Any shops of note in central Tokyo?

[Col. Aubrey Bagshot]

Im in Tokyo next week for a few days and wondered if there are any hobby/games shops in central Tokyo that would be worth a visit?
Ill be staying at the Shinjuku Hilton....
And suggestions would be very welcome....

[OSHIROmodels]

Yodabashi Camera in Shinjuku is your best bet as it's a catch all for pretty much everything.

I do have some business cards from smaller shops that I'll dig out tonight or tomorrow and put the address up 

cheers

James

[Col. Aubrey Bagshot]

Is it the 6th floor for YC?

[OSHIROmodels]

Is it the 6th floor for YC?

Yup but it's changed it's layout from the second to last time I was there. Seems to be more stuff 

cheers

James

[Huascar]

Take the metro to akihabara. It's popularly know as the 'electronics district' but it is where you will also find the hobby stores. I always come back with a suitcase full of kits and figures for gaming.

[joroas]

Yes, several good multi-story places and a few collectors' shops in some of the side streets.....

[Col. Aubrey Bagshot]

Yes, several good multi-story places and a few collectors' shops in some of the side streets.....

Can your ember anywhere specific?

[joroas]

These were on the main road of Akihabara.  Each floor had a different section.

[von Lucky]

Going in a few weeks. I usually go to Yellow Submarine (the one next to Akihabara station). Any other suggestions in Tokyo for miniatures (plastic kits, lead, etc)?

Also if anyone has any suggestions for Osaka.

[Constable Bertrand]

You are a lucky duck,

Yodobashi in shinjinku had lots!! A whole building of kits and toys

the yellow submarine I found in akihabra seemed to sell German board games and cards with a few GW kits.

Osaka has a geek district down between the zoo and denden street. There are a number of vintage toy sellers there for your 2nd hand needs and large 7 story hobby shops. They are quite clearly labled from the outside. Each floor has different themed goodies. Certainly a look in is needed Karsten!
(South of the river down towards Haitachi tower)

I failed to find many miniatures though.
Tamiya is 50% off Aussie prices!

Happy hunting
matt

[von Lucky]

Was going to check out Yodobashi in Shinjinku but I guess it's a must now.

Thanks for the Osaka tip - I will definitely check it out. And I am not holding out on lead - I know it's hard to find in Japan.

Will also make the recommendation for others travelling to Japan - Tokyu Hands (all over the place). Great for terrain material and other bits and pieces.

[OSHIROmodels]

They are a bit out in the suburbs but if you can find a Joshin they are about 10-20% cheaper than Yodabashi and Tokyu Hands. Not as big a selection though.

There's also a Yodabashi in Umeda in Osaka.

There is a very good model shop in the LaLaPort shopping centre in Yokohama, you can get to it from Shin-Yokohama I believe but we always go by car so I don't know how easy it is to get to, it's on the top floor. There is a website for it linked below. There's also free wifi 

http://yokohama.lalaport.jp/en/

[Rhoderic]

I had forgotten LAF has such a good crowd of people who are familiar with Japan. I now recall it was this way back when I was posting here 5+ years ago, as well.

Funnily I too will be in Tokyo in two weeks (although part of my time in Japan will be spent out in the sticks of eastern Hokkaido for a wedding). Sadly I doubt I'll be able to haul much in the way of hobby products home seeing as I have to pack a suit along with some other stuff

Regarding terrain material, is there anything unique or otherwise rare to be found in the Japanese shops?

I suppose that I'm not going to think about buying model kits of vehicles, toy mechs or other things of that sort during this trip as I don't know what to home in on or how to incorporate them in my ongoing projects. What kinds of items do you guys buy when you visit these shops? Do you buy stuff to re-purpose for miniatures wargaming, or is it more for other hobbies like model collecting, military modelling and so on?

[von Lucky]

Thanks James - added the Osaka tip. LalaPort might be a bit of a side trip (even being close to a station). We'll see.

Rhoderic - it's anything really. Japan is filled with "cool shit". You just don't know what it'll be (toy Porco Rosso airplane magnets, movie monster models, terrain material, etc). The wargaming scavaging radar goes into overdrive every time I enter a shop. Serious hard to control yourself

[Dolmot]

Regarding terrain material, is there anything unique or otherwise rare to be found in the Japanese shops?

On the model railway side, I mostly found the usual German imports (obviously not worth lugging twice over the whole continent) and some local products like bullet trains and cherry trees. However, they prefer the standard railway scales, H0 and especially N, which won't help much for 28mm gaming. There was an interesting line of famous Japanese castles in a very small scale. I bought one as a souvenir to spice up 1/600 or 1/1200 naval games.

You can definitely find modern, weird and sci-fi stuff. The usual WWII kits and railway components are also there, but in my limited experience hardly any bargains or even that many products in the first place for conventional historical gaming.

Tamiya paints were omnipresent, though...