![\"Akihabara\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7425\/14152033466_be8357fdb7.jpg?resize=500%2C332&ssl=1\")
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1. If you can order it online, order it.<\/h3>\n
Yes. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a weird suggestion. But this really helps a lot especially when you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have time to go through shelves and stores.<\/p>\n
Amazon Japan will be your best friend. Going through Amazon Japan and taking advantage of their PRIME shipping<\/a> (which gives you free shipping within Japan) helps a lot. Just make sure that when you make your Amazon Japan account (this is possible for international folks as well), you also place the address of your hotel in Japan. Activate Amazon Prime and start ordering. Just make sure you order a few days before your trip so that when you arrive, your item is already there! You can even order once you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in Japan already.<\/p>\n Currently, Amazon Prime in Japan is free for your first year. Afterwards, it charges you around $70\/year. Just make sure you cancel the Amazon Prime account once you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done your local shopping.<\/p>\n I strongly suggest this for items you probably don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mind hunting for its regular prices: manga and toys.<\/p>\n Your otaku instinct will tell you that when you think of anime shopping, the only place to go is Akihabara. While I think every otaku must visit Akiba, it is possibly not the best place for those who are not in the mood or the time to make sense of that place\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chaos. But Akihabara would probably have introduced you to three important anime shops that you MUST remember (at least for your fujoshi needs). <\/p>\n Keep a note that if you’re looking for fujoshi goods, look at their floor directory and search for \u00e5\u00a5\u00b3\u00e6\u20ac\u00a7\u00e5\u0090\u2018\u00e3\u0081\u2018 (josei-muke, for women) floor. This saves you from sorting through things you don’t want to see. Usually, these floors will have all the BL, shojo manga, and BL dojinshi. The ground floor is for general goods and would usually contain the regular manga or goods for the latest animated shows. <\/p>\n Also, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go right smack when work ends for most people (around 7-8 in the evening). This means that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have to get in a long line just to get your goods. Try going right smack when the door opens. Especially when you’re chasing for particular limited edition goods. <\/p>\n K-books<\/a><\/span><\/strong> I would like to note that the K-books in Akihabara has a particularly commendable shop at its 3rd or 4th floor. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve probably heard of rental locker shops in Akihabara. Out of all the rental shops I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been to (Radio Kaikan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s rental cubes included), this had some of the best and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153reasonably\u00e2\u20ac\u009d priced lockered goods. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d probably go into detail much later on, but for now, keep K-books as a good place to do your anime and manga shopping.<\/p>\n Animate<\/strong><\/a> Also, keep note if your nearest Animate also has anime cafe events<\/a> related to your favourite series! Sometimes, you might also want to check out announcements on books that will be released during your trip. Sometimes, publishers hold animate-only limited items which are difficult to get since fujoshi tend to finish them in stores on the day itself.<\/p>\n Melonbooks<\/a><\/strong> Like animate, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always a Melonbooks near you<\/a>.<\/p>\n Gashapons, I realize, are serious business in Japan. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been spoiled how easy it is to get gashapons in Manila that I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realise that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d sooner find crappy gashapons in Akihabara or Ikebukuro than getting the gashapon that you want. How do you make sure that you maximise your gashapon needs? Here are two tips for you: find where your gashapon is placed, buy an opened gasha in a rental locker.<\/p>\n If you want to find the places where your gashapon can still be found, check the website Gashadoko<\/a>. Gashadoko keeps track and advises places where you can find the gasha you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re looking for. Just head to the prefecture where you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re heading, the city you might be visiting, and check the drop down box for the title you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re looking for. If you get a a green gasha result, it means that there are still a lot of gashas related to this series. If you got a blue gasha, there are few gashas of this title around.<\/p>\n When your gasha results say blue, chances are, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have to turn to rental locker sales.<\/p>\n These rental lockers are places where otaku can \u00e2\u20ac\u0153sell\u00e2\u20ac\u009d goods to people who probably never had the chance to get the gashapons or blind box items that they want. A lot of these items are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153opened\u00e2\u20ac\u009d goods. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also a place where you can get items that are usually found in only particular events. This doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean that the items are second-hand. It only means that the item has been opened from their blind boxes or gashapons and you can easily purchase the item that you want without having to go through a lot of gasha or blind boxes.<\/p>\n That said, expect gashapons in rental lockers to be double, if not, triple the price. Remember this rule: the more recent your anime, the more popular the anime is, the more popular your favourite character is, the greater likelihood that you will find your item to be excessively overpriced.<\/p>\n For example, I heard there was a Midousuji secret gasha (see picture above). I went to Akiba in hopes in finding the gasha machine with this but alas the yowapeda gashas were non-existent. Hence, I turned to the rental lockers and lo and behold, I found Midousuji for 500 yen. Normally, a gashapon costs 200 yen. In another gasha rental locker, the same Midousuji gasha costs 800 yen. A 300