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Japan Video Game
Hunting 2023 |
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After all this pandemic and other crazy madness going on in this world, it is about time to forget the bad and focus on the essentials! The time is right to jump on the plane and do what I can do best, visit old and track down new retro game stores all over Japan. I can already hear my buddy Scorpion screaming at me from that small island nation - "Get over here!" |
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Japan Video Game
Hunting 2019/2020 |
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This was maybe my craziest idea to go to Japan at the turn of the year. I never did it before, knowing the overcrowded public trains and places will be reality. But at the same time I always try to find out, what is the best season for vg hunting(?). Hyped by many (Hard Off) youtube videos and tracking down all thouse locations, I was ready for another adventure! Here comes a review to (V)ideo (G)ame hunting 19/20. A journey to the east, featuring Surugayas and Potato |
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Japan Video Game
Hunting 2019 |
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In february I went to Japan with three other dudes, who into retro video games like me. We visited lot of places and also stopped at stores like Hobby-Hard Offs and Surugaya across the country. February is not the busiest season in Japan and also the month with less tourist. Let's get straight in to it, check the wishlist and see what this hunting season brought to u |
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Japan Video Game
Shopping 2018 |
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Came back from Japan last weekend, got rid of jet lag and managed somehow to write a small review regarding VG shopping in 2018! Let see how many checkboxes I'd checked this time |
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recall memories -
AKIHABARA 2008 |
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Autumn 2008 was best opportunity so far for shopping in Japan. Japanese Yen was really weak and Euro very strong. Also in 2008 Tokyo Game Show was moved (the one and only time) from the second half of September to the 9-12th of Octobe |
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My souvenirs from
trip to Japan 2017 |
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Came back from Japan almost two weeks ago, finaly having some time to show of my booty from this year trip to Japan. Tracking down in Tokyo: akihabara beep, Surugaya Game Museum, Retro Game Camp, Mandarake, M-Galaxy, Potato, Game Friends. In Nagoya (Osu): K-House, Meikoya, Super Potato, Mandarake. (click on image above to see mor |
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My souvenirs from
autumn trip to Japan
2014 |
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Just got back from Tokyo and here are some of my goodies I could get on my last trip in Akihabara and Nakano Broadway. Also some Korean Music CD and LP from Shin-okubo Station (Korean Town). Videogames are all used but in excellent condition. The main milestone of this goodies, is a SHARP Twin Famicom that i will modify for my purpose |
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Japan Video Game Hunting 2023
posted by Kaneda – on Sun. 23.April 2023
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After all this pandemic and other crazy things going on in this world, it is about time to forget the bad and focus on the essentials! The time is right to jump on the plane and do what I can do best, visit old and track down new retro game stores all over Japan. I can already hear my buddy Scorpion screaming at me from that small island nation - "Get over here!"
Wishlist 2023
# Famicom
☐ Sweet Home (cib)
# Super Famicom
☐ Shin Nekketsu Kōha: Kunio-tachi no Banka (cib)
☐ FFIV & FFV (superb condition)
☑ good deal soft
# Game Boy
☐ Warioland (cib)
☐ Metroid II + guide (cib)
☐ good deal soft
# Virtual Boy
☐ Virtual Boy (cib)
☐ good deal soft
# Nintendo 64
☐ 1080 Snowboarding (cib)
☐ F-Zero X (cib)
☑ Paper Mario (cib)
☑ Star Wars 帝国の影 (cib)
# DD 64
☐ Loose Hardware & price check
# Game Cube
☐ Game Cube + GBA Player (cib)
☐ Biohazard games
☐ good deal games
# Sega Mega Drive
☐ MD1 loose console (junk)
☐ Kujaku Oh 2 (cib)
☐ good deal soft
# Sega Saturn
☐ loose console (junk)
☐ Bio Hazard (cib)
☐ Tengai Makyou Dai-yon no Mokushiroku (cib)
☐ Controllers .... lot of Controllers
☐ Best Hit Chronicles SS Model Kit
☑ S Bom Multi Tap
# Sega Dreamcast
☐ loose console (junk)
# PC Engine
☑ PC Engine console (junk)
☐ PC Engine FX (cib)
☑ good deal soft
# PlayStation
☐ Best Hit Chronicles PS1 Model Kit
☑ good deal soft
# PlayStation 2
☐ PlayStation 2 slim console NTSC/J SCPH-700xx V12 or V13
☑ japan only games
# NEO GEO AES
☐ Last Blade 2
☐ King of Fighters 2003
☐ King of Fighters 2002
☐ King of Fighters 2001
☐ King of Fighters 2000
☑ King of Fighters 95
☑ King of Fighters 94
# Mini Consoles
☑ PC-Engine Mini (jp)
☐ MagaDrive 2 Mini CD add on (jp)
# Game Soundtracks
☐ Tenchu (from Noriyuki Asakura)
☐ 悪魔城ドラキュラ黙示録 OST
# other
☑ Yoko Oginome 荻野目洋子 ザ・ベスト Album CD
☐ Sakai Noriko LDs, CDs
☐ SNK LDs, CDs
[] = commented after returning from Japan
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Arrival
My flight to Tokyo was straight forward without any delays or complications. I arrived at Narita, as many times before and even after 3 years of brake it felt natural to be back in Japan. This time I desided to get Green Card Rail Pass, (although in the end it was bad idea, but more on that later) and after picking it up from the JR office, I took Narita Express to Tokyo Station. I left there my biggest luggage in deposit store for 2 nights, got me an ekiben and took the next train to the north.
