Finally going to Tokyo!

[c0nn0r]

As the title says - I'm finally going to Tokyo in about a month. Of course I'm going to check out some great game-centers and game shops, etc. I Also want to make it out to Hard Off, or whatever the good store like that.

My question is:

Where are the best places to go considering that I will have maybe only 1 or 2 days to explore.

Anyone need me to bring them something back?

 

[CORY]

Bring STV back with you here in Montreal for some flying hockey pucks action!

FOR GREAT JUSTICE

 

[cdamm]

Bring STV back with you here in Montreal for some flying hockey pucks action!

FOR GREAT JUSTICE

when you are done with your canadian (maple flavored?) justice, drop him here in chicago will ya?

 

[c0nn0r]

Bring STV back with you here in Montreal for some flying hockey pucks action!

FOR GREAT JUSTICE

Shit man. Sorry - I live in Toronto now. Just moved here. Also just updated my profile to reflect that sad news. :-(

 

[CORY]

when you are done with your canadian (maple flavored?) justice, drop him here in chicago will ya?

HOLY SHIT

 

[ChopstickSamurai]

I've been twice in 2007 and 2009 and it was the most fun I've ever had. Just wandering around aimlessly can lead to some happy memories. Have fun!

 

[HDRchampion]

Checkout those vending machines & bring back some used pantsu...

 

[SNKorSWM]

Smash 'n grab dat Warlock of the Fates cart. XD

 

[Beelay]

Depends where you're staying! Generally places like Shinjuku and obviously Akihabara are dense with game shops. (The latter being a pretty overpriced, though.)
In my experience, Hard Offs are a bit more out of the way than other shops. When I was there I frequented many a Book Off. They're abundant with good, cheap games.

 

[ChopstickSamurai]

Depends where you're staying! Generally places like Shinjuku and obviously Akihabara are dense with game shops. (The latter being a pretty overpriced, though.)
In my experience, Hard Offs are a bit more out of the way than other shops. When I was there I frequented many a Book Off. They're abundant with good, cheap games.

On my last trip to Tokyo I found the Book Offs to be great, as well as Tsutaya which is a book store but also sells games as well. I really liked hitting the Tsutayas since they also had a great selection of video game art books as well.

One thing your going to want to do no matter what game store you go to is to check out the Junk Box. These are sometimes located near the door of the shop, but are always labeled as junk in English. While some of the items are indeed junk and not working, most actually do. A lot of the games in the junk boxes are items that the shop has too many in stock. Instead of going through the trouble to clean and test the games they will sell them as is in the junk box at a discount. I bought many great games and accessories from these boxes at maybe 100 to 200 yen a pop. Everything from complete Playstation games to loose famicom carts. Keep in mind the last time I went was in 2009, but I'm sure the practice is still being used.

 

[arcwyvern]

I was there in Oct. last year. Akihabara is cool to check out the game centers but the game shops are a different story. My first visit was in 2003 and there were tons of shops with great prices all over that place. Now there is a smattering along with super potato and mandrake and the prices are ebay. Book off and tsutaya, as mentioned earlier, in shibuya and shinjuku had way better deals. If you have never been before, akihabara is totally worth going. Yodobashi Camera is pretty mind blowing.

 

[funkified]

On my last trip to Tokyo I found the Book Offs to be great, as well as Tsutaya which is a book store but also sells games as well. I really liked hitting the Tsutayas since they also had a great selection of video game art books as well.

One thing your going to want to do no matter what game store you go to is to check out the Junk Box. These are sometimes located near the door of the shop, but are always labeled as junk in English. While some of the items are indeed junk and not working, most actually do. A lot of the games in the junk boxes are items that the shop has too many in stock. Instead of going through the trouble to clean and test the games they will sell them as is in the junk box at a discount. I bought many great games and accessories from these boxes at maybe 100 to 200 yen a pop. Everything from complete Playstation games to loose famicom carts. Keep in mind the last time I went was in 2009, but I'm sure the practice is still being used.

This was definitely the case in 06-07 when I lived there too! Many good deals to be had in the junk bins!

The book off in my local area (Matsudo) was always stocked daily with new used stock at great prices!

 

[Rancor]

I've been to a good percentage of the Hard-Offs in Tokyo, and they are more often than not disappointments. If you're looking for PS2, PS3, or any flavor of DS hard/software, you're gonna love it. If you have a taste for anything else you will be sorely disappointed. If you do find some PS2 games that you like, expect eBay prices. I saw Dodonpachi last Monday for Y5,000. I have a feeling that all of the stores in Tokyo are picked over by every foreigner / English teacher that comes here. When you get to one, you'll see what I mean. Shopping is Akihabara for retro games is a joke now. May as well stay at home and see what you can find online. Prices started getting ridiculous in about February 2012. I really only go there now for PCBs, but STV has pretty much ruined that.
If you can make it out to the countryside, that's where the deals are to be had. Boxed Turboduos for Y10,000. CIB famicom games for Y500, I got an MSX computer with ~20 games last week for Y5,000. Boxed famicom with all papers for Y2,000. Boxed super famicoms for Y4,000. Amazing finds at nearly every store. I wanted to get a boxed PC-FX that I found for Y2,000 but I ran out of money.
Hardoff has a sister-store out in Saitama called Hobby-Off, and the deals are amazing. I make it out there twice a month, and come back with a trunk-load of retro treasures. There's also another store called Toy Planet that only sells used toys and games, and the prices will leave your jaw on the floor. Its a giant warehouse, and looks like costco for old games and toys. The only problem is that you'll need to rent a car, or make friends with someone that does.

