I know that bookstores in Japan do not have English books available even in the airport it’s rare to the point as if there’s none. (the only exception is Tokyo: where most of the tourists visit, in places such as Kinokuniya located in Shinjuku, they’re labeled as “foreign” books as in non-Japanese books since 98% of the rest regarding their library is entirely in Japanese, makes sense as most of the population only speaks it, there’s only a tiny section allocated for English books.) – Don’t expect to find *Romanian* books either in Japan as of course, no one there speaks it. – nor does it exist.
It poses a language barrier for Western or European tourists, they can’t read or make out the covers at all since it’s written entirely in Kanji / Kana, not using the Latin alphabet (Different from Romanian, Latin, Hungarian, etc.). Another thing to take note, Japanese books are read from Right to Left, not Left to Right as in all Romanian or European books. (Explained further [here](https://imgur.com/a/7LryFCj).)
I mean, I can read books in Japanese but keep in mind it’s a completely different experience, you start from what most people consider the ‘back’ > as the front, and you start reading the text from the top descending down to the bottom while reading R-L orientation. How many bookstores in Romania have books in English? Are books in English even common in Romania or not? (>!Can you find Japanese books written vertically from R-L as well?!<)
by Old_North8419
5 comments
There are plenty of english books to go around in most bookstores. I don’t know about Japanese though, maybe they have some in the really large bookstores but they are by no means common.
You can find books in English. Unfortunately no right to left books with vertical text.
Op, are you ok ?
> Are books in English even common in Romania or not?
Somewhat common I would say.
[Carturesti](https://carturesti.ro/raft/carte-straina-1937) has a section on foreign books and they do also have [physical bookstores as well](https://maps.app.goo.gl/xc9LiTqYKxSYhWH1A) and probably have a selection of foreign books
[Elefant.ro](https://www.elefant.ro/hp-foreign-books-cms-hp-foreign-books) is on online store which also has a foreign books section though they are an online bookstore only.
> Can you find Japanese books written vertically from R-L as well?
Highly doubt that there will be a physical store that has them (manga for instance if you find them here are in english).
You’d need to either go to amazon.de or [libristo.ro](https://www.libristo.ro/ro/carti-in-limba-japoneza) and have them delivered in a few weeks.
As it’s been said, there are plenty of English books to be found in most bookstores, especially large, chain ones, but don’t expect huge variety in most. There are even bookstores specialising in English books, but those are rather niche and often it’s easier to just buy from them online than go in person (at least I find it that way). This is not because of tourists, but because it isn’t uncommon for Romanian people to read books in English.
As you’d expect, there are no Japanese books, not in bookstores, nor (as far as I’m aware) in online only stores. There’s simply no demand for it as there are very few Japanese learners (but not an insignificant number) and even fewer natives (NB I don’t know what the ratio is but I presume there are fewer natives than learners). The closest you’ll get is manga, in being right to left, but only translated in English/Romanian of course.
I actually took a bit of time to check if there’s any way to find Japanese books in Romania. You could certainly but them online but probably from far away or for a steep price. It seems that even the Japanese Embassy in Romania’s library doesn’t hold books in Japanese, only in English and Romanian about Japan. I would assume there’s at least some library that has Japanese books, probably academic ones, but those probably only have what’s necessary for teaching so not really useful for a general audience. I’ll let you know if I find something.