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Johnny's shopping in Tokyo
This is a sort of vademecum that I wrote for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
krysyuy (♥) about "how to go shopping Johnny's stuff in Japan". It turned out being long so I've decided to share it, in case it can be useful for your JP tour looking for KAT-TUN stuff xD If you know something else, please go ahead and comment telling it :D
Of course it can be applied to whatever other JE group and not only :)
Living in Shibuya, people would think I was every day at Harajuku. Actually I wasn’t and I am not really so informed about all the idol shops you can find in Takeshita street, but I’ll try to give you useful infos (I’d have loved to have these infos before xD).
JE SHOP
(pic not mine)
The JE shops, like every Japanese shop, opens at 10.00am (I was used to shops opening at 8am so it was a shock).
First of all: when do you want to go to that shop? Weekdays or weekend?
Weekdays are very easy. You just have to line up (there are people of the shop keeping an eye on the line, you recognize them at once for the logo printed on the jacket) and wait. If you go in the morning you have to do very few queue, like 10 mins or less. Around noon/1pm there’s no line at all and you can enter the shop directly. But keep an eye and go there at least half an hour before the shops closes, to have time to check the pics decently. :)
Weekend is way more difficult. I had lessons all week long so I experienced the weekends way more often. Weekends the shop uses tickets: you go to the JE shop guy next to the (infinite) line of girls (you find him next to the pedestrian bridge), he/she gives you a (generally yellow) ticket with an hour written on it (here a sample, pic not taken by me). You can enter from that hour onwards. Better go there around 9.45am to pick an early ticket (which means, a ticket for 10.30/11.00am). just arriving around 10.15am once I got a ticket for 14.30, so make your choice.
Anyway, until that hour you can go around Harajuku. Just remember to go back to the ticket place around half an hour before your time so you can get in line.
Inside the (very small) shop, which is underground, you will find walls full of shop pics. Pick up a pen and one of the sheets you find, write the name of the group you’re interested in in the big blank space you find on top of the paper (here the underlined one). And start choosing your pics. Remember:
-1 group=1 paper. So if you plan to buy KAT-TUN and Kanjani8 pics, you need 2 papers.
-Always write the total number of pics you've selected at the bottom of the page (iirc it's the first page, while the second has the goods box on the bottom), so if you mess up a bit, the cashier will check if her count and the one you wrote matches)
Anyway, there are English instructions next to the paper stands so look there :)
IDOL SHOPS
(pic not mine. Ladies and gentlemen, this messy street is Takeshita doori)
Then. Takeshita st. is full of idol shops. I don’t think I have visited all of them because after all they are all similar to each other, and the papa pics you find around are more or less the same.
What you can find: papapics (around 150Y/pic), posters, clocks, cards, keychains, mirrors, pins, uchiwa, fake cards, etc. basically everything (but NOT concert goods. Those are in different places). You would like to go there for the papa pics. They are mostly underground (B1) or 2F.
I suggest 2+1 places. The first one is around 2/3 of the street, after a Claire’s accessory shop on the left, underground (B1). It is very small but I have always found the latest papapics, and they still have quite a large number of old ones (BtR, DBS09, etc.). I could find Chain Niigata con papa after 3 days :)
/Note for Kame fans: Kame stuff is very easy to find. Whichever idol shop you step inside, you’ll find Going, Dramatic Game, DBS, Concert papapics. You don’t need to be picky xD on the other side, unluckily, if you look for his official goodies like posters/clearfiles/old shop pics/etc, they’re the most expensive too. :( /
Another one is at the very beginning of the street, always on the left, just after the AKB48 official shop. The papapics I don’t find in the shop I said before, I’ve found them here. Though, I don’t know if it was a problem of that particular photo set itself or whatnot, the quality of some pics was a bit lower than usual.
Anyway, as I said these shops are more or less all similar so just enter 1-2 random ones and you’re done xD
Then, the third is my last resource when I am looking for a specific papapic not sold anymore AND old shop pic: Gorakudoh. You probably know it because it resells concert tickets, which is the (almost only) way to buy JE concert tickets in Japan if you're a foreigner and not into the Fanclub. It is around half Takeshita st, it has 2 shops. The main one is the ticket one and it faces directly the road (you can also buy some cheap shop pic sets and pamphlets – pay attention that shop pics sets, even if they have chibi pic on top, generally the remaining 9 pics are post-debut ones); just one door before it, at 2nd floor, there’s the 2nd Gorakudoh shop, a big shop pics/goods reseller (and after you’ve visited normal idol shops you go “ooooh, so wide!" XD). If you check the folders in the shelfs, you will find almost everything you want, even old papa. Just mind that here the price isn’t 150yen but 200yen/pic. Here you can find all the pamphlets you want and some other random goodies (clearfiles, penlights, concert uchiwa). Here you can find old official JE Shop pics, just look for KT’s folders (or whichever artist you’re interested in). Pay attention to prices here: like the previous Gorakudoh shop, papapics are 200Yen, while old shop pics go from 50Y to +500Y. Mind your wallet!
