Before we do anything else today
We had a late night at karaoke
So we're having curry for breakfast
We're back at Coco Curry
It's so good!
We couldn't go just once
This is the Akihabara Showadori branch
Showadori is parallel to the main street in Akihabara
It's really close to the station
There's a big poster on the front
Saying "vegetarian curry"
There's some pictures of them
This time I've got the curry with vegetables in
Which was on the cover of the vegetarian menu
It's actually massive!
You can see it steaming
They're actually cooking each one fresh
For each person, in a different saucepan
Phil's got pork katsu curry
This is really good
The cheese makes it kind of hard to eat
Because it's really stringy
But it tastes really good
I've got regular spice level
You can taste that it's got spice to it
But it doesn't taste hot or anything
Today I'm going to show you some interesting things from my day in Akihabara
The home of anime in Tokyo
Then after that there's some Frequently Asked Questions
That people often ask me
About shopping for figures
Cosplay and all of that
It's a little bit chilly this morning
So I'm wearing my Control Freak varsity jacket
It's my design
It's got the game controller on the front
And Control Freak on the back
You can get it from my website
Cakeswithfaces.co.uk
Or Cakes with Faces on Etsy
There's a load of people queuing for something down here
I wonder what's going on
Or are they just a tour group?
I don't think so
What could it be??
Something exciting?!
It must be a release of something
We're going into an arcade
I can't work out what it is!
They're not all wearing the same t-shirt or a certain thing or anything
The queue's really long
They're all walking into the Sega arcade
People are starting to come out again
But we can't see what's going on
We're joining in - we're going to see what it is!
They gave me this flyer
It's the birthday of You Watanabe
From Love Live
Everyone was coming in to say Happy Birthday
To this UFO catcher
That has her plushies in!
They've got a happy birthday banner up
Sometimes they have displays in arcades as well
When it's the character's birthday
They have little post-it notes out
And everyone writes messages for them
And they stick them all up on the wall
In 2 days time, it's Maki-chan's birthday
She's my favourite one in Love Live
People have written birthday messages to her
And they've got this station here where you can write your own
I'll put mine here
Here's the guide to what's on all the other floors
In the rest of the arcade
And while we're here
And while we're here it'd be rude not to check out the other UFO catchers!
Phil's going to try & win this Sonic
We're thinking, as it's uneven
We might be able to get the claws underneath it
Oh no! No no no!
Oh it's ok!
Ah no way!
Ohhh!!!
If it had been able to fall out this way
That might have happened
Ahh!
Not enough lift
Look at these little Sumikko Gurashis!
They've got houses for them
They're so cute!
It was really hard to decide which one to get
I'm going to go for...
The tin can
With Mount Fuji in it
A nice souvenir of Japan
I did also like the weed a lot though
I don't know all their names off by heart
There's so many of them now!
The snail is also really cute
It's a very hard decision
There really is nowhere to sit
They don't have a lot of benches in Japan
So if you're going round the shops in Akiba
You can be on your feet all day
So we've just come into a backstreet here
We're having a sit on this wall
I've got my melon cream soda
Phil's got a Monster Hunter blindbox
He wants to get the pukei pukei
All the volume 9 ones seem pretty good
Except the bonus figure
Does it show you that on the box?
No but it was in the store
The bonus figure was the anjanath
But a slightly translucent purple
It just didn't look good
So
Fingers crossed!
Fingers crossed I've got anything but that
Hopefully pukei pueki but-
We'll see what we've got
It was only 1000 yen for them
Yeah, 1000 yen
So I think that's pretty good value
In Kotobukiya they had a little Monster Hunter cave at the back
It had fake ivy round it
And all the Monster Hunter merch together
It looked really cool
They also had quite a lot of Studio Ghibli
They had Pop Team Epic
Koppechan
That penguin I saw in Kiddyland the other day
And quite a lot of other popular things
On the ground floor
What did you get?
(???) the pukei pukei
You got it?!
No, not
I thought you said you got it!
Can you see?
What's that one?
That is....
Forgot the name!
It's got some eggs with it
That's alright
It's this one
It's the...
Ku- ru -ya
While we're resting our feet here
I'll just go through a couple of questions that people often ask me
About Akihabara
First one is
Do people cosplay to come figure shopping?
And the answer is: Not really!
No!