Toy Planet:
http://www.toyplanet.jp/

oh, and then there's this place:

http://www.beep-shop.com/

I wont even talk about that since it's waaaayy in the countryside, and you'd never go back home if you found it.

Have fun while you're here!

 

[Tw3ek]

I've been to a good percentage of the Hard-Offs in Tokyo, and they are more often than not disappointments. If you're looking for PS2, PS3, or any flavor of DS hard/software, you're gonna love it. If you have a taste for anything else you will be sorely disappointed. If you do find some PS2 games that you like, expect eBay prices. I saw Dodonpachi last Monday for Y5,000. I have a feeling that all of the stores in Tokyo are picked over by every foreigner / English teacher that comes here. When you get to one, you'll see what I mean. Shopping is Akihabara for retro games is a joke now. May as well stay at home and see what you can find online. Prices started getting ridiculous in about February 2012. I really only go there now for PCBs, but STV has pretty much ruined that.
If you can make it out to the countryside, that's where the deals are to be had. Boxed Turboduos for Y10,000. CIB famicom games for Y500, I got an MSX computer with ~20 games last week for Y5,000. Boxed famicom with all papers for Y2,000. Boxed super famicoms for Y4,000. Amazing finds at nearly every store. I wanted to get a boxed PC-FX that I found for Y2,000 but I ran out of money.
Hardoff has a sister-store out in Saitama called Hobby-Off, and the deals are amazing. I make it out there twice a month, and come back with a trunk-load of retro treasures. There's also another store called Toy Planet that only sells used toys and games, and the prices will leave your jaw on the floor. Its a giant warehouse, and looks like costco for old games and toys. The only problem is that you'll need to rent a car, or make friends with someone that does.

Toy Planet:
http://www.toyplanet.jp/

oh, and then there's this place:

http://www.beep-shop.com/

I wont even talk about that since it's waaaayy in the countryside, and you'd never go back home if you found it.

Have fun while you're here!

+1 for Beep Shop! Love that place!

 

[blotter12]

Head to the Shinjuku Golden Gai for the night life. Check out the show at the Robot restaurant (if you want to spend that kind of time in one place).

 

[Larrs888]

Hope you have a great time over there, I booked flights to go to Osaka at the start of October but will hopefully spend a weekend at Tokyo as well. Need to find myself a nice condition model 1 Sega Megadrive

 

[kris79]

When I was young I would go to Japan once a year every summer for a couple weeks. And there was one game store that was small but it had a roll up door and was like the size of a small loading dock. All the games were hanging on the walls and the ceiling in those plastic bags. And the shelves were loaded to the brim but everything was very organized so you could find just about anything. Out of all the places even Akihabara, that small little hole in the wall store brings back the greatest memories of game hunting in Japan.

 

[insaneben]

Not video game-related, but if you're in Shinjuku, go to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building and ride the elevator to the 45th floor.
Also, if you're in Ueno, wander around the Ameyokocho market street.
If you're in Shibuya, check out the Meiji Jingu shrine (when I went there late-afternoon, there were only a handful of people touring the grounds; the wall of sake barrels is also a sight not to be missed).
If you're in Asakusa, walk straight through the market stalls to Sensou-ji/Asakusa Kannon Temple.

(Note that I accomplished all that plus a brief tour of Akihabara in two days, so it's very much doable, provided you don't focus too much on tracking down games and game centers. Also, I did all this and more nearly ten years ago, so while all of the places I've mentioned still exist, how you get there might have changed. I took the train to get to all of those places, so I doubt much else has changed.)

As for what I'd want from Tokyo... a return trip, perhaps? (All expenses paid, including staying at the Four Seasons Chinzan-so in Ikebukuro.)

In all seriousness, I don't really need anything from Tokyo. (Kyoto, on the other hand...)

 

[mehguy]

Be sure to play one of these

 

[potetoboy]

Have fun man! i went to Tokyo for xmas last year and i pretty much went nuts at every Book-Off I could find. It seemed like many of them were srsly just trying to get rid of older games (SFC, PSX, PS2, DC, Saturn to be exact), where as most the game shops in Akihabara were a bit pricey for similar stuff. It almost seemed like they were phasing the stuff out for newer gen games? could be wrong tho. Anyway it was super fun just hitting up the shops like Super Potato and the game centers (aside from losing a ton of money at UFO catchers, lol..). Going again for New Years - can't wait!

 

[Pushky]

i would love to go to japan, but alone is not fun some don't like to go there, others like, but prefers other destinations, and the one that would go are broke

 

[Crush Roller]

Wow! Tokyo
I bet that is areal interesting place to explore,for some reason I want to see the place lit up of a night time too,I bet it looks spectacular .

 

[enix2093]

Definitely hit up Akihabara.

Find the Super Potato located here: https://goo.gl/maps/xduhg
Trader is also a good place to stop at, but the selection varies between stores, luckily there are like 5 of them in Akihabara: https://goo.gl/maps/6xcas
Yellow Submarine is good for toys if I recall.

Basically if you get on that block with Super Potato and Trader and keep heading up the main road, you'll find a ton of shit.

 

[Hodor]

Beware because the prices are rising as happens with all retro stuff nowadays. With a bit of luck and some searching work you are likely to find interesting things.

 

[Dr Shroom]

Don't care about the games, just want to buy lots of smut.