Shopping In Japan

[mjs]

I'm in Tokyo and Kobe for a few days later this week. Not sure if I'll get any time for shopping, but any suggestions for appropriate establishments in these cities?

Might be interested in hi-tech gadgets, maybe Hi-def handycams, etc. Nothing too bulky.

thanks

[PositivelyMusicallyGeared]

I'm in Tokyo and Kobe for a few days later this week. Not sure if I'll get any time for shopping, but any suggestions for appropriate establishments in these cities?

Might be interested in hi-tech gadgets, maybe Hi-def handycams, etc. Nothing too bulky.

thanks

The electric town "Akihabara" in Tokyo. But things are very expensive in Japan.

J.

[Couj]

I've recently returned to Australia after living in Japan for 2 years. Akihabara is a good option (I spent a lot of time there during my time in Japan), but as Jie mentioned, Japan is pretty expensive. From memory, handycams are reasonably priced (but you need to shop around). A good place to start is Yodabashi camera in Akihabara. This is a huge electronics department store that will have every handycam available. Their prices are usually retail though (the way they compete is to offer points with each purchase which you can use towards your next purchase) but this is of little value if you are not going to go back and shop there again.

I looked at high def handicams before I came home and was frustrated to find that the sony ones sold in Japan (other than from a few a few retails who sell international models) only have Japanese menus. Many of the other brands (eg canon) are, from memory, sold with both Japanese and English menus. As I mentioned, there are some retailers who deal specifically in international models. The only problem I found with them, however, was that they often don't have the latest models and if they do, they cost more than the japanese models. A store called Laox in Akihabara is one store that has international goods. Laox has several stores in Akihabara - one sells mainly international goods, one sells games software and one sells computer stuff - and there may be a few others.

If you want to find out the cheapest price you can find an electronic product in Japan you need to go to a website called www.kakaku.com. This is a great site for finding the lowest price of certain electronic goods and often the stores listed with the lowest price are located in Akihabara but the site is in japanese and can be difficult to navigate if you can't read japanese.

One more tip for shopping in Akihabara is to get off the main street. The main street has lots of shops but the shops with the best value are usually found in the streets behind the main street.

Let me know if you have any specific questions.

Cheers

Couj

[Couj]

One other thing to remember is that Japan is 100 volts. So, if you buy something, make sure it can accept 100-240 volts or you'll need a transformer. This is another advantage of the retailers who sell international goods as they often have 240 volt models (or 230 volt models anyway). But again, they are often more expensive.