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- [Announcer] Yellow Productions Presents:
- The best toy stores in Tokyo, Japan.
Japan is known for some of the most creative
toys worldwide, and Tokyo has some of the best
toy stores in the whole country.
In this video, I'll show you my favorite toy stores,
and how to get to them.
The first one, I'm standing in front of.
It's Yamashiroya Toy Shop.
This toy shop is six floors of some of the
coolest toys that money can buy.
It's located across from the Ueno Station.
To get here, you go out the central exit
of Ueno Station, and then, you go out
the Hirokoji exit.
You'll see the big yellow sign like that.
And just out Hirokoji exit, Yamashiroya is right
across the street, behind that big green tree.
In this video, it's got Star Wars on it.
It'll probably have a different brand when you go there.
So, I say this one's the coolest.
Why?
Not because it's the biggest.
It is six floors, but the floors are small,
but it's the best laid out,
and the best displayed for the toys.
All of the major toy exhibits have these video monitors
that display information about the toy,
how to use it, and give you a video to see
just how fun playing with that toy is.
They've got six main floors of toys.
Basement has fancy characters.
First floor, trendy toys.
Second floor, anime.
Third floor, games and, that's supposed to say, "Variety."
Fourth floor are toys for smaller kids,
though all of them are very, very cute.
Look at those big eyes.
The fifth floor is for hobby, craft,
and really cool Japanese figures.
These things are amazingly decorated,
and they're not cheap.
This guy here,
9,720 yen.
It's about a hundred bucks.
They've got models of just about everything here,
from World War II tanks,
to fancy exotic sports cars,
to old samurai houses and castles.
And even, the Eiffel Tower.
No.
That's Toyko Tower.
So, I got some really huge bears.
3,400 yen.
About 300 bucks.
And of course, over here,
Japanese fake food,
but not just any fake food,
like a baby in fake food,
and carrots
in very odd poses.
At the basement is where you'll
find all the stuffed animals.
Disney ones,
and Totoro, one of the most famous Japanese characters.
Some of these Disney characters, The Duffys,
are going for crazy prices.
Darth Vader Duffy?
13,000 yen, or about $130.
And if the inside of the store wasn't cool enough,
outside, they've got all these little capsule things,
that you can buy all these collectible capsule toys,
and they've got a
set of Marvel themed vending machines.
Now, that's just neat.
My second favorite toy store in Tokyo is Kiddy Land.
They have three locations in Tokyo,
but my favorite one is the location in
Harajuku on Omotesando Street.
Kiddy Land has been in business for 70 years,
since 1946, and they are currently
celebrating their 70th anniversary.
Kiddy Land has five floors of shopping,
basement to the fourth floor,
each floor has a different character theme.
We'll start our way at the basement,
and walk our way up to the top.
The basement is the Snoopy Town shop.
Snoopy, Snoopy, Snoopy, and more Snoopy.
One of the really cool things about this store
is not just the toys they sell, but how they're themed.
You can see there's lots of Snoopy all around this floor,
painted on the walls, and even a Snoopy bus over here.
The entrance floor, the first floor,
has the newest characters.
When I was there, they were showcasing Detective Conan.
The second floor has Studio Ghibli characters.
You can see Totoro, there on the lower right.
They have Miffy the Bunny.
You can see Miffy painted on the left,
some Disney characters, among other things on this floor.
The third floor has girls toys and boys toys, and Legos.
Some really big Lego looking characters on the upper right,
with Lego brick sets in the back,
and my favorite Japanese anime character, Sailor Moon.
And the top floor is the Rilakkuma store,
and the Hello Kitty Shop.
Kiddy Land is just so much fun to walk through,
and everything is just so, so cute.
To get to Kiddy Land, take the Tokyo Metro
to the Meiji-jingumae Harajuku Station.
Go out exit four.
Make a hard U-turn, when you come out of this staircase,
and go down this street, Omotesando, about a hundred meters.
You'll be going in the direction that's down the hill.
That way.
The third best toy store in Tokyo is Yodobashi.
Yodobashi, actually, not just a toy store.
It is Japan's largest electronics chain.
And one of their biggest locations is in Akihabara.
It is right outside Akihabara Station.
Yodobashi is one of the best places to go
for toys, at a fairly reasonable price.
They've got a whole floor dedicated just to toys.
My fourth favorite toy store in Tokyo
is the Hakuhinkan Toy Park, located in Ginza.
Hakuhinkan is neat because it is open
365 days a year, with no closing days.
It's got five floors of toy shopping,
classic toys, board games, puzzles, really neat.
And finally, number five, not just a store,
but a whole complex, Nakano Broadway,
located off the Nakano JR Station.
This is a Japanese toy collector's dream.
This isn't for kiddie toys, but this is for
the kind of toys that adults would collect.
You can easily spend an entire day in this place.
I've got a whole separate video on the Nakano Broadway.
You can find the link comin' up here in just a sec.
So, I hope that after watching this video,
you'll be able to buy some cool toys
on your visit to Tokyo in Japan.
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(soft contemporary music)