Archive for April, 2009

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-04-27

  • reckon a flu bug is going ard. 11/2 HR wait to see the doc! Grrr time to go back n rest. #
  • is down with the flu bug. Nose leaking, head in the sky,, the works.. great weekend I’m having! #
  • Master Crab: This place is OK #
  • Had some great peranakan food at the Peranakan museum. Yumm #
  • Marrakesh – Moroccan Lounge and Bar: This place is OK #
  • off to the Peranakan Museum for their 1st Anniversary weekend festivities. Great food, bazaars n if u like, Jeanette Aw 2morrow. LOL. #
  • Miao Yi restaurant on 3rd floor of Coronation Plaza. Always crowded n foods good. Book in advance. #
  • A nice place is sunset grill at seletar camp. Doesn’t feel like ur in SG. Not too ex. #
  • Or near jalan sultan. Some good briyani there too. #
  • Tanjong pagar railroad station. The briyani there is great. A little bit of Malaysia there too. #
  • pleasently suprised by the NUS museum. Some very interesting artworks. http://twitpic.com/3pgsw #

Tokyo – Day 9 of 9: Harajuku, Shinjuku

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Out last full day in Tokyo. We had covered all the areas we wanted to so today we decided to go back to Harajuku and Shibuya.

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One of our first stops was this cafe which serves the nicest egg and cheese on toast! There’s just the right amount of mayo to sweeten things up! As you walk down the main street, Takeshita-dori, from the station, it’s the first cafe on the left!

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I also decided to have my last crape for the trip. And while waiting in the queue, I noticed the cherry blossom tree which was in full bloom. Beautiful.

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After that, it was on with the crape! yummy and delicious. The cream they used was one of a kind.

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It’s always fun walking along Takeshita-dori street. There’s heaps to see and the shop fronts are always very different.

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Sometimes you may even bump into hot Japanese school girls!

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After walking along Takeshita-dori street, we decided to check out some of the other back streets. Most of which are quant areas with heaps of smaller shops. The street shown above is Cat Street if I’m correct. I recommend checking it out as there are quite a few shops selling unusual stuff, as well as some unique looking buildings.

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One of the buildings that popped out of no where was this Nike Shop. They were having a sale, and as usual, the locals love to wait for good things.

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There was even a toy shop which sold some vintage and hard-to-find toys.

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Back on the main road, Meji-Dori, you may come across the Audi Forum building or even this shop front which reminded me of the scrolling text in some of New York’s Times Square light boards.

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Harajuku is packed to the max on weekends as you can see on the street side as well as outside the train station.

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We checked out the nearby Yoyogi park were there were heaps of festivities. Apparently the locals love to spend their weekends in the park and they stream into the park in hordes. They lay out mats and congregate in groups eating and drinking away! Some practise their dancing while some practise their juggling skills.

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The entrance to the park is lined with food stores selling all types of Japanese street food. Like the yakitoris above. Yummmm.

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And of course no trip to Yoyogi Park would be complete without cosplayers. Though for some reason we saw hardly any. I took pics of those we did see though. Love those Elvis impersonators.

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We had a great day out and was kinda sad to have the night ending on us. For our last meal we felt like tempura. We walked all around Shinjuku looking for a good place to eat, but couldn’t find any place that specialised in tempura. It was only when we decided to check out 1 last obscure corner did we finally find the place. It was the same chain of restaurants that we had the best tempura a few days back. Yeepeee!

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Shinjuku was a great place to stay and as a base of operations, it was very well connected.

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Our hotel, Sunroute Plaza Hotel Shinjuku, was also very comfortable and reasonable in costs. The location was great as it was about 5 mins away from Shinjuku Station.

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Narita Airport in the morning, waiting for our flight back. Dreading going back to Singapore.

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Checked out the food court at the airport and they had this pretty cool technology. For every order, they pass you this small device. You can walk around or go back to your seat, when your food is ready, the device will beep and vibrate signalling for you to pick up your dishes. Good idea!

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The huge A380 waiting for us on the tarmac.

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The view from the top is truly one to savour. Can anything be as blue?

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The new inflight entertainment system on SIA planes rocks. Over 100 movies, tv programmes and games to keep one occupied. The screen is now bigger and even has a small light below for your reading purposes. You can even connect your iPod or USB drive to read video, mp3s and documents!

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And that’s it! Our last pic of our Tokyo trip. It was a fantastic trip and we had great fun. 9 days exploring Tokyo and eating Tokyo. Heh,, we wanna go back!

Tokyo – Day 8 of 9 : Roppongi, Tokyo Tower, Mori Art Museum

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Roppongi, one of the high class areas of Tokyo and home of the Mori Art Museum.

