So you've arrived, time to shop!!
For simplicity, I shall break down this section into the different sections of Tokyo. Brace yourself because this is going to be a bit long winded and detailed but hopefully it will allow you to find what you're looking for.
Starting right off with the big main area that we've all heard of. A couple of side notes, unless you really really want to experience a maid cafe, don't do it. The food is usually average at best relative to the price and a number of them only have Japanese speaking attendants so unless you can speak the language, it won't be that enjoyable. Another thing is if you enjoy video games, go to one of the arcades. Living in Toronto, the concept of arcades completely died out by the late 90's so it's always a lot of fun for me to spend a couple hours there.
Store Listing:
1. Yodobashi Camera-
(Tokyo, Chiyoda, Kanda Hanaokacho, 1−1) HUGE electronic store right outside Akihabara Station.
No vintage figures here, and frankly their Transformer selection is pretty small relative to other toylines but it's worth a look through if you're hunting for your everyday run of the mill figures.
2. Mandarake Complex - (Tokyo / Soto-Kanda 3-chome, 11-12) Near Taito Station Akihabara it's one of the staple places to check out for both vintage and recently released figures. To be honest though, in recent years prices for vintage figures haven't been the best, often times about what you'd expect to pay from eBay. You can find a bit of information about the store here Mandarake Akihabara
3. Liberty Shop #7 and #8 (#12 and #13) - (4-5-1 Soto-Kanda) This store is a little confusing in the sense that if you asked anyone where the Liberty Shop is, you'd get a different answer depending on who and where you are in Akihabara as they are a collection of several shops in the area. Of those shops, #7 and #8 are where you are going to want to go for second hand Transformers. The thing to consider is that since this is a second hand shop, inventory changes week to week so you might find something one trip to Tokyo (for me it was my 2008 trip) and then find next to nothing the next time (2011 and 2014 come to mind). That said, it's a fun shop to go through. Here's a link to their website's maps, use Google Chrome for translation Liberty Shop
4. Toys Goldenage - (1F Kobayasi Bldg, 4-7-2 Soto-Kanda, Chiyoda-ku) This is a small shop selling vintage figures. However you can sometimes find a few gems here as it's a store that isn't as frequented as some of the other bigger stores like Mandarake.
5. Jungle Akihabara - (1F, Suehiro Bldg. 3-9-2 Soto-Kanda, Chiyoda-ku) Price wise I've found this vintage shop to be a bit more then some of it's competitors, that said they do sometimes have a good variety of figures.
6. Supoji - (Chiyoda-ku Tokyo Soto-Kanda 3-1-9) Right across from Mandarake, this is a relatively newer shop atleast in Tokyo. They do have other shops in Japan. They deal in second hand toys but be warned, the shop is small and easy to miss. However I did find a couple of nice figures here before at reasonable prices so it's worth checking out for sure. You can check out their website here for further information Supoji
Now, with all that said, there are a lot of smaller shops, in and around the area so if you happen to venture to one of them, GO IN. Many stores in Tokyo are multi levelled and so if you do a quick peak through the shop window, you might actually miss something because they just may have that Transformer you've wanted on a different floor.
No comments:
Post a Comment