Sapporo Chuo Library: Chuo My Ass!

Libraries are places of power, where the combined weight of knowledge and ideas bends the very fabric of time and creates pockets of genius and serenity unlike any other man-made constructions on earth.

And you can quote me on that.

However I had to cycle a bloody long way to get to this one:


Sapporo Chuo Library (Chuo means central pretty much) is by no means central. It's 22 blocks south of the city centre, and almost as far east as you can go without hitting the mountains. Still, I'm glad I put in the leg-work to cycle the sixty five (count 'em!) blocks to get there because they have a pretty good selection of English language books, including a fair chunk of Japanese books in their English editions, which is something I'd like to sink my teeth into.

Also it's a library, and I love libraries, and this one felt much the same as every other library in the world - i.e. wonderful. Almost every seat was full but I still could've found somewhere to sit down and read had I wanted and maybe one day I'll do just that.