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The day started with quick trip to Akihabara to check out some toys followed by a great find, Tempura! We came across this chain of tempura restaurants which in our opinion, served the best tempura we have ever eaten. The squid in particular was delicious, not rubbery, just nice and chewy. Shiok!

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Before Roppongi Hills, we dropped by Tokyo Tower. One of the landmarks in Tokyo. Well, it was just a tower, doesn’t even come close to places like the Eiffel Tower.

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The Mori Tower in Roppongi Hills. Named after the tycoon, the building is a landmark in Roppongi and holds the Mori Art Museum on it’s 52 floor. The museum incorporates the Tokyo City View and the art museum on the 52 floor, and the Sky Deck from the top of the building.

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The city view was pretty spectacular with 360 degree views of Tokyo from the gallery. You could see as far as the Odaiba and the rainbow bridge.

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The view was also up close and personal as you can see from the pic above. You can go right up to the window and look down. wooooooo

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Mori must also be an avid car collector. He had Ferrari’s from different ages as well as an Audi Spider on show.

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One of the best views ever was from the top of Mori Tower. Behind Jas is the helipad. It reminded me of the top of Swiss hotel, and the view of Singapore from there is just as good.

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The Mori Art Museum, it is known as one of the better art museums worldwide, and I was about to find out why.

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The exhibits were all engaging and I had a great experience there. Pics will not be able to give you full experience of the various rooms where the artworks lay.

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The above was one of my fave artworks. It had symbolism to the 9/11 attacks in New York.

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The museum gave me my best experience ever in an art museum. It showed me that art could really be fun and interesting. The above visuals depict the various ads put out by the museum. Even those are works of art.

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After our museum visit, we walked around roppongi. The streets weren’t as interesting as Shinjuku or Shibuya, but we did come across Hard Rock Tokyo. :P

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We ventured back to Shinjuku and were looking for a place for dinner. We decided to have our first and only non-Japanese meal, and what a great choice it was. We had Octopus Sashimi, and two pizzas!! I forgot to take the seafood pizza as I was too busy eating. heh,, the Japs sure know how to make pizza, I like how they always make their crusts nice and thin. Yummmm

Tokyo – Day 7 of 9 : Tsukiji Market, Imperial Palace, Ghibli Museum

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We got up bright and early to visit the famous Tsukiji market. It is one of the largest fish markets in the whole and millions of dollars of fish comes thru this market daily.

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There were heaps of variety of edible marine life. And most of which where still alive when we were exploring the market. It was the first time I had seen live squid and sea cucumber!

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One of the main highlights were the tuna fish. These guys are huge! And already gutted and frozen as soon as they are caught. Thus what you see in the pics are frozen tuna which are still super duper fresh, needing a saw to cut them up.

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Across the market are stores which sell dried food, sharp knifes and sushi restaurants!! Yups small little sushi bars that serve up the fresh sushi I have ever tasted. These were just alive possibly less than a few hrs ago!! The scallop was soo soo good! The taste is definitely different when you eat the freshest of the fresh. Jas who before this trip stayed clear of raw fish, was a convert.

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After the excitement of the fish market, we went to visit the Imperial Palace grounds. The palace itself is only open to public twice a year, and the grounds around the palace are open to the public. Look at the bonsai trees, they are everywhere! And they look pretty good!

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The visit wasn’t a big deal. All we could really see was the moat and this centuries old bridge leading to the palace. We were kinda disappointed but made full use of the time taking pics.

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Jas liked the weeping tree while the 2nd pic shows the great view of the Tokyo Tower in the distance.

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We then headed down to the Ghibli Museum. The museum was situated in Mitaka, a pretty nice and serene part of Tokyo.

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The museum was a magical experience. Character’s from Hayao Miyazaki’s movies came to life in some of the most creative exhibits.

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Best thing was that the whole museum was designed with the magical and whimsical theme in mind. Everything from the galleries, foyer, fire hydrant holder and taps for the sink. An immersive experience that I won’t forgot.

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They also had a special exhibition called Petit Lourve. Basically it was a mini exhibition on the Lourve. There were mini paintings and sculptures all from the Lourve. It was a pretty good exhibit.

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Ghibli Museum is a definite must stop for visitors to Tokyo. It’s a fun time at a museum you won’t see anywhere else.

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The long and tiring day ended with Jas and me picking up some bargain foods from the food markets. We had a spread and were stuff to the brim!

Twitter Weekly Updates for 2009-04-20

Tokyo – Day 6 of 9 : Ginza, Odaiba, Shinjuku, Advertising Museum

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A day of sightseeing to some famous spots in Tokyo, Ginza & Odaiba.

