Akihabara Hobby Stores Google Map (Work in Progress)

[to2leo]

Hi everyone,

For those who are interested in sharinig or finding out where the train hobby stores are concentrated in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan, feel free to take a look at the google map below.  If you know other stores, please add them too!

 

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=zh-TW&msa=0&msid=100661110195103166047.00044336e3b310bcdfb58&ll=35.657148,139.702851&spn=0,359.99588&z=18&layer=c&cbll=35.657035,139.702137&panoid=c9YflgxUvbpr1fq5sU8Ncg&cbp=12,188.25862845466315,,0,-25.2492757989538

[Guest ___]

Man, that'd've come in handly last year.

[Fat Al]

Here's one I made a few days ago. Just stores in Akihabara.

 

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=118414219880135334014.000481c27520571fdf671&z=16

[disturbman]

Is there anyway to merged our different maps into one?

[to2leo]

I would love to see that happen!  Do we need/want to share our gmail account?

[Fat Al]

Just some places I visited today. Woke up late, could have gone to more of them. But here's a shortish summary so far.

 

Akihabara TamTam Shop

10:00〜21:00

Suehiro-cho Station, Ginza Line, just off Exit 4

JR Akihabara Station Electric Town on foot for about 12 minutes

6-14-2 Soto-Kanda, Chiyoda-ku, Sakai, Suehiro Bldg 3F

03-5816-5667

http://www.hs-tamtam.co.jp/

 

 

Excellent selection, all brand new trains and accessories. Almost all of the trains are 30% off list prices, but there are exceptions. Probably the most complete of all the train shops in Akihabara. The service is also good, and the staff are knowledgeable.

 

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8 Liberty Akihabara shop

10:00〜20:00

Suehiro-cho Station, Ginza Line, 1 minute walk from Exit 1

JR Akihabara Station Electric Town Walk 10 minutes from the exit

4-7-1 Soto-Kanda, Chiyoda-ku

03-5298-6167

http://www.liberty-shop.co.jp/

 

Used train shop on the 2nd floor, limited selection. The staff is generally helpful, plus all the trains are on display, so you don't have to ask them to go open boxes. However, I wouldn't go out of my way to come here, not the cheapest, nor the most plentiful.

 

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Rail Center Chiyoda

12:00〜20:00

※ Closed on every Monday

Suehiro-cho Station, Ginza Line, 3 minutes walk from Exit 3

JR Akihabara Station Electric Town Walk 10 minutes from the exit

3-15-7 Soto-Kanda, Chiyoda-ku, Asano Bldg 2F

03-3253-6860

 

 

Really messy shop, so to speak. The staff know all the trains, but when I asked them about track sections, they seemed a bit lost. However, don't let them put you off. The selection there is both new and used for everything, and extremely cheap (cheapest so far by my fiancee's calculations). Everything packed into shelves, so it's almost like treasure hunting. But I picked up my Doraemon train there today, and plus a few other items also (I got both a brand new Tomix Turntable and CL-1001 powerpack for half price). But limited selection otherwise for anything other than the trains, but a large amount of the trains there are used limited edition ones.

 

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Yodobashi Camera Multimedia Akiba ■

9:30〜22:00

JR Akihabara Station just off the central exit

Hanaoka Kanda-cho 1-1, Chiyoda-ku

03-5209-1010

http://www.yodobashi-akiba.com/

 

Great building to visit, and the models section is certainly well stacked. But no discount on any prices. However, you could get a tax exemption if you buy over 10000 yen, which is still not enough to cover the discounts offered by most of the other shops.

 

 

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LaOX Asobit City

10:00〜22:00

JR Akihabara Station Electric Town walk 3 minutes from the exit

1-15-18 Soto-Kanda, Chiyoda-ku

03-5298-3581

http://www.akibaasobit.jp/

 

Good selection, especially for accessories. You will find all of the Kato and Tomix track sets there. A 20% discount on most items, I think, but didn't really verify that. A cheaper version of Yodobashi, I suppose.

 

 

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Akihabara Popondetta

Weekdays 12:00 to 20:30

Weekends and Holidays 11:00 to 20:00

※ Closed on the 3rd Wednesday of every month

JR Akihabara Station Electric Town walk from the exit 8 minutes

3-3-3 Soto-Kanda, Chiyoda-ku

03-5297-5530

http://www.popondetta.com/

 

 

 

 

Sat at their shop and tried out my new trains for 60 minutes on their layout, for about 600 yen (the cheap one). You can get a large amount of scenery accessories there, and they have a large selection of N scale cars and buses with the boxes already marked, so you don't have to buy a box and guess what's inside. Didn't really look at the train selection there much (wasn't a large selection anyway), but still worth the visit.

 

Here's a video of my new Tsubame 'Relay' in action there.

 

http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid953.photobucket.com/albums/ae15/superbusdriver/Akihabara%20Model%20Shops/P1010384-1.flv

[disturbman]

Still a month to go before I hit Tokyo... can't wait to be there (or to be in Japan, this will happen slightly sooner).

[to2leo]

Hey Fat Al, the places you went bring back memories of my crazy train/shopping trip in Nov of last year.  If you are interested in pre-owned products, you should also check out Hobbyland Pochi in the side streets around the Popondetta shop area.  It is down in the basement.

 

http://hobbyland-pochi.net/hpgen/HPB/entries/1.html#akiha

 

In 渋谷 station area, check out 渋谷模型

They have weekly specials and more than willing to accept credit cards without surcharge like Rail Center Chiyoda.

http://www.rakuten.co.jp/a-toys/

 

Finally hope you will go to  Hobby Center KATO Tokyo

5 minutes walk from the Toei Oedo Line's Ochial minami Nagasaki Station

http://www.katomodels.com/shop/hctokyo_e.shtml

[Darklighter]

Yodobashi Camera Multimedia Akiba ■

...

no discount on any prices.

