Akihabara recommendations?

[Upsidedown Fuji]

My first time visiting Akihabara was in 2001. The place has completely changed between then and now. There used to be a ton of small hole in the wall shops with tons of cheap goods. As the years rolled by the area was slowly getting claimed by new shops and buildings along with the MOE culture (maid cafes.)

Akihabara feels a lot different, in some ways good and in others bad. I liked the more nerdy culture of old Akihabara. It's still a great place to roam for a day every once in a while but I seem to get most of my good purchases from Rakuten.co.jp and local countryside recycle shops that don't know the true value of what they sell. Recycle shops are where you can really make a killing in savings. It just takes more work to find what you want.

[fingersmaloy]

I spent the last three days in Tokyo and went to Akihabara twice. It was great, yeah, but there was also quite a lot on my list that I couldn't find anywhere, and I'm pretty sure I went EVERYWHERE.

That said, I got some pretty good deals on Saturn stuff.

Psychic Assassin Taroumaru - ¥14800. It was marked as having a disc in "B" condition (A or B were the only options). As far as I can tell there isn't a single mark of any kind on the disc's surface, and the manual looks untouched. Even came with an unused memory cartridge sticker.

Purikura Daisakusen - ¥1480.

Sengoku Blade - ¥1980j.

Last Gladiators Pinball - ¥50. I dunno. I keep hearing Saturn pinball games are good, and this one comes up a lot in discussion.

Things I looked for everywhere and didn't find were Speed Power Gunbike for the PS1 ( and the Rez vibrator, neither of which seem to be particularly expensive if you can find them. But in three years in Japan, I've never seen either of them once, besides on the net.

As for store recommendations, I had great luck at the Trader stores (there are three just in Akihabara), but I was mainly looking for Saturn stuff. Super Potato is a lot of fun to look around in and there's a retro arcade center on the top floor that's really fun, but everything they're selling is extremely overpriced. Still worth a look just because it's like a retro games funhouse.

Overall, fun trip.

[RadarScope1]

I'm pretty sure it was someone on this very forum who told me that Den Den Town in Osaka is actually the much more happening spot for geek/gaming stuff these days. More like the old Aki. I never really made it Osaka on my trip, so I wasn't able to check it out.

[Breetai]

find a store called "hard off" its around there and the prices are fair

Good advice but there aren't any Hard-Offs near or in Akihabara so that may be hard. Most Hard-Offs reside in the suberbs of Japan, just outside of the Tokyo metro area. They are awesome places for rare or cheap finds, but the best he can do is visit the Book-Off in Akihabara and neighboring wards of Tokyo. They are good for carrying older game software like PlayStation, Saturn, and other odds and ends. The Akihabara Book-Off isn't all that big but the inventory is always being shuffled around so he might find something of use there.

That was probably my fault Terry thought there was a Hard-Off in Akiba. I buy a lot of my stuff from Hard-Offs, so he probably figured it was there. The closest Hard-Off to Akihabara will take you around 45-60 minutes to get to using a combination of train and bicycle/walking/bus in either Saitama or Chiba. Not convenient at all.

The advice given earlier does hold true. Do at least one round of the game shops. It will take you at least 2-3 hours, probably. Don't buy anything until your second round, as prices can vary a lot between shops.

Literally, I've seen Dracula X on the PC Engine for 9000yen in one shop, and then on clearance for 4000yen in another. Huge difference!

[Breetai]

I spent the last three days in Tokyo and went to Akihabara twice. It was great, yeah, but there was also quite a lot on my list that I couldn't find anywhere, and I'm pretty sure I went EVERYWHERE.

Glad that you had a nice time!

But, yeah... you're about 3-4 years too late on great really good stuff, and a decade late from the glory days. It's just good now, which is light-years ahead of anywhere else outside of Japan for retro stuff!

The ONLY really great shop left is Super Potato. Just one year ago, there were at least three. Now two of those three are just good (Traders 2) and decent (I forget the name, but it used to be two floors of retro games... now the second floor just sells Cosplay junk).