It’s the age-old question : “What’s better, Akihabara or Nakano Broadway?” Obviously speaking generally the answer is Akiba due to the gargantuan amount of shops, but if you want to find truly rare or obscure items a day at Nakano can’t be beat. That’s what I did yesterday.
As usual I was up with the birds, and since the 30+ Mandarake shops at Nakano don’t open until noon I killed time in a gourmet restaurant and game centers. Which brings me to my first Nakano tip: get their early and decide on which shops you were most interested before they open. Ideally you’ll want to be out of there before the hordes of clueless tourists arrive mid-afternoon. For me yesterday, the ‘TRPG’ shop, the game shop, the trading card shop, the vintage manga shop and the art book shop were the ones I was most interested in.
Nakano isn’t just otaku shops by the way; it’s also home to over 20 high-end watch stores. I saw a few watches costing more than a car, but given some shops have guards and security screens at the doors even when they’re open I imagine there’s watches costing more than houses there as well!
Which brings me to my second Nakano tip: bring money. Lots of it. If you want affordable anime/otaku stuff get it in Akihabara or Ikebukuro. If you’re after treasures to complete your collection open your wallet at Nakano!
Almost every time I’ve blogged about Nakano I show the above shop since it’s so visually amazing. Here’s a photo taken inside:
And another:
The mind boggles how many individual items this shop has, or how you’d even find anything? Rows of glass cases filled with tiny little toys and figures, and endless plastic tubs full of little books or cards or postcards. I always pull out a few for a quick look (“Maybe I’ll send myself one of these 1970s Ultraman postcards.”) and then put it right back when I see the cost (usually ¥1000 or more). There’s a few shops like this in Nakano, and it’s one of the reasons I love the place.
The above is another one, perhaps catering more to the modern anime/toy fan. At first you notice familiar franchises, but then you see the prices: ¥40,000 for a Dragonball figure or ¥8,000 for a Doraemon shopping bag?!? Almost every time I visit Nakano I see westerners walking around with a mix of amazement and dismay on their faces: “Who buys this?” they’re thinking, as I brush past them in a narrow aisle with a bag of overpriced stuff under my arm 🙂
I got some grail items yesterday (and soon enough I’ll be showcasing some here on this blog) but I also let one or two get away. Notable amongst them were some boxed R2D2 figures which would have been great in my embryonic (for now) boxed R2 collection. The above metal R2 (from 1977) tempted me once, twice and even a third time before my attention was taken by something in the case just below it. But I still wish I had bought it, which brings me to my third Nakano tip: Just buy it. Don’t waste time deliberating or counting costs; just buy it. If you don’t, you’ll regret it later.
Incidentally the staff yesterday was immensely helpful. Not once but twice did people go ‘to the warehouse’ to (attempt to) retrieve items for this curious collector, and in two stores other staff members spoke good English and gave me some interesting perspectives on items I’ve been looking for. Which brings me to my final Nakano tip: If you ever have the dumb idea of collecting all the games in a series, don’t ever ever decide on Wizardry. It’s a fools errand! 🙂
So as I love to do, let’s see some other weird and wonderful items I saw yesterday at Nakano:
The above is a nearly 50-year old issue of a weekly manga magazine. It’s so expensive (~$700) since it’s in incredible condition and features a full length Osamu Tezuka story.
For about the same price you could buy just one single trading card. Sure it’s sparkly and gold-foiled, but given this was in a ‘rental cube’ I half wonder if whoever owned it and put it here for sale is just having a laugh. The series it’s from isn’t even popular any more! Surely there’s no one that would consider buying this?
One of the Mandarake shops had a cabinet full of Beyblade, which is the kids game involving battling tops against each other. Before you ask “Does anyone actually collect Beyblade?” understand that Mandarake wouldn’t sell them if people didn’t, and marvel that one of them was about $250!
The above is a 1984 board/card game ‘Treasure of The Labyrinth’ which seems to have an Indiana Jones inspiration and has beautiful art. If I had grown up in Japan I bet I would have played this one!
And this tiny little thing – for about $70 – was sold at the ‘candy toy’ shop. It’s a tin ‘western television’ so tiny it would easily sit on the tip of your pinky finger. I just love that someone found it and sold it to Mandarake and that presumably it will end up in a collection. Items like this one I find particularly interesting because it suggests that Mandarake is a store that sets prices rather than looks them up. Many times I’ve seen stuff for sale that (probably) no other store has ever had and I wonder if Mandarake just rolls a die to determine a price or if they have an extensive network of expert appraisers: somewhat like an ‘antiques roadshow of weird toys and anime merchandise’? Knowing Japan, probably the latter.
I filled my bag yesterday to the point of barely even being able to carry it and staggered ‘home’ (I’ve settled into my room by now) before shortly thereafter heading right back out to Akiba for an early gourmet dinner:
I did even more shopping, played some games, people watched and eventually – since I’d forgotten my umbrella – ran through a heavy rainstorm to get back to the hotel.
It had been exactly the sort of day I was hoping from this trip 🙂