We're in Akihabara
It's the best place to go figure shopping
IT's got such a great atmosphere
There's anime all around you
They're playing anime songs from all the shops
It's just the best & most fun place to go figure shopping
Today I'm going to take you with me around the shops
We're going to have a look at the figures
And see how much they cost here
Which might surprise you
If you've only bought figures in the UK
When I say Akihabara's the best place to go
I mean it's got the biggest choice
And it's the most fun & exciting
If you want the cheapest figures
It's actually better to go to Nakano Broadway
Which is about 5-10 minutes from Shinjuku on the train
It doesn't have the atmosphere of Akihabara
But it's got all sorts of collectables
At great prices
There's a video about it on my channel
AnNd it's also got some great food options
Including the famous giant rainbow ice cream
I've never even attempted to eat this
But it looks amazing
I'm going to focus mainly on anime figures
And I'll show you a few games & electronics at the end
We're going to see a mix of new & secondhand figures
There's more expensive figures
There's the cheaper prize figures
I really like the shops with the glass cabinets
Where people sell their collections
And you can find some real bargains in there
You can see more of what's around
And all the different shops
In my tour of Akihabara
I'll put the link in the description
And there's new Japan videos every Thursday
If you want to subscribe
I'm going to start off with some cheaper figures
Now lots of these are prize figures
So if you can't win them in the UFO catchers
In the arcades
You can usually buy them in the shops
That's what I usually do
This time I've noticed a lot of these Q Poskets
And Disney figures
Which I haven't really seen in Akihabara before
They are cute with the massive eyes
You can also get good prices at Hobby Off
Which is a secondhand shop
With branches all around Japan
I got some great figures there recently
For only 380 yen
On to my favourite type of shop
There's lots of these places with the glass cabinets
Where people rent a cabinet
To sell their old figures
So you could find anything
There's lots of them
You'll find them really easily
All along the main street
And there's more in Nakano Broadway
Now these are all secondhand figures
But I've found they're usually in perfect condition
They just might not have the boxes, that's all
Someone's getting rid of their K-On collection
When you want to buy something
You grab one of these slips
Write in the box number
Which is here on each cabinet
The number of the figure you want
Which is on the sticker
The price & the quantity
And they've got some pencils here ready for you
Then you take it up to the counter
And the person comes over & gets it out for you
They usually wrap it up if it doesn't have a box
If they don't have these slips
And you want to buy something
Just go up to the counter
And take the assistant over to the right cabinet
If the figure you want to buy is quite popular
It's better not to buy it straight away
The first time you see it
With the popular figures,
They are repeated quite a lot through the different shops
And the prices do vary quite a bit
So shop around
But if you see something rare
Grab it as soon as you can!
Here's a cabinet with some games
We haven't really seen them in these shops before
If you know where to shop
You can probably match these prices online
But if you're here in Akihabara
You know there's no customs or import charges
And you've got all the fun & excitement of hunting for figures
Here's some higher priced figures
39800 yen
Actually, I can't buy it
Why not?
"Figures in case are samples, not for sale"
Although-
You can buy the one in the box though
She's almost 15,000 yen
Ilike her but I'm not spending that much
The games are arranged alphabetically by hiragana
If you don't read Japanese
The spines are all in katakana & kanji
So you have to pull them out to see what the games are
The best place for games
In terms of prices
Is Book Off
Which is a secondhand store
With lots of branches
This is the Old Soft section
The retro games
Not a massive selection
But I guess that's the joy with every Book Off
You go to it & each one's completely different
But I'm pretty sure
It's cheaper than most other retro shops
This is the only Dreamcast game they have here
Choice of one!
250 yen
I think that's pretty decent
I've seen other things
I'm sure I've seen things like Wave Race
Which is a classic style game
And DK 64
For considerably more
It's 500 yen here
I think there's a certain-
Some places charge more because they know people will buy those things
Yeah, that's understandable
Sometimes people ask if you can get things cheaper here in Japan
In electronics shops
Like Softmap or Yodobashi Camera
And I'm no real expert on it
But from what we've seen
The prices are similar
Some things are a bit more
Some things might be a little bit less
So it's not really worth hunting
To get yourself a discount here
However
They do have a lot of stuff here
There's a lot of things on display
If there's anything you want to see
Like the other day, we were looking at some headphones in Yodobashi Camera
And they had a lot more out for you to try
Than when we were looking for them in the UK
And these are also good places to come
If you need some more batteries
Or another memory card
Or a charger
But obviously everything's got Japan plugs on
There really is so much in Akihabara
So I'm sorry if I haven't included your favourites
But we've had a look at some cheaper figures
Some more expensive ones
And hopefully that's given you a rough idea of how much things cost
So I'll see you next week
On Thursday