/Note about CDs: I don’t suggest you to buy CDs here cuz they’re generally overpriced. Buy here just when you’ve checked other places and the cd you want is impossible to find and you want it no matter what (what I’ve done with CuW LE)./
CDs And DVDs
For CDs and DVDs, I suggest you used CD shops, like Book off or Tsutaya. There is a Book off almost everywhere (and like one in every Tokyo district), look for the orange and blue sign that leads to a shop like this. Used CDs are like new, really, and they cost like ¼ of the original price if not less (you find singles at 105 or 500 yen). Just pay attention to DVDs, sometimes they don’t work well. You have 1 week to return them if they don’t work, so check the dvds if you’ve time and a pc/DVD reader in your room.
Alphabetical order in Japan, both for books and CDs, is the Japanese one. So it’s useless to look for KT stuff thinking “a-b-c-d-e…” until K. The order is “a-i-u-e-o, ka-ki-ku-ke-ko, sa-shi….”. Which means, you find KT stuff at almost the very beginning. Look for か・カ.
BOOK OFF
Beside the alphabetical order before, there’s another thing you have to pay attention too (that I realized 2 months later x_x). Album and singles are generally divided. Check both “J-POP” shelf and “マクシシングル” (maxi single) section. Also, sometimes Book off divides into PRICES, so pay attention to check everywhere looking for the か・カ section.
At bookoff you can try your luck and look for magazines too xD go to the 雑誌 (zasshi) section.
TSUTAYA
I think Tsutaya prefers to put Johnny’s on a different shelf. Just look for the Johnny’s ジャニーズ/Idol アイドル shelf among the J-POP section, both for DVDs and CDs.
TOWER RECORDS
Go here for the recent singles you want to buy new and not used. Like tsutaya, it generally has a special shelf for Johnny’s.
GOODIES
I don’t have so many infos about goods resellers, sorry. I generally focus on official JE shop and CDs.
For pamphlets, Gorakudoh is very good (even if some of them are really overpriced, like DBS11 at 4000Y, orz. But I found the missing DBS2007/2008 pamph too ad decent prices).
There's TRIO, which opened a new branch TRIO+ in Akihabara on early 2013 inside AKIBA Culture Zone (it's the building name), it's huge and has lots of posters, pamphlets, official old shop pics, etc. Pay attention that it opens late (11 am).
But most of all, if you have time, also try Mandarake in Nakano and Shibuya. Especially, the TRIO branch next to Mandarake in Nakano. Like his bigger younger brother in Akihabara, there you can find EVERYTHING, all the uchiwa/goodies/mags you want. :)
I hope this was useful and... have a nice research xD
krysyuy (♥) about "how to go shopping Johnny's stuff in Japan". It turned out being long so I've decided to share it, in case it can be useful for your JP tour looking for KAT-TUN stuff xD If you know something else, please go ahead and comment telling it :DOf course it can be applied to whatever other JE group and not only :)
Living in Shibuya, people would think I was every day at Harajuku. Actually I wasn’t and I am not really so informed about all the idol shops you can find in Takeshita street, but I’ll try to give you useful infos (I’d have loved to have these infos before xD).
JE SHOP
(pic not mine)The JE shops, like every Japanese shop, opens at 10.00am (I was used to shops opening at 8am so it was a shock).
First of all: when do you want to go to that shop? Weekdays or weekend?
Weekdays are very easy. You just have to line up (there are people of the shop keeping an eye on the line, you recognize them at once for the logo printed on the jacket) and wait. If you go in the morning you have to do very few queue, like 10 mins or less. Around noon/1pm there’s no line at all and you can enter the shop directly. But keep an eye and go there at least half an hour before the shops closes, to have time to check the pics decently. :)
Weekend is way more difficult. I had lessons all week long so I experienced the weekends way more often. Weekends the shop uses tickets: you go to the JE shop guy next to the (infinite) line of girls (you find him next to the pedestrian bridge), he/she gives you a (generally yellow) ticket with an hour written on it (here a sample, pic not taken by me). You can enter from that hour onwards. Better go there around 9.45am to pick an early ticket (which means, a ticket for 10.30/11.00am). just arriving around 10.15am once I got a ticket for 14.30, so make your choice.
Anyway, until that hour you can go around Harajuku. Just remember to go back to the ticket place around half an hour before your time so you can get in line.
Inside the (very small) shop, which is underground, you will find walls full of shop pics. Pick up a pen and one of the sheets you find, write the name of the group you’re interested in in the big blank space you find on top of the paper (here the underlined one). And start choosing your pics. Remember:
-1 group=1 paper. So if you plan to buy KAT-TUN and Kanjani8 pics, you need 2 papers.
-Always write the total number of pics you've selected at the bottom of the page (iirc it's the first page, while the second has the goods box on the bottom), so if you mess up a bit, the cashier will check if her count and the one you wrote matches)
Anyway, there are English instructions next to the paper stands so look there :)
IDOL SHOPS
(pic not mine. Ladies and gentlemen, this messy street is Takeshita doori)Then. Takeshita st. is full of idol shops. I don’t think I have visited all of them because after all they are all similar to each other, and the papa pics you find around are more or less the same.