The only time I've ever seen cosplayers
Is other people who are definitely tourists
Who've come in their cosplays
Which is fine
I saw wear whatever you want to
But people only really cosplay
For conventions
Not just to come to the shops
In Akihabara
Number 2 is: Do they have figures from this particular anime
Or game, or whatever
And the answer to that is:
Probably yes!
There's so many figures
That, pick your favourite anime
It's going to be here somewhere
You'll find the whole selection you'd normally see somewhere like comic con
And loads more
So much more
Even obscure ones
I mean, there's hundreds that I don't recognise
I know hardly any anime
Really, compared to how many there are!
But I'm sure you can find
Whatever you're looking for here somewhere
Number 3
Do they have this particular rare figure
And, same again: you might find it somewhere
It's quite possible you will
Especially if it's been out for a while
You might find someone's traded it in
Or they want to sell it in one of the secondhand shops
The beauty of the secondhand shops
Is you really could find anything in them
Next question: is it expensive
As I've been going around today
I've been trying to film some prices in the shops
And I'm going to make a separate video
About how expensive is Akihabara
To show you exactly what things cost
With lots of examples for you
In general, the figures I buy
I don't buy particularly high quality figures
I don't have a lot of money to spend on them
So I tend to buy the prize figures
Which are around 1200-1500 yen usually
But there are also loads that are more expensive than that
If you prefer collecting higher quality or rarer figures
They will cost you more
And they're here too
Next question
Should I also go to Nakano Broadway
Or Akiba, or both?
And also what about DenDen Town in Osaka?
Well I went to DenDen Town for the first time last week
When I was in Osaka
And you can see more of that in my video
I had heard that Denden Town was a lot cheaper than Akiba
But I'm not sure if that was the case!
I'm really not sure
I've seen figures that I'd bought
For a bit more there
And overall, to me
It didn't seem to be a lot cheaper
Nakano Broadway can be a bit cheaper than Akihabara
They've got lots of secondhand shops there
And quite a lot of figures to look through
As well as other sorts of collectables
So if you're really into your figure hunting
I'd recommend you go to both
Akiba and Nakano Broadway
If you're not really that bothered
And just want to have a quick look
Or you haven't got much time
Just come to Akiba
Because it's got a lot more atmosphere
All the shops are crammed together
You can hear the anime music blaring out of them
It's just full of excitement
And it's a really fun place to come
Whereas Nakano's more of an everyday sort of mall
It doesn't really have that exciting atmosphere
But you can get some bargains there
Next question
Can I buy games in Akihabara?
Yes!
There's lots of game shops
There's new game shops
And you can buy used games
And retro games here
It is important to check
That your console isn't region locked
To make sure you can play games from Japan
And - I don't know if all of them -
BuUt the great majority of games
Will be in Japanese
So make sure you're ok with that
That you'll be able to understand the game you've bought
Once you come to play it
Another good place to look for games
Is Book Off
Which is a secondhand store
They also sell music
And books
And some of them have quite a large variety of things
Some of them sell hardware & clothes as well
But mainly it's books
Games and CDs
And you can find branches of that everywhere
All over Tokyo
And other places in Japan as well
Because it's secondhand
They all have a different selection
So you can go hunting in all of them
When we were here last year with our friends
They wanted to look through every single one
Which was fine
It was fun!
But that's a good place to look for games
And it's also a bit cheaper than other places too
Next question
Can I buy cosplay stuff here?
Yes, there are some cosplay shops
Sometimes you have to hunt around for them
I haven't really seen them on street level so much
But if you go up a few floors
Sometimes you'll come across them
And they sell costumes
Wigs
Shoes
Accessories
Things like ties and hats
They also have some supplies and things
Sometimes they have art supplies and things for modelling
So all that's here too!
Phil's gone for a second one
Gotta get that Pukei Pukei one day!
Why'd it called a pukei pukei?!
I don't know!
I'm no Monster Hunter- oh no
Oh no
Is it the same one?
No
Ah you go the-
It's the stupid bonus one!
Ah wait, no - that's a piece of the bonus one
I actually got the anganath
I see
So you collect the bonus one
I wonder if the other one had a bit in there as well
Yeah, I got the anganath
He's alright
Are you happy with that one?
I'll take the anganath
I hope you found that useful
If you have any other questions
Just put them in the comments
And don't forget to check out my designs
I'll put the link in the description
And i'll see you next Thursday
With more from Tokyo