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Japan 2016 : Part 20 – Den Den Town, Shinsaibashi & Shinsekai

This is part of an ongoing travelogue. To start at the very beginning, click here.

After our morning walk through Kuromon Ichiba Market, we headed to the south towards Den Den Town. Today, the whole itinerary is located around the same area, but at different ends. So there’s quite a fair bit of walking involved. From the market, Den Den Town is about 3 blocks.

Den Den Town, or formally known as Nipponbashi, is a large commercial district specializing in electronic equipment, PC and gaming stuff, manga and anime. I was specifically looking for some anime figurines, which are not available in Malaysia. I reckon I would be able to find it in Den Den Town, even though the shops here aren’t as big as the ones in Tokyo.

When we reached Den Den Town, is was rather quiet, since it was still quite early in the day. Most of the shops were open, but the crowds would open come later in the day. The main streets were lined with PC and big name stores, the side streets are filled with smaller shops selling games and other specialized stuff.

Its hard not to miss Namco’s flagship store. Not sure what they actually sell inside, though.


(Namco’s flagship store. Takes up the whole building)


(The only Namco brand that comes to my mind is Tekken)


(the middle of Den Den Town)

Further in I also found this shop selling old consoles and games like PSOne, Super Famicom, Game & Watch, etc. But prices are not cheap, since they only sell originals.


(Japan is where old PSOne games are still actively sold)

Still walking and looking for anime figurines. Finally found this small shop, with a helpful owner. Each store sells A LOT of figurines, not like the small selection you find in stores we have here.


(Totoro! Still very popular in Japan after all these years)


(I think this is Bleach? Not sure)


(assorted stuff)

I was looking for figurines from Fullmetal Alchemist, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Final Fantasy 7. It helps that I know how to pronounce these names in Japanese 🙂 There was a whole shelf on FF7, but the prices…. whoah. I can eat a lot of ramen at those prices…


(The one I was looking for Fullmetal Alchemist!)


(more Fullmetal!)

As for Neon Genesis Evangelion, the choices were limited, some very nice pieces of Asuka that were ‘not for sale’ (Why? WHY??) Anyway after some deliberation, I settled on these three… That’s Alphonse and Edward Elric, and Rei from Neon Genesis Evangelion.


(my purchases)

So we were done with Den Den Town. We walked on a bit and decided to take a subway to Shinsaibashi, which we passed by yesterday evening.


(Can you spot Homer Simpson?)


(an unidentified shopping street filled with shops selling knives)

Shinsaibashi was much less crowded compared to last night. It is a long shopping street, but we only walked a small portion of it.


(a shop specializing in Kit Kat and other brands of chocolates.)


(a sushi restaurant)

After buying some chocolate and snacks as souvenirs, were decided to skip the rest and go to Shinsekai by subway. Shinsekai is a small commercial area targeted at tourists, built around Osaka Tower.


(lots of stuff to see in Shinsekai)


(the imposing Osaka Tower)

Frankly the place seemed rather tacky to me, and most of the shops are selling trendy clothes for teenagers and yakitori / steamboat restaurants. We were looking for kobe beef restaurants, so in the end we decided to take a cab back to Kuromon Ichiba Market.

Next – Our last dinner in Japan.

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