Aomori
Arriving at same evening in Aomori city, I was just in time to see a beautiful sunset from "Red String Monument" towards "Aomori Bay Bridge". It was much colder then in Tokyo and you could see some spots still covered up with snow.
The very first thing you do after checking in in your hotel, you get some night snack at the next convenience store. On the way there I took a little detour and checked the evening street sights of Aomori City. It was beautiful but also chotto samui.
Why Aomori?
Remember that stage from Capcom Vs. SNK 2 with Honda and Haohmaru floating in the background? Back when this game was released, I was realy impressed by the scale of the lantern but was not sure if something like this realy exist. Later I found out, that this was a homage to famouse Nebuta Matsuri, held each August on far north of Honshû. Stage name tells you the exact location. I new that some day I had to see it. But the weather in august is very hot and humid in Japan. So if I would go there, that would be a trip with no laguage and no shopping.
This time it would be only exploration and visit of the museum where some of the original lantern floats are displayed. The museum also shows the visitors the history of this event with many photos and videos from the very start to present. At the very end they have a small shop with some interested goodies. I got one t-shirt, magnets and official festival live audio CD.
On the next day I went to Hard-Off located 3,7 km south from my hotel. I could take city bus, but I decided to go by foot as it was a nice sunny day and I wanted to walk at least once thru aomori to get a picture of it. It was a pretty long walk ^^
There was nothing special that I could find in retro game corner or junk section, but they had a pretty big selection of DVD Movies in all of kind special editions, where I could not withstand to take Densha Otoko with me as I never owned an original copy despire been a huge fan of this movie when it came out. Kind a funny to see Takayuki Yamada again in this role, and also knowing him from the Netflix series The Naked Director. On the way back, I tried some fresh seafood ^^
GETs from Hard-Off Aomori
Tokyo
On the way to Nagoya, I stayed one night in Tokyo, to meet friends and go out for Hanami and drinking together. Due to large amount of people, the location, where we supposed to go to see sakura, was closed. We visited instead a shrine with lot of sakura blossoms, where I could took some photos.
Afterwards we visited izakaya/restaurant in shinjuku that also offered interesting food. Besides that darkgreen egg, that did not looked tasty to me at all, I could eat anything. Typical for izakaya are very small portions. Bad for very hungry people...
...but you get lot af alcohol there. We finished it off with a shot of Nihon-shû
Nagoya Day One On first day I went directly to Osu to get an all around look at sortiment and prices. Post corona with noticeable expensive stuff did not scare me off, as I followed price development and new whats going to come. Also I had to know and understand the situation before making any decisions. Look first, buy later. The sortiment was pretty good though.
I got a nice deal on that very clean Sharp Twin Famicom AN-500R that was even 3000 yen cheaper (thanks to my game database ❤️) than my AN-505BK that I bought in 2014! KOF 94, 95 were on my wishlist, together with that S Bom Multitab for Sega Saturn, that I needed for the Bomberman multiplayer on one of the Retro meets this summer. + Bonus GETs :P
Nagoya Day Two
On the second day I decided to visit BOOK OFF next to Nakajima station. Never been to that particular BOOK OFF before, I was curious of their asortiment and prices. And hoped (as always) that I would find something interesting there. On the way from the station to the store, I enjoyed the clean streets and blue sky. Gosh, they had a lot of Yakuza movies there ❤️
Retro game section had nothing special that caught my eye, but they had one corner dedicated to game accessories only. The prices for the N64 controllers where in particular noticeably low. First assuming that they would be in bad shape, I checked them one by one and found one controller, that even had an official memory card attached to it. Lucky Strike!
Yellow N64 controller with memory card attached to it. For 800yen, you can not go wrong.
Ikeshita
I took subway to Ikeshita station to visit another small HARD OFF in that area. Always enjoying the walk and taking photos of the surrounding area (pokemon snap). Very common on crossings -> left photo down below 止まれ "tomare" -> STOP 🛑
It was pretty small HARD OFF with a small selection of retro games in there. Prices where ok exept that SotN asking 7,700yen LOL. Junk section was relative big but nothing interesting there. For some reason I took a photo of that nixie tubes going for 110yen. Can I get your interests in some Wii Fit boards ? No? Ok, let's go back to OSU and buy some crazy expensive stuff!
