Went to the Nakano Broadway shopping arcade yesterday, probably my favourite place to shop in the entire world.
Dozens of specialized stores sell all sorts of collectibles and curios. While some are ‘mom and pop’ shops crammed to the gills with stuff (like the example above), most are part of a megastore called Mandarake, and run the gamut from book and CD shops to stores specializing in specific types of doll or model kit.
I could – and have – spend hours just perusing the weird stuff sold in these shops, and there’s a treasure around every corner. Like these tiny Japanese Star Wars candy boxes from the late 1970s (priced at about $380 US today) that seemed to contain a Star Wars character Letraset each.
Or this tiny (about 10 cm square) little booklet with art from a famous mangaka that was priced at about $2500.
Or even this snail zoids kit! I very nearly bought this actually, but the box was a bit too large for our remaining space.
Kristin saw a 28 million yen Hermes purse in a resale shop (that’s $213k US dollars in todays money), and a $30k amplifier for a turntable. It’s hard to imagine who will buy these, and how they even got into this slight out-of-the-way mall.
The above is an item I didn’t buy, which is perhaps regrettable since it was sealed. But it was amazing to see regardless. I did make a few purchases, including of some items I’ve been after for years, but I’ll leave them for future posts.
We found an Ultraseven ‘exhibit’ to celebrate 55 years of the beloved character. I was able to pose next to an original suit (not the original suit, but one made since) which was cool.
But mostly the 7 hours spent there was perusing the weird shops, and occasionally communicating via google translator with employees to try and find a treasure or two. It was another fun day 🙂