OK, let’s talk further about shopping in Tokyo.
I know, it sounds so consumptive, but believe me, you will become one consumptive bitch when you’re in Tokyo. Give it a day or two in Shibuya, Shinjuku and Akihabara.
Vintage Video Games & Cheap iPhones and Electronic Whatnot Gadgets in Akihabara
My husband used to be a gadget-freak and is still a gamer. He has his weakness about MarioKart in Nintendo 64 that must have been out 15 years ago at the very least, but he loves it. When we met, and moved in together, he used to play and I accompanied her. We solved Zelda WindWaker together as well as Luigi Mansion and we had this Bongo Donkey Kong thing on Nintendo Gamecube, but his true videogame love-of-a-lifetime is MarioKart 64.
So when we booked the flight to Tokyo, naturally J wanted to go to Akihabara, shortly called Akiba, because it’s where all the video games, new and vintage ones, as well as electronic whatnot gadgets are sold.
Boy, am I right that he’d go crazy there.
If your husband is one vintage videogame geek like mine, I suggest Super Potato in Akiba. It’s the easiest to find and they have everything, the most complete collection of vintage videogame stuff – even things like Famicom, Super Nintendo, whatever! I almost wanted to buy one SNES for good ol’ time’s sakes but then I remembered I have a husband and a baby to tend to, a family to take care about and four businesses I must run, so, goodbye SNES.
Things worth seeing in Akiba:
- The main street where you have all the Anime Stores, Vintage Videogame Shops and just stores where you just want to spend and buy everything because the things are so cute.
- Super Potato of course for a videogame-crazed husbands/boyfriends… *le sigh*
- Craftmanship for all things plushies and accessories with Anime characters on them.
- Sofmap stores because they sell very cheap iPhones (locked with KDDI, AU or Softbank – but depending on your luck you might be able to unlock them in Jakarta) – I bought one iPhone 4S white 16 GB for my brother’s fiancee only ¥ 30,000 – something like IDR 3.6 mills or € 300; and another iPhone 4 black 32 GB 2012 production (so it’s iPhone 4 but was produced and released earlier this year) for my brother at approximately the same price.
- 100-Yen Stores that abound there – where everything costs – yes, the price is right – ¥ 100.
- Maid Cafes – basically cafes where you can hang out and play with girls dressed in cosplay attires (choose your own manga fantasy, you perv).
- M’S where all your pervy imaginations will come true. It’s all 6 floors of perversions in all kinds of aspects but mostly either S&M (hence M’S as store name) or cartoon-stuff.
- Yodobashi Cameras for all gadget-y things.
Get there by using either the Ginza Line or the Hibiya Line.
Fashion and Useless Cute Stuff in LED-full Shibuya
My other obsession was the LED-full Shibuya. It’s like, the place where people go to and strike a pose in front of dashing and bedazzling LED displays meters and meters high, where all the lights are on and the show must go on in Tokyo.
Shibuya also houses the upscale brands such as Bottega Veneta, Louis Vuitton and the whatnots, but what I found most appealing were the small stores of cute artsy things scattered around it.
You just have to go around and find those stores.
We bought some silly keychains with gay-figurines representing plants – ugly but so funny at the same time, with the main character being a peach whose name is Kakure Momojiri.
As well as some really cute, artsy and creative t-shirts for J & Louis (twin set, Louis has the small tees and J the big ones with same designs) at Arton Shibuya.
There is also this store called Tokyu Hands in Shibuya full of useless, but extremely cute stuff.
I bought some really cute earrings and whatnots in a small pinkie store called Claire, and then some other cute keychains in another store whose name I can’t remember.
Oh gosh, Shibuya. I just love it and gotta go there one day with a bagful of cash ready to be spent in a day!
