Akihabara has lengthy been often known as probably the greatest locations to purchase retro video video games in Tokyo, Japan. Given the nickname of “Electrical City,” the district is rife with shops promoting buying and selling playing cards, video video games, figures, and gachapon, alongside loads of arcades. It is also residence to the world-famous Tremendous Potato.
A bit of-known reality about me is that I’ve a reasonably wholesome assortment of retro online game stuff. I personal each Nintendo and PlayStation console and a smattering of different consoles, just like the Sega Dreamcast, with dozens of previous video games. After all, this meant that in my current journey to Japan, I needed to see what the realm needed to provide. And, whereas I wasn’t disenchanted, there have been higher locations to purchase previous video games.
Akihabara Electrical City Vibes
Like virtually in all places I visited in Japan, I cherished the place. The ambiance in Akihabara Electrical City was, properly, electrical. Neon lights lit up the streets, which have been stuffed with the shops that I hoped and anticipating to see, and a mix of excited vacationers and residents hopped from retailer to restaurant to arcade.
I went to the district with two targets: to seize some cool new Pokémon playing cards for my assortment and bolster my retro recreation cabinets just a little. I achieved each, simply not within the portions I might hoped for.
Tremendous Potato And Different Shops
I felt like visiting Tremendous Potato was a little bit of a ceremony of passage. It is a retailer well-known the world over for its assortment of video games and consoles, previous and new. My pleasure was palpable when visiting. Once I stepped in, by way of its slender corridors and stairways, the shop felt like as a lot of a museum because it was a store. Outdated memorabilia lined the partitions, with images and autographs of well-known guests, just like the one and solely Hideo Kojima, sitting above the until factors. Stacks of previous video games stuffed the cabinets, and retro consoles have been neatly displayed behind glass cupboards. It was precisely what I anticipated.
However the place had issues, and so they have been to be anticipated. Throughout peak vacationer season, which is once I went, it was almost unattainable to navigate Tremendous Potato’s 5 flooring of gaming goodness. The shop is not blessed with flooring area, and with its cultural and historic relevance, it was busy—like actually busy.
Secondly, it wasn’t low-cost. I wasn’t anticipating costs to be groundbreaking, however they have been positively marked up versus a few of the different shops I had visited round Tokyo, and I discovered this was a standard theme all through Akihabara.
I left Tremendous Potato and Akihabara with a T-Shirt, a boxed copy of Star Fox 64 and unboxed copies of The Legend of the Mystical Ninja on SNES and Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon on the N64, two of my all-time favorites.
It was 100% well worth the go to to soak within the ambiance, see the sights and sounds and go to some well-known shops, however it wasn’t as fruitful as I might hoped.
The Closing Haul And The place I Obtained It
I got here away from Japan with eight boxed N64 video games and one boxed from the Sport Boy.
I picked up:
- Tremendous Mario 64
- Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon
- Starfox 64
- Pokemon Stadium 2
- Donkey Kong 64
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Mario Kart 64
- Paper Mario
- Pokemon Blue
And I might have picked up a bunch extra, however I had restraint (and no cash left). Whereas a few these video games have been, as I discussed, from Tremendous Potato, I picked the remainder up from the wealth of different shops that Japan needed to provide. Surugaya and Bookoff had comparable alternatives of video games at barely higher costs and in far much less busy shops.
In the event you’re planning a visit to Japan, I might sincerely advocate visiting Akihabara; nonetheless, when you’ve got grand retro recreation purchasing plans, be ready for higher offers elsewhere.