When I went there, there was a 20% discount on at least Tomytec products and Greenmax and Tomix structures. BTW, it took the sales person ages to fill out the forms for tax exemption...

[Fat Al]

Yeah, I went back to Yodobashi today, and we finally got around to calculating the discount. It was about 20%, tax included. So it wasn't such a bad deal after all. And I found several parts there that I couldn't find anywhere else, picked up some noise cancellers for the video camera system (which I haven't bought yet).

 

And it has really been hectic, Leo! My word, I've been buying the layout items, taking my other half shopping, and buying housewares. The day starts at 8 in the morning, finishes at 10 at night. I'm just dead tired right now. But I found a new train shop in Kanda that's celebrating their 1 year anniversary, and some items are 40% off until April sometime! Have to squeeze it in tomorrow somehow...

 

Anyway, here are some more where I went to. I hope this is useful for someone...

 

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Tenshodo JMS Co., Ltd.

Ginza 4-3-9, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 〒 104-0061

Exit B2 on the Ginza Subway Station

TEL 03-3561-0024

 

 

Large three story shop, with a huge selection of Western and Japanese HO scale items. Not cheap though, but worth a visit. My friend told me there was some layouts there too, but I didn't see any. Overall, a neat place to see, if not to buy.

 

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Hobbyland Pochi Akihabara

Weekdays 11:00 to 20:00

Saturday 10:00 to 20:00

Sundays and holidays 10:00 to 19:30

JR Akihabara Station Electric Town walk from the exit 8 minutes

3-11-2 Soto-Kanda, Chiyoda-ku

03-5256-5390

 

 

As Leo described, used train shop. However, when we got to this particular location, the selection there was somewhat...scarce. Not much to choose from, but there are still quite a few limited edition models on offer for rather reasonable prices.

 

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Models IMON

Weekdays 10:00 to 21:00

Weekends and Holidays 10:00 to 20:00

JR Akihabara Station Electric Town on foot from the mouth 5 minutes

1-9-9 Soto-Kanda, Chiyoda-ku, Uchida Building 3F

03-5296-1900

http://www.imon.co.jp/

 

 

New and used trains on different sides of the same floor. Extremely large selection of trains, probably the entire current Tomix and Kato catalog if I had to guess. Lots of spare parts for sale also. But unfortunately, can only get a 20% discount there, with no tax refund.

 

Anyway, I have three more shops targeted for tomorrow. I hope I can at least make one of those, afterall it is a public holiday tomorrow...

[CaptOblivious]

I'm surprised Tenshodo didn't have a discount at their brick-and-mortar store. I've bought from their Rakuten store several times, as they offer 20%–30% discounts on often harder to find items.

[disturbman]

Thanks for the pictures Al, now I'm stuck in train fuelled shoping daydream.

[to2leo]

Thanks for the pictures Al, now I'm stuck in train fuelled shoping daydream.

 

Hahaha.  Make sure you bring lots of cash to truly enjoy all the deals, Disturbman!  I am thinking with Fat Al and later your input, I can't wait to go back to Japan again ...who knows perhaps in Feb 2010...  Anyone interested 

[bill937ca]

Fat Al did you go into the Greenmax Part Pro Store?  Its in the same building as Models Imon on the fifth floor but might operate under the Crosspoint name.

 

These are the addresses list by Green Max on its dealer list.

 

http://www.greenmax.co.jp/Sales/GMshop13.shtml

 

Greenmax Parts Pro:

〒101-0021  Tokyo Chiyoda Ward Sotokanda 1-9-9 Uchida building 5F

 

Models Imon

〒101-0021  Tokyo Chiyoda Ward Sotokanda 1-9-9 Uchida building 3F

[Fat Al]

Oops, I missed the Greenmax store! I went to every floor on that building (there was a really cool robotics store on the fourth floor), except for the fifth floor! A bit late now, I suppose, gotta leave tomorrow.

 

But I did go to one last store today.

 

 

RailMeister Model Train

Soto-Kanda, Kanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 169-8050

On the second floor

6 minutes walk from JR Akihabara Station

7 minutes walk from Tsukuba Express Akihabara Station

9 minutes walk from Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line Akihabara Station

０３−３２５６−６６９９

http://www.rail-meister.co.jp/

 

 

If you read the website, it will show a few items that are on sale. For example, the Galaxy999 T.V. version is selling for 60% off list! Hurry though, the sale lasts till April 11th. Anyway, the rest of the store had new trains selling for 20% off, a few used sets, and accessories with no discounts whatsoever.

[SubwayHypes]

^wish i visited that IMON place they got a good selection

 

im adding this small shop LITTLE JAPAN to the list.  they are small hole in the wall shop in Yutenji off the Tokyo Toyoko Line, easy walk from station down main street past the curry/train resturant.

 

 

pretty basic pricing similar to most other shops.  good place to look around though they have a nice layout and other collectors stuff.

[to2leo]

I think I am finally persuaded my friend to come with me to Japan in Feb 2011.  Hopefully there will be more stuff I can laid my hands on!

 

Thanks Subway for adding the Little Japan shop, I was trying to find any train themed restaurant but was not able to.

[Guest ___]

BURP BUMP

[nightshade]

that will be helpfull (most stores have discount cards ..... which helps)

[Lawrence]

Rakuten say they are not shipping to the UK, did I miss something 

[cteno4]

Lawrence,

 

Bill had mentioned some cc security/payment issues with rakuten that may be issues with UK credit cards or other laws. its also interesting as they bought buy.com not long ago and you can get rakuten points with buy.com purchases now...

 

jeff