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Tokyo trains, they run faster than our MRT’s and most of them have real time maps on a screen which tell you what stop is coming up next.

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Having just arrived at Ginza, we saw Cherry Blossoms. A good start to the day. And better yet, a traditionally dressed Japanese man under a Sakura tree. nice.

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We came across this Mochi shop in Ginza which had the loveliest shop front. They had Strawberry Mochi’s, which sadly wasn’t ready when we were there. So we grabbed some apricot and sakura mochis. Both were very delicious.

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Our first stop was the Sony Building. I had read stuff about how this show room was state of the art and had really cool interpretations of Sony’s new tech. Well, none of that, it’s just an over glorified showroom. yawn yawn

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The famous Ginza 4-chome intersection.

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It seems that every luxury brand in Tokyo has their own big building in Ginza. Good to know how rich they are and that at least some of them have the decency to have unique buildings.

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The Advertising Museum run by Dentsu, the advertising agency. The building, or should I say skyscraper the museum is located in is owned by Dentsu. Yes, they whole freaking building. Anywayz, the museum was pretty interesting. Showing ads done by not only Dentsu, but other ad agencies around the whole. It showed the evolution of ads from the past to the present. A pretty interesting museum and good to help inspire your creativity.

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The Venus Fort mall at Odaiba. It has some nice interiors. But on the whole, a bit of a boring place and a tourist trap. lol Decks and Aqua City nearby are much better.

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The famous Rainbow Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. Yups, New York and Paris are not the only places you can find the statue. This one was given to Tokyo by France.

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The FUJ TV Headquarters, known for it’s unique architecture.

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There was a beautiful sunset by the beach, and I decided to play with some of the camera settings. Nice.

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Back to Shinjuku after a day of sightseeing. Shinjuku is one of those places that never seems to sleep. The neon lights light up the streets and locals come out in force at night.

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Down at the Isetan basement, we were checking out the huge variety of food. And came across Strawberry Mochi’s!!! Woot! We bought 6 to go and boy did they go… down our throats. They were extremely delicious!

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Nothing better than ending the night at our fave BBQ place. Look at the amount of meat that is about to be gobbled up!

Tokyo Toy Shops – 4 of 4 : Akihabara

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There are a few places to visit in Akihabara. The main one would be the Big Yellow Sign Building. At the JR Akihabara station, look for the Electric Town Exit and exit through the left side. Once out, on the right the distance should be the building.

Jan 2010 UPDATE: Updates in Blue. Check the pics out below!

There are about 4 floors to explore in the building with a variety of toys. You should be able to find all brands here. The best thing is that both Kotobukiya and Kaiyodo has stores in the building! Kotobukiya has a few stores on the different levels, each with some pretty fancy shop front windows.

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12 inch fans should also be able to find some nice lose items on sale too. They have some pretty cool zombie headsculpts as well.

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I really love how the stores here display all the toys in their full glory. It makes one drool on seeing them and that’s half the battle won in terms of getting someone keen to buy the item.

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You can also find some weapon shops which have pretty damm cool weapons on display.

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One should also check out the main streets of Akiharaba. Instead of turning left on the Electric Town Exit turn right and then left and walk to the main road where you should see some electrical shops on the left and the buildings in front of you as shown in the pic below.

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From here, turn right and walk down the road all the way. The google map at the bottom tells you where to turn back as there’s nothing further up. Along the road you will be able to find some Anime/Game/DVD shops, some of which have toy floors up above. You will also come across some toy stores that sell some 2nd hand toys. Below is a pic of one such store.

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I managed to find some vintage Transformers figures as well as other cheaper 2nd hand stuff that were pretty good value. These 2nd hand toys are usually not too bad as they are checked before being put on sale. And some have not even been opened before. So a mix of old and new.

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Along is the same street is this place call GoldenAge. It’s a pretty cramp store, but there’s heaps of stuff there. Vintage & new Transformers, GI Joe, Star Wars, and heaps more American stuff.

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Near to GoldenAge is another store which sells 2nd had stuff on the ground floor, as well as new stuff on the floors above. I found a Fortress Maximus there! Though the box was in bad condition and it costs nearly SG$2,000. heh. There was also this figure called Prisman?!?? Shesh, you’ll find all kinds of toys in these shops.

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On the top floor, lies a floor nearly fully dedicated to Star Wars stuff. You can find really old vintage stuff still in good condition in box as well as brand new stuff. Really cool!

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Another place to check out is Yodobashi Akiba which you can see the huge building from the subway platform. You can see the google map below for directions

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Akihabara is a definite must visit for any toy enthusiast. There are always toy stores opening and closing so every visit is a new experience. It’s a fun place to check out the 2nd hand shops and find some real gems hiding from sight.

