Help On A Trip To Japan For Retro Gaming Info

[Atariboy2600]

Last week me and my roommate wanted to plan out heading to Japan in 6 to 12 months and we are hellbent in trying to obtain your goals in saving as much as we could for the trip and hoping to fine stuff there to take back among them are retro games and systems and to help out I need to fine out where online to fine any and all info on gaming stores other then Super Potato where we hear that a lot of items there are in the high price range and thinking of landing somewhere Osaka and was wondering if anyone here has any good tips and or info on beat place to shop at in or near Osaka.

[+Charlie Cat]

25 minutes ago, Atariboy2600 said:

 

Wishing you the best on going to Japan bro. When visiting Osaka, would you be willing to take a photo of the SNK headquarters there?

 

Anthony..

[Steven Pendleton]

There's a travel ban in place right now, and basically if you are not Japanese, you won't be allowed in the country aside from an extremely small list of exceptions if the don't lift the travel ban.

 

Anyway, I can't tell you about Osaka, but I can tell you about Tokyo. In general, even over in Osaka, stay away from Mandarake if you want to buy things because their prices are way higher than they should be. Super Potato has something similar so I don't recommend going there either, but they are not nearly as bad as rip-off Mandarake and sometimes you can find good stuff there for decent prices if there are no other options. I will say that the Mandarake in Akiba has a RIDICULOUS selection of Neo Geo AES games, though. Everything you could ever want except for Big Tournament Golf and Metal Slug 1 is in there right now, so if you feel like going bankrupt, be sure to stop by if they let you in the country!

Edited April 15, 2021 by Steven Pendleton

[jhd]

 

How easy is it to navigate these establishments with utterly no knowledge of Japanese (either reading or speaking)?

 

I assume that there would not be any signage in English, but generally how willing are the staff to assist? Any tips for the gaijin?   

[Steven Pendleton]

3 hours ago, jhd said:

 

How easy is it to navigate these establishments with utterly no knowledge of Japanese (either reading or speaking)?

 

I assume that there would not be any signage in English, but generally how willing are the staff to assist? Any tips for the gaijin?   

Extremely easy for the most part. In Japan, the staff in any store is expected to go out of their way to assist customers, even if they do not speak the language. There are a surprisingly large amount of signs in English in both Tokyo and Osaka. I have actually been to Osaka, but I was only there in the Kyocera Dome area for a few hours to see BUMP OF CHICKEN in April 2016 and I have never gone looking around in the city. Pretty much everything was in English that I can remember. In smaller cities, don't expect any English signs and don't expect anyone to understand any language other than Japanese.

[R.Cade]

That was not my experience a couple years ago. We flew into the Osaka airport and took the train to the middle of downtown. It is like landing on a foreign planet if you don't know Japanese, and was overwhelming. Fortunately we were able to hire a guide. Without them, there would be no way for us to navigate the country... I mean there were English words here and there, but that isn't really helpful. Even though some people know some English, it is hard to communicate. It is so different from our culture, we even found it hard to figure out how to use a restaurant and how to figure out how much things cost or even how to pay. The people are very friendly, but that doesn't help in a lot of situations.

 

A big city is confusing and using the train and bus system would be impossible without help. Maybe it's just me...

 

 

 

[Atariman]

My general advice is to find places that are slightly off the beaten path. If I remember right, there is a Book Off around Shin Yokohama that was huge... It was a couple km walk away from the train station, but there was so... much... stuff. But you won't go wrong looking around for stores that are a part of that chain. Look for the "junk" sections in any stores you find as well. 

 

Any places around Akihabara are going to be pricey and picked over, but it wasn't bad for stuff that is common over there like the Famicom Disk System (which was refurbished). 

[Atariman]

3 minutes ago, R.Cade said:

That was not my experience a couple years ago. We flew into the Osaka airport and took the train to the middle of downtown. It is like landing on a foreign planet if you don't know Japanese, and was overwhelming. Fortunately we were able to hire a guide. Without them, there would be no way for us to navigate the country... I mean there were English words here and there, but that isn't really helpful. Even though some people know some English, it is hard to communicate. It is so different from our culture, we even found it hard to figure out how to use a restaurant and how to figure out how much things cost or even how to pay. The people are very friendly, but that doesn't help in a lot of situations.

 

A big city is confusing and using the train and bus system would be impossible without help. Maybe it's just me...

 

 

 

I had some of that experience, too. I think without knowing the language, there are going to be times that this is unavoidable. Restaurants usually weren't too bad (and I was a big fan of the ones where you ordered at a kiosk and brought the ticket to the counter) but there were times where unless I had been totally fluent, it was not possible to effectively communicate. I learned to actively avoid anything that required any amount of instruction.

[R.Cade]

2 minutes ago, Atariman said:

I had some of that experience, too. I think without knowing the language, there are going to be times that this is unavoidable. Restaurants usually weren't too bad (and I was a big fan of the ones where you ordered at a kiosk and brought the ticket to the counter) but there were times where unless I had been totally fluent, it was not possible to effectively communicate. I learned to actively avoid anything that required any amount of instruction.

With that said, I would go back again any time and highly recommend anyone go visit. It is the closest thing you can experience to being dropped onto another planet. Walking up those stairs out of the train station was a shock. We had to go take pictures of the little map of all the buildings in the train station to try to find our way to the guide.

 

We traveled across the country all by train and eventually to Tokyo and by then we braved going to Akihabara, many parts of downtown, and back to our hotel alone. My wife did better at navigation than I did, but that happens here at home also. 

 

Also, be in pretty good shape and get ready for a LOT of walking.

[Atariman]

I second what was said about walking. I went down two notches on my belt when I was there for two weeks. Totally wonderful experience and I have never felt so safe in an unfamiliar place. 

[Steven Pendleton]

Oh, I forgot something: please stand on the proper side of the escalator. The side you stand on and the side you walk on is different in Kanto and Kansai, so please don't get confused.

[john_q_atari]

1 hour ago, Atariman said:

I second what was said about walking. I went down two notches on my belt when I was there for two weeks. Totally wonderful experience and I have never felt so safe in an unfamiliar place. 

I must be the only one who puts on weight in Japan and I walked everywhere. My friends did shave off a few pounds though. And i went to many smaller towns too but Tokyo still has a special place in my heart. I love that place. I do prefer the Akiba of 20 years ago though. I love Mandarake! I took home my weight limit in 100 yen used manga on one of my trips. Oh and I crapped green the entire time I was there (every place serves green tea and I only eat local when I'm there.) Good times. My family wants me to take them so I guess I better stop being so damned lazy and start brushing up on my Japanese...

[+wongojack]

Bringing back this thread as i have a similar request as the OP.

 

I am taking my first trip to Japan with my wife.  Our itinerary is basically full, but it allows for plenty of time for sightseeing and shopping in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto.

My wife is very tolerant of my now almost life-long (certainly marriage-long) obsession with retro video games, but she's not really a fan herself.  I'm looking for some recommendations to experience some of the retro gaming atmosphere without derailing our trip.  I do plan to stop by Akihabara and Super Potato, but I'm not interested in spending a very long time shopping or bringing back even more than 1 or 2 items.

• What is a somewhat unique and relatively easy to find gaming item?  I'm thinking something small like a Game and Watch that you can't find outside of Japan.
• is there a place (like a museum or monument) that is about video games that I should visit?

Here's another way to phrase it - focused on classic video games.  If you were going to bring back only 1 thing and visit only one place in Japan what would it be?