If you missed part one, here’s a link for you!
http://www.animenation.net/blog/2008/04/18/tokyo-was-awesome/
Nakano Broadway
Continuing on my trip to Tokyo, as promised, here are detailed instructions on how to get to Nakano Broadway. I’m VERY directional and the DPS (Daphne Positioning System) works best when she knows what direction she’s facing. That being said, the DPS had some issues working in Tokyo. To find Nakano Broadway from Shinjuku station, take the JR Chuo line west to the Nakano stop, third from Shinjuku. NOT Higashi-Nakano! That’s the mistake we made trying to find it. Here’s a picture I took from the north exit of the train station, looking straight across the street:
When you’re at the Nakano station, take the north exit and walk straight across the bus/taxi plaza to the deco-style covered shopping arcade that leads to Nakano Broadway (there’s a sign for McDonald’s directly to the right of the entrance). Walk to the end of the shopping strip to see the sign over Nakano Broadway. Woohoo! The first floor didn’t have much of what we were looking for, but floors two and three had tons of figures and other collectible-type items. Nirvana!
There are several Mandarake stores in Nakano, which deal in secondhand items. However, people who sell off their items to Mandarake take very good care of their stuff. I managed to snag all three of Minekura Kazuya’s Backgammon art books for about 1000 yen off the cover price of each. Just a little something I’ve been in search of for a long time! Each Mandarake store specializes in a different type of goods such as doujinshi, manga, yaoi, and more. We managed to make it back to the train station with goodies in tow, although we did go back for a second round later in the trip. Back to the hotel to peruse the stuff we bought!
Akihabara
The next day was the first trip to Akihabara. My goal: purple PSP. I was very lucky in that I was able to get one in the second shop I asked. However, no one seemed to have either of the colors that Jax was looking for. We eventually found one later in the trip at Bic Camera in the Odakyu building in Shinjuku…she got the green one. Cool colors and sparkly to boot! We found more figures, yeah, ‘cause we needed more, right? We shopped at many of the game stores and bought lots of PSP and PS2 games. One thing I have to say is that the stores are LOUD! Around every corner is a speaker blaring out music or game and movie trailers. The loudest places were the larger electronics stores like Sof-Map and Bic Camera, and the variety store Don Quijote was the worst. Wow…just, wow. I thought Best Buy was loud, and yet even though BB annoys the heck out of me, it didn’t bother me in Tokyo. Go figure!
Just a couple of observations:
There are a lot of people in Tokyo…well, duh.
I have to say that in all the big cities I’ve ever been (New York, Honolulu, Paris, and more), Tokyo was, by far, the cleanest. Even though there aren’t garbage cans at every corner, there was no trash in the street. Finding one of the recycle bins could be challenging at times, but the vending kiosks and train platforms usually had something to put trash in. And did I mention that I’ve never felt safer? I’m not naïve enough to think that there’s no crime in the city, but I also know that it is one of the safest places in the world. Even something as simple as dropping change became a positive encounter in Tokyo. A 100 yen coin (about a dollar) had fallen out of my pocket when I got up to exit the train and the gentleman that had been sitting next to me tapped me on the shoulder and gave it back! And another time, Jax’s had left her handbag open after getting money for the train and her cash, passport, credit cards were there for all to see for about a half hour and nothing went missing. Just amazing!
Well, that’s it for now. Tune in next week for another installment of my trip!