View Tokyo Toy Haunts in a larger map

Tokyo Toy Shops – 3 of 4 : Ueno

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One of the more impressive toy stores is 7 floors high Yamashiroya. The store is home to carries all sorts of toys and is one of few places that has a good collection of 12 inch figures. Even though they are a bit more expensive than what you can find in Singapore (as seen in the Indy pic below), there is a wide selection of lose clothing, weapons, etc. that is hard to find in SG.

Jan 2010 UPDATE: Updates in Blue. Check the pics out below!

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The store also has a wide collection of Star Wars as well. Especially the one of a kinda Disney Star Wars figures!

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Not forgetting the large collection of Gundam and Macross.

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The store is a good place to check out and they have a huge variety of toys.

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Things haven’t changed much since I was last here. The variety of toys available continues to excite me. Below are some of the latest pics I took.

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So how do you get there from Ueno JR Station? Well exit from the Central Gate exit. This is also where the Ueno Hard Rock Cafe can be found. Once you exit walk out and in front across the road should be the building in front of you to the right side!

View Tokyo Toy Haunts in a larger map

Tokyo Toy Shops – 2 of 4 : Harajuku & Shibuya

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Along Omotesando-dori lies Kiddy Land. A building full of various toys for all ages. With the top floor holding mainly action figures, 12 inch figures and other stuff.

Jan 2010 UPDATE: Updates in Blue. Check the pics out below!

The shelfs in Kiddy Land are kept pretty up to date. You’ll find current stuff here.

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Along Cat Street is a small shop called AstroMike. Selling some vintage 80s & 90s toys as well as current toys. Pretty good to find some rare and old stuff.

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View Tokyo Toy Haunts in a larger map


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Nearby Harajuku is Shibuya and Mandarake can be found there. Refer to the map below. From the pic of the entrance above, the stairs lead down to B2 where you will find the shop. It’s a pretty huge underground space with lots of anime dvds, manga and toys. Though the toy selection may not be as big as other places, I have found some hard-to-find stuff there in my past two trips. Good for Transformers, Macross, Gundam, small range of 12 inch figures and Otaku stuff.

I’ve added some pics of how it looks down there. Pretty cool underground toy shop. :)

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View Tokyo Toy Haunts in a larger map

Tokyo Toy Shops – 1 of 4 : Nakano & Shinjuku

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Nakano is not as well known a place to find toys, but down at Nakano is Nakano Broadway with 4 floors of toy shops. Mandarake’s main shop is situated there amongst a variety of shops where you will find anything from Star Wars, Macross, Otaku, transformers, 12 inch figures, etc. I found this place has some rare finds as well as some good vintage toy shops. So how do you get there? Well Nakano lies 3 stops away from Shinjuku station on the JR Chuo line (Rapid). You can also take the line from Tokyo or Kanda station. The line is the orange coloured line. One you reach Nakano station, there are only two exits, North or South.

Jan 2010 UPDATE: Updates in Blue. Check the pics out below! :)

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Take the North exit and you will see the crossing and building as in the first picture above. Walk towards the glass covered walkway and walk all the way till you see Nakano Broadway as in the visual below.

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Once you enter there is an escalator on the left. That will lead you to the 3rd floor right to Mandarake.

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Mandarake has smaller shops on the other floors as well. Altogether, check out the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors. You can use the staircase to navigate thru the floors.

I took more pics of Mandarake to give you an idea of the kinda stuff you can find there. Boxes and boxes of 2nd hand stuff. Some brand new too!

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Just opposite the main store, Mandarake also sells comics! Though mainly Japanese comics with some english ones spread about.

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Mandarake’s smaller stores on the other levels are themed and specialises in different toys and genres. Below is the vintage toys store.

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Below is their store which has more mainstream stuff, especially new and old Transformers!

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Below is one that specialises on SciFi stuff, including 12 & 31/4 inch toys. This has pretty cool stuff! New and 2nd hand.

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And of course there are the random stores that sells all kinda stuff, heaps of Star Wars toys, Gundam, 12 inches, DC, Marvel, Marcross, Transformers, etc. I could keep on going.

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Below is where it lies on Google maps. Nakano and Akihabara are the places I recommend to visit if you are short of time.


View Tokyo Toy Haunts in a larger map

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I couldn’t find many toy shops in Shinjuku except for two. Yodobashi is basically an electronics store which has a pretty neat toy section. The store has a few shops in the buildings around the area, you can check the store’s map when you get there to find your way around. The toy section lies in the basement of the section that sells the PS3, Wii and Xbox. It has a large variety of Star Wars, Gundam, Macross, Otaku and many others. Worth a look.

Pics of the Macross shelf. :)

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