What you can find: papapics (around 150Y/pic), posters, clocks, cards, keychains, mirrors, pins, uchiwa, fake cards, etc. basically everything (but NOT concert goods. Those are in different places). You would like to go there for the papa pics. They are mostly underground (B1) or 2F.
I suggest 2+1 places. The first one is around 2/3 of the street, after a Claire’s accessory shop on the left, underground (B1). It is very small but I have always found the latest papapics, and they still have quite a large number of old ones (BtR, DBS09, etc.). I could find Chain Niigata con papa after 3 days :)
/Note for Kame fans: Kame stuff is very easy to find. Whichever idol shop you step inside, you’ll find Going, Dramatic Game, DBS, Concert papapics. You don’t need to be picky xD on the other side, unluckily, if you look for his official goodies like posters/clearfiles/old shop pics/etc, they’re the most expensive too. :( /
Another one is at the very beginning of the street, always on the left, just after the AKB48 official shop. The papapics I don’t find in the shop I said before, I’ve found them here. Though, I don’t know if it was a problem of that particular photo set itself or whatnot, the quality of some pics was a bit lower than usual.
Anyway, as I said these shops are more or less all similar so just enter 1-2 random ones and you’re done xD
Then, the third is my last resource when I am looking for a specific papapic not sold anymore AND old shop pic: Gorakudoh. You probably know it because it resells concert tickets, which is the (almost only) way to buy JE concert tickets in Japan if you're a foreigner and not into the Fanclub. It is around half Takeshita st, it has 2 shops. The main one is the ticket one and it faces directly the road (you can also buy some cheap shop pic sets and pamphlets – pay attention that shop pics sets, even if they have chibi pic on top, generally the remaining 9 pics are post-debut ones); just one door before it, at 2nd floor, there’s the 2nd Gorakudoh shop, a big shop pics/goods reseller (and after you’ve visited normal idol shops you go “ooooh, so wide!" XD). If you check the folders in the shelfs, you will find almost everything you want, even old papa. Just mind that here the price isn’t 150yen but 200yen/pic. Here you can find all the pamphlets you want and some other random goodies (clearfiles, penlights, concert uchiwa). Here you can find old official JE Shop pics, just look for KT’s folders (or whichever artist you’re interested in). Pay attention to prices here: like the previous Gorakudoh shop, papapics are 200Yen, while old shop pics go from 50Y to +500Y. Mind your wallet!
/Note about CDs: I don’t suggest you to buy CDs here cuz they’re generally overpriced. Buy here just when you’ve checked other places and the cd you want is impossible to find and you want it no matter what (what I’ve done with CuW LE)./
CDs And DVDs
For CDs and DVDs, I suggest you used CD shops, like Book off or Tsutaya. There is a Book off almost everywhere (and like one in every Tokyo district), look for the orange and blue sign that leads to a shop like this. Used CDs are like new, really, and they cost like ¼ of the original price if not less (you find singles at 105 or 500 yen). Just pay attention to DVDs, sometimes they don’t work well. You have 1 week to return them if they don’t work, so check the dvds if you’ve time and a pc/DVD reader in your room.
Alphabetical order in Japan, both for books and CDs, is the Japanese one. So it’s useless to look for KT stuff thinking “a-b-c-d-e…” until K. The order is “a-i-u-e-o, ka-ki-ku-ke-ko, sa-shi….”. Which means, you find KT stuff at almost the very beginning. Look for か・カ.
BOOK OFF
Beside the alphabetical order before, there’s another thing you have to pay attention too (that I realized 2 months later x_x). Album and singles are generally divided. Check both “J-POP” shelf and “マクシシングル” (maxi single) section. Also, sometimes Book off divides into PRICES, so pay attention to check everywhere looking for the か・カ section.
At bookoff you can try your luck and look for magazines too xD go to the 雑誌 (zasshi) section.
TSUTAYA
I think Tsutaya prefers to put Johnny’s on a different shelf. Just look for the Johnny’s ジャニーズ/Idol アイドル shelf among the J-POP section, both for DVDs and CDs.
TOWER RECORDS
Go here for the recent singles you want to buy new and not used. Like tsutaya, it generally has a special shelf for Johnny’s.
GOODIES
I don’t have so many infos about goods resellers, sorry. I generally focus on official JE shop and CDs.
For pamphlets, Gorakudoh is very good (even if some of them are really overpriced, like DBS11 at 4000Y, orz. But I found the missing DBS2007/2008 pamph too ad decent prices).
There's TRIO, which opened a new branch TRIO+ in Akihabara on early 2013 inside AKIBA Culture Zone (it's the building name), it's huge and has lots of posters, pamphlets, official old shop pics, etc. Pay attention that it opens late (11 am).
But most of all, if you have time, also try Mandarake in Nakano and Shibuya. Especially, the TRIO branch next to Mandarake in Nakano. Like his bigger younger brother in Akihabara, there you can find EVERYTHING, all the uchiwa/goodies/mags you want. :)
I hope this was useful and... have a nice research xD
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