Tokyo Vacation May 2018 Day 4

Monday morning in Tokyo was cloudy but still warm. Justin, Scott, and I took the shuttle bus from the Hilton Hotel to Shinjuku Station. Once at the station we decided to procure food before beginning our proper excursion of the day. Initially we descended into the basement of the Odakyu department store. However, despite the tremendous variety of fresh food available, we realized that no seating was available. Scott purchased a Scotch egg before we ascended one level. I led us around the station until we found a Lotteria restaurant. Scott ordered a double burger meal. Justin ordered a single burger meal and a separate “hash” burger that included a hash brown patty atop the beef patty. I ordered a teriyaki chicken burger. Scott realized after a bite that his Scotch egg contained onions, so I finished the egg.

I re-charged my Suica card with an additional 1,000 yen before boarding the train bound for Akihabara. Scott & I sat on the train ride over while Justin chose to stand. Upon reaching the station, we took the south Electric Town exit and first browsed the first five floors of the Volks Hobby Tengoku store. Then we roamed through a covered arcade alley lined by electronics vendors. Scott purchased a handful of random electronic switches and buttons for future household electronics engineering projects. Then we began a devoted crawl down the southern side of Chuo Dori. Of particular note, we noticed a number of heavily discounted second-hand or opened nude bishoujo completed figures on the fourth floor of the Trader third store. The Surugaya store on Chuo Dori offered a surprising number of rare second-hand figures, particularly robot and mecha figures at bargain prices. Justin deliberated over a vinyl Mothra larva figure and a “grown” winged Mothra figure with a complete hang tag. Both toys seemed to be ones missing from his collection, but with our limited reference materials at hand, we had trouble distinguishing which specific toys we were looking at. Justin did find a boxed Heisei-era 8” Mothra vinyl toy that he purchased for 3,500 yen.

Golden Age, next-door to Liberty 8, was closed when we first approached. The sign on the door asserted that the store was closed from 3pm until 5pm. So we browsed Liberty store 8, which proved especially fruitful. The clearance wall shelves on the fifth floor were exceptionally plentiful with bargains. In fact, I literally didn’t have enough cash to pay for everything that interested me. And moreover I’d already purchased so much that I simply couldn’t carry any more. Notably, the Yamato-armored Yuki Mori toy that was on sale brand new from Volks Hobby Paradise down the street for 122,00 was available second-hand from Liberty 8 at 6,900 yen. A second-hand CM’s Corporation Mospeada Brave 01 EX Legioss Tread Type IOTA robot figure set was around 17,000 yen, a bargain compared to its original 28,000 retail price. A complete Minami-ke Chiaki Nendoroid figure was available at 2,300 yen. Particularly, a boxed Banpresto UFO catcher prize “Hikari Kohinata” figure from Amanchu was available within the store for a mere $8.

Naysayers who claim that there are no bargains left to be found in Tokyo’s anime stores either haven’t looked or happen to have such limited and esoteric collecting tastes that they don’t find anything appealing. On this day alone I purchased 35 figures of varying sizes, including two open box & incomplete Nendoroid figures, a large “original” devil girl completed figure, two six inch-plus figures, and plenty of smaller sized and gachapon figures for 11,200 yen. At Trader 3, Justin found three Gamera (1995) boxed figure toy sets for under $50 total.

Golden Age was open for business by the time we exited the Liberty 8 building. While the store still had the impressively dense selection of vintage toys and collectables, the store was appreciably more crowded by browsing patrons than normally, and the stores’ prices compared to 2016 had risen noticeably in many cases.

We crossed over Chuo Dori just past 6pm. Just after crossing the street at the intersection, Justin accepted a flyer proffered by a Japanese lady on the sidewalk. The barker immediately petitioned us to visit the art gallery her flyer was promoting. She pointed out Gallery 9 and encouraged us to visit the store, saying, “It’s only one floor.” The small store offered varying sizes of framed fine art prints. The saleslady admirably tried her hardest to engage us in English language conversation. Scott politely flipped through the framed prints. When I appeared disengaged, the sales lady motioned me to take a look and nearly under her breath said, “Please buy something.” Scott and Justin walked out of the store, causing the saleslady to gasp in disappointed astonishment. I turned to her and said, “Suman,” before walking out without looking back.

Although our intention was to cover both sides of Chuo Dori, we deliberately took a slight side-trip to the Surugaya Specialty Store. We walked into the first floor then walked out again when we realized that the first floor had neither elevator or stairs. We walked around the building and discovered a stairway leading to the second floor. Upon browsing the store’s Warhammer gaming shelves, Scott decided to ask for assistance. The clerk eventually assured Scott that the Japanese exclusive Warhammer 40,000 goods he wanted were sold out. So the three of us approached the station.

To return home, we weaved our way through, past, and around the numerous parents with children and other patrons of the train system to reach the Chuo-Sobu train line. We rode the train until its first stop at Ochanomizu then exited, choosing instead to catch a different train.

Getting off the Chuo-Sobu line, we crossed the platform just as the Chuo-Rapid line arrived. We boarded the Chuo-Rapid line train because it was a faster transfer to Shinjuku Station. Back at the station, we once again descended into the basement grocery of the Odakyu department store. Justin selected and purchased a half-dozen chicken skewers, a pair of fried balls filled with minced chicken, and a large serving of potato salad. I paid the 600 yen bill for a pair of egg rolls. Scott purchased an omrice in gravy and a pair of Scotch eggs as his dinner. We exited the train station through the Odakyu exit then walked around the bend of the station’s exterior. Just as we came into clear sight of the bus station, I saw the Hilton shuttle close its rear passenger door. My initial thought was that the bus was pulling away to depart. So I dashed over to get the driver’s attention. The driver waved me, Justin, and Scott onto the bus and shortly later departed. Once back at the hotel, we first walked down the lobby stairs into the shopping arcade beneath the hotel. Most of the stores were closed, but the convenience market remained open. So Justin purchased a 2,300 yen bottle of Scotch, and we marched back up to the room.

I snapped a photograph of my day’s purchases then began arranging my luggage to see how much space I had remaining, to make tentative plans for how many more larger, boxed items I’d be able to purchase during this trip and still transfer home myself.