Chiba City Central Library

Great range of English books!

I love reading and one of my favorite places to get books is the Chuo branch of Chiba City Library, aka Chiba City Central Library. Located in the center of Chiba City, it is housed in a bright, spacious building that is also home to a center that runs courses for adults and a Doutor cafe. The library takes up two floors and has a wide range of books, magazines and other media such as DVDs. There are plenty of sofas and desks throughout for anyone who wants to linger. Notably, it has a very good range of English books and a decent selection of books in other foreign languages too. These are kept on the second floor. The stock is kept up-to-date with new titles regularly appearing. Because the books aren’t in as high demand for obvious reasons, you can get newish books quite easily; on more than one occasion, I’ve seen a bestseller that piqued my interest in a Tokyo bookstore, if not quite enough to buy it, and then stumbled upon the book a short time later in the Chiba Central library. The children’s section on the first floor also has its own English and other foreign language picture book collection as well. The only demographics that get a bit shortchanged are older children; there is a jump from the picture book section to books for adults, and even the young adult books tend to be mixed in with those for adults. Still, it’s a LOT better than nothing. The library is about 11 minutes walk from JR Chiba station via the Chiba Park or East exit (locals will be able to tell you that these exits are almost the same thing). While the route is straightforward, any potential visitors with mobility issues should be aware that it is a pretty uphill climb. It is also accessible by monorail, Chiba Koen station, but there’s not much difference in terms of distance to using JR Chiba and you may want to save yourself the train fare. Paid parking is also available close by, and there are two parking lots where you can get your ticket paid for in part or even in full by inserting it in a machine near the library building’s entrance. The library is closed on regular Mondays, though not public holidays - it’s best to double check the website for closing dates ahead of time. Website: https://www.library.city.chiba.jp/english.html