\/","url_meta":{"origin":2445,"position":5},"title":"A look at modeling magazines and books at Bookman’s Academy in Maebashi","date":"2025-07-11","format":false,"excerpt":"On the last Friday of June, after dinner in Maebashi we went to Bookman's Academy, a nice two-story bookstore on the road straight south from the sushi restaurant we ate at. This bookstore not only has a great selection of modeling magazines, but upstairs in the \"subculture\" category, there are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "books"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/KIMG0725-rotated.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2445"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2464,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2445\/revisions\/2464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevethefish.net\/stuff\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}