OSU - AKAMON
Mandarake was a typical, "all behind glas and very expensive" experience. I don't remember seeing something interesting there. All I remember is that big Dark Souls Statue from First 4 Figures in the box next to the elevator.
I went back to Meikoya, to get something that caught my eye on day 1 and did not let me go. My secret love for SEGA MEGA CD consoles (the first model in particular) and the fact, that I still did not owned boxed MCD1, made me think about this all the time. Also I already gave up to find one in near perfect condition. I knew, this might be the only chance I had.
It was still late afternoon, when I desided to bring my stuff to hotel and go to Nagoya Castle for Hanami 🌸🌸🌸
Nagoya Castle
It was almost evening, but the way to the castle was already full with people. Here some impressions without words. Enjoy!
Rikimaru Ramen
After spending the evening at Nagoyajo, taking photos of the castle and surroundings, I went back to Nagoya station. For dinner I went to the same place as I went yesterday, Rikimaru Ramen. With no waiting time and two very cute waitresses.
They also have an english menu for you if you need
Day 2 GETs
With N64 stuff beeing still cheap, I got 2 games from Akamon and a set of protection pet-sleave, that they were selling at Super Potato. Unfortunately that sleaves they selling there are minor quality and not worth the money they asking for.
That boxed SEGA MEGA CD going to be one of my highly grails
Kokura
On the next morning I went far south to Kokura, skipping Kyoto and Osaka, because later I had other plans there. I stayed one night at hotel next to Aruaru City because this was my only distination there. But I also went to Hakata City.
Aruaru City used to have a huge variety of games at Surugaya there. I am not sure, because of corona or not, but since I visited it at the end of 2019, they shrinked the size of retro game area almost by half. I was kind of disapointed by that but still managed to find something there. Anyway this shop is going down from my list and is not worth visiting in the future.
In Hakata I only visited the Surugaya Hakata Marui, that is very close to the station. Unfortunately I had no time to visit Mandarake this time, that is located 3km west from the station. They used to have good selection of Laserdisc in the past.
Surugaya in Hakata had a relatively long area for videogames, where old and new stuff could be found. At first I did not realize that the shelves with games continued after the passage. Behind the glass they also had some interesting hardware and also something I was looking for, but not in that price range. After finding some interesting titles for PS Vita and realizing how cheap it was, I decided to get a bunch of those. At the end of this trip PS Vita games will be the dominant ;)
After Surugaya I had a dinner at a close by Ramen store in Hakata and took the next Shinkansen to my hotel in Kokura.
I got double room instead of single, because they had no single free. It felt like luxury for me, having so much space LOL. I used second bed as a storage for my games, although it was not much. Dark Half for SFC beeing the interesting found.
GETs from both Surugayas at Kokura and Hakata
Osaka
In Osaka I went to Tennōji Station and walked from there thru a park to Tsūtenkaku Tower. I never been there, even I visited Osaka many times before. It was holiday and a lot of people were outside in park and on the famous Shin Sekai road. I took some photos of this area and don't want to withhold them from you. Can you see Asuka Kazama on her bike?
There where several shops in "Nipponbashi Denden Town" I wanted to visit starting with Mandarake, Surugaya, Super Potato and Retro Game Revival. I spended howl afternoon in this area because the range of hardware and software were huge. I also visited my trusted Music CD, LP etc. stores that usually have good sortiment of old school J-POP of 80ies & 90ies.
PSP Go being spontaneous buy, as it was in such good condition and compared to ebay prices, much cheaper. Also got Xbox games, that were still missing from my collection, for a bargain price. (I guess nobody in JP is interested in OG Xbox). And PS Vita games :) Still going for around 7€ depending on the title. The most expensive being WRC 4, going for 2545 yen.
GETs from Osaka: Surugaya and Super Potato
Kyoto
No game hunting in Kyoto this time. Just friends and family business. Just Yodobashi by night with Kyoto Tower in the bg :D
Oh and some food. Here some snapshots from a (very popular I guess) sushi restaurant, where we could only stay for 1h...
.. after 1h they will not take any orders because so many people wanted to eat in this restaurant and were waiting outside.
One restaurant, hidden in the old town area, was a real treat. Everyone got a multiple course menu, but the portions were so small, that I first thought it would be not enough to fill you up. I was so wrong! Never ate something so delicious before!
I can't tell you were this restaurant was, because I don't know :P
Back to Tokyo
Back to Tokyo, where my journey was not finished yet. I still wanted to go arround Tokyo to see what the offered variety there and how it compares to other places. Considering that, I left some space in my luggage. Typical view of mount Fuji.
It was sunday. After arriving at hotel, I knew I should go to Akihabara because on sundays Chuo-Dori is always closed for cars and completely open for pedestrians. Good to get some photos from angles, that are not available all the time.
Good that stores in Japan are open on sundays! (If you live in Germany, you know what I mean) That gave me the opportunity to visit "Retro Game Friends" (again), because I visited them on the way from Aomori and spotted something on my list. But decided (correctly) not to strike at the very beginning, rather then to look around and in case I would not find it somewhere else, to get it on the way back. I am talking about PC Engine Mini with an official multiplayer-adapter, both new in the box. And again, PS Vita games should rain on me. Even in Akihabara :) On the same night I went for box hunting.
GETs from Surugaya and Retro Game Friends in Akihabara
Tokyo Day 2
I visited about 3-4 Hard Offs on the second day in Tokyo, that was also my last day in Japan. Due to the lack of time I did not took many photos on that day. Also later on the same day I went to Narita airport to bring my small suitcase and (my second) Box of games and put them there overnight in to a locker..... The first Hard Off I visited was "the biggest one".
Located in Hachioji, about 50min from Shinjuku Station or about 1h from Tokyo Station by Chuo-Line, this Hard Off is one of the biggest in Tokyo area. Probably because it also contains many other "OFFs" in one building. Although, just the Hard-off it self, been a normal size. Outside they had parked a small HARD-OFF (delivery?) car, that was to cute not to take a photo of.
I went all arround the west train loop, down to Yokohama on that day. Always walking from the station to the stores by foot.
📣 PAL >> NTSC !! bigger video resolution and always the same colour !! 📣
There was not so much interesting on that day, that I could find. The deals around Tokyo did not felt that great, like there were in Osaka or Nagoya. I found another game related LD, together with a "defect" PC-Engine for 2000yen, that I needed as a donor of HuC6270 for my PC-Engine GT. And two fighting SFC Games as a present for my friend. After coming back to hotel, I went with already packed Box and suitcase to Narita. Making the trip to airport with all my luggage much easier.
The Last Evening
Just 2,5h later I was back in Tokyo 🚧🚅. My hotel was in Kanda, that is directly next to Akihabara. So it was no brainer for me to spend last evening there and finally being able to try out the local cuisine. Although I was realy hesitating first 😅
I don't remember when I eat something there last time, but I always wanted to try out this "Yarō Ramen" store, that is directly next to Dragon Quest Lawson in the heart of Akiba. They always have that big anime themed decoration outside, that apparently is very inviting for Otaku and Gaijin people. I am both....... so let's get dangerous \_(^ö^)_/
Despite the fact that there are a lot of english speaking tourists everyday in Akihabara, this restaurant has no english menu. Even the ticket machine has no option to switch to english. After processing this shock, I ordered a menu. It called Buta-Yarō Ramen and it was the biggest meal they offered. I don't know how I will call it in English, but in German it would be Dreckschwein Ramen Menü 🤣 Guten Appetit! After dinner I took one last spin around Akihabara, before I went to hotel.
And so this Japan trip went to an end, as many of them before. And it made me sad again. This time maybe even more because I knew, there probably will be no other trip like this. A lot changed regarding video game shopping over the years in Japan, especially after covid. You can still find something here and there and I am not talking only about the price. I am talking about the condition and completeness of the games and hardware. At some places it went from very good to mediocre or even worse. Some places like Surugaya in Takatsuki or Kokura even reduced drastically their sortiment in retro games. Some day it will eventually completely disappear or stay only behind a glass. Sad but I guess not avoidable. That is why I am so grateful, that I could experience the best times of game hunting in Japan. It's time to look for a new Hobby 😜
Show-off Area
On the way back all my check in luggage did not made it from ZRH to DUS, so I ended up only with my hand luggage where only the Darkstalkers LD and SEGA CD box inside. Although there was something inside the box. What's in the box?!
3 days later all missing luggage arrived safely at my house. The box withstand all the stress. 💪 No damages on the inside.
After unboxing, I realized that this is not everything that I got. ...... Wait, I think we missing out here on something, are we?
That's right! There was another box that I totally forgot to tell you about. I send it from Nara to make my luggage slimer. It arrived another week later or so, so I was waiting with that final photo, that I wanted to do as my usual ritual on the couch.
Here we go! These are all GETs from my video game hunting trip to Japan and this will be probably my last one. Like Solid Snake once said "The war has changed" so the game collecting has changed. I am grateful, that I could experience best times in this hobby since 1994, also by visiting Japan multiple times and having a blast enjoyment out of it. I will continue visiting Japan, but that will be for a totally different hobby. See you arround and happy hunting ! anikaneda.com/mvgc/
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