Popendetta's layout

Popendetta is a great store which is not too hard to find (using the great google earth map hyperlinked: )

The first (ground) floor has brand new accessories and buidlings etc.

The 2nd Floor has Tomix, some MicroAce and a great little layout that you can either run your own trains for a small fee or hire Popendetta's trains for an additional fee (about Y150 per half hour) - some photos attached.

The 3rd Floor has Kato.

They were extremely helpful even though their English was limited and my Japanese even more limited. You could tell that they were passionate about the hobby.

We then went to the Kato Hobby store. They had barfgain bins full of train parts and clearance specials eg. Eurostar 8 car set for Y10,000, additional orange TGV carriages for Y500  etc.

Apart from that they sold everything else at MRSP.  Interestingly, the kato Hobby centre also stocked and sold Tomix, Microace and other Japanese manufacturers -  Some photos of their display cabinets are attached.

Was this at the Akihabara store?  Popondetta has several stores with layouts.

I don't remember that glass wall (nor 3 floors, just two) at the Osaka store.

Osaka had, if I remember correctly, 1st floor (up stairs, above McDonalds) Layout & N Scale (old/new) and 2nd floor was HO.

But that layout looks extremely similar to the one in Osaka

From photos I keep coming across on the web I think all their layouts look very similar.

The store was the Akihabara store.

The last two photos (of the glass cabinets) is of the Kato Hobby store - sorry I didnt make that clear in my original post.

The last two photos (of the glass cabinets) is of the Kato Hobby store

I looooooooove 2nd-hand bins... Japanese people have an (I can't think of the word) weird hatred for second hand items and, as an Australian, I hereby love taking the "she'll be right" attitude when rummaging through the bins and purchasing perfectly-functional-yet-mildly-damaged N Scale stock.

Meanwhile every Digital Camera I've bought from Japan has been chuko-mono and have lasted me years... they can keep there obsession with purchasing the latest-and-greatest and I'll swoop on their superseded models :)

I looooooooove 2nd-hand bins... Japanese people have an (I can't think of the word) weird hatred for second hand items and, as an Australian, I hereby love taking the "she'll be right" attitude when rummaging through the bins and purchasing perfectly-functional-yet-mildly-damaged N Scale stock.

Me too. It must be an Australian thing.

I looooooooove 2nd-hand bins... Japanese people have an (I can't think of the word) weird hatred for second hand items and, as an Australian, I hereby love taking the "she'll be right" attitude when rummaging through the bins and purchasing perfectly-functional-yet-mildly-damaged N Scale stock.

 

Me too. It must be an Australian thing.

Hardly :D "Garage Sale" season has just started here in the US, and my wife goes nuts getting up super early every Saturday, plotting the sales in neighborhoods most likely to cast off perfectly good if outdated stuff. I once picked up (this is my treasure!) a perfect Zeiss Contax IIa for $3 at one of the sales she picked out. (actual retail value: Close to $600 if you play your cards right, that's a savings of 99.5%!).

From photos I keep coming across on the web I think all their layouts look very similar.

It's that damned insistence on sectional track, regardless of size/budget.

Hardly :D "Garage Sale" season has just started here in the US, and my wife goes nuts getting up super early every Saturday, plotting the sales in neighborhoods most likely to cast off perfectly good if outdated stuff. I once picked up (this is my treasure!) a perfect Zeiss Contax IIa for $3 at one of the sales she picked out. (actual retail value: Close to $600 if you play your cards right, that's a savings of 99.5%!).

I always assumed it was only us (ie. Aussies) due the fect that for as long as I can remember the Australian dolllar was weaker than other currencies and so imports were so expensive, hence the desire for the ultimate bargain!

Well, I won't be as categoric as you guys but, in Osaka at least, there is plenty of second hand items readily available in model train stores. I've seen quite a few people checking them out. There is even a shop specialized in second hand items in Den den town. Some places even have a huge collections of second hand single cars/locs without boxes to go through. Actually, I bought today two kiha 47 cars from an old Microace release.

Japanese people have an (I can't think of the word) weird hatred for second hand items

A perception about 20 years out of date.  Nowadays there are huge swap meets held in dome stadiums in Japan as well as small neighborhood ones at the local temple grounds etc., not to mention second hand clothes shops (popular among young people and mothers looking for children's clothing), "recycle" shops selling furniture and appliances, in a slumping book market the second hand bookstore chain Book Off is doing very well, and lets not forget hugely popular Yahoo Auctions (Ebay is not a player here, probably a good thing...), which I personally use to find out of print railway books as well as older Seiko mechanical watches.