Game shopping in Kyoto

[Betagam7]

So I made it to Japan and of course will eventually be hitting Akihabara and DenDen but currently in Ky game shoto where its raining heavy and wondering if anyone can recommend any game shops in the city I can browse about in while I wait for sunnier weather?

So far I havn't seen any and I can't find any online.

[pelham123]

Sorry I can't help man, have a good trip. Livin' the dream and all that!

[fingersmaloy]

If you stop by Nagoya, I can help.

[hashiriya1]

Dude, there isn't much in Kyoto. I tried looking before. Drove around Kyoto and found just a bunch of Tsutayas and Geo shops. Your best bet is to hit up a HARD OFF and pray they have a good slection. In the Kyoto area, there is one in Fukuchiyama and another in Uji.


I have been to 42 of Japan's 47 prefectures, and I have to say the best places in the country for game shopping is the tohoku and chubu regions. Specifically these prefectures; Gunma, Nagano, Niigata, Yamagata, Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate, and Akita. These places have quite a large number of retro game shops, some of them are huge and open 24 hours. The best thing is that most things are pretty cheap. Akiba and Den Den shops are way overpriced and not a big selection.

If you go to any of those prefectures and have access to a car, hit me up.

I can't find any online.

I can!


http://shop.chibicon.net/



List of Kyoto game shops

http://townpage.goo.ne.jp/SearchKihon.p ... 5%D4%C9%DC

[BoringSupreez]

I don't know if this would apply in Japan, but in America a good place to look for cheap games are pawn shops. So just look for one of those, they're thick as flies in any poor part of a big city.

[hashiriya1]

I don't know if this would apply in Japan, but in America a good place to look for cheap games are pawn shops. So just look for one of those, they're thick as flies in any poor part of a big city.

HARD OFF is a pawn shop, so it does apply in Japan.

[Betagam7]

Thanks for the help. I've seen plenty of "Book off" but so far no "hard off"...oh well, I'll be in Den Den and Akihabara so I guess I'll just take the higher prices...unless there's something in Totorri which is where I am tomorrow.

On a slightly off topic note, I'm finding the prices of pretty much everything in japan to be very reasonable, despite what I'd heard previously that the country was expensive to visit. The only thing overpriced so far seems to be those waving cat statues

[rainnyx4]

Thanks for the help. I've seen plenty of "Book off" but so far no "hard off"...oh well, I'll be in Den Den and Akihabara so I guess I'll just take the higher prices...unless there's something in Totorri which is where I am tomorrow.

On a slightly off topic note, I'm finding the prices of pretty much everything in japan to be very reasonable, despite what I'd heard previously that the country was expensive to visit. The only thing overpriced so far seems to be those waving cat statues

Yes, prices for most things in Japan are comparable to America. They are in general, a little more expensive, but not unlivable like most people think they are. But, I believe that the average wage is also lower here, which makes the disparity a little more apparent.

Of course, since you're only here on vacation, you will probably not notice that many of the grocery foods are MUCH more expensive than in America. But the quality of the food also tends to be held to a higher standard.

Since you're shopping for games though, and likely retro games at that, you'll find the prices to be very reasonable.

Like others have said, your best chances of scoring something cool is out in the countryside, but hit up any of the "Offs" (Book, Hobby, Hard, etc.) and also check out "Geo". Geo is currently having an insane sale where many games are either half price or simply 50yen.

[Betagam7]

Well I arrived in totorri today and immediatley saw a huge "Hard Off" sign.

Got inside and saw what at first appeared to be a pretty decent selection of cheap DS and GBA games about the size your average cash converters might have.

Then I noticed the row of SNES/N64 and Megadrive carts that lined up behind them...

Then I went to the back of the shop and found 14 buckets of them!

I picked up the following bagged and tested:

Super Fire Pro Wrestling X (SNES) - 290 Yen
Super Fire Pro Wrestling: Queen's Cup (SNES) - 290 Yen
Lady Stalker (SNES)

and from the "junk" section (which stuff they havn't tested as working and which they pretty much admit might be broken)

Deep Fear - boxed and complete (Saturn) 60 Yen
All Japan pro Wrestling featuring Virtua Fighter (Sat) 60 Yen
Spare Super Famicom Controller - 200 Yen

Sue me, I love the Fire Pro games

The two Saturn games were in immaculate condition when I opened the boxes and from the looks of it Deep Fear (which if I remember correctly is very expensive in its PAL format) is mostly in English.

What really made me weep were the sight of these:



Going for a mere 300 Yen each, sadly as they were also in the "junk" section the sign warned that they might be broken (in fact the SNES pad I got from the same place also has a slightly sticky Y button but no matter it was pennies).

All in all I only spent the equivilent of around £8.25

A good day but I wanted to pace myself and not buy too much knowing that Den Den and Akihabara are just around the corner.

I did also see the game starring Ebisumaru from the Goemon series but it was more pricey at 1000 yen which I do want so I'm not sure wheter to pick it up or hope to get it cheaper elsewhere. Other 100 yen games I was interested in but declined to get were Bahumat Lagoon (for obvious translation problems and the fact it was in the junk section) and Front Mission as the DS version is available to me translated.

There was also a weird Japanese soccer game for GBA that looked like it had loads of little pin badge men floating about and might have incorporated some sort of tilt sensor, anyone know what that might be.

Also some sort of pokemon/digimon thing with some kind of toy that plugged into the GBA (a blue dinosaur type thing) again any clues?

[hashiriya1]

Which Hard Off did you go to? Tottori City or Yonago? There really isn't anything in Tottori...except sand dunes. Keep an eye out for hole-in-the-wall recycle shops. They usually have good things. I've been to EVERY Hard Off in Tohoku, Chubu, and Kanto regions...and I'll tell you from experience that 90% of stuff in the junk bins DO work, they just don't want to waste time testing them...so they throw them in there. BTW, Super Fire Pro Wrestling X should be 100 yen or less. That's the usual going rate at most retro shops.

Miyagi prefecture is the epicenter of retro game shops. If you went there and knew where to go, I am sure you'd have an empty bank account by the end of the day. If I could just choose one place in Japan to shop for games, it would be there. With Iwate Prefecture coming in at a close 2nd. I'll be going to both next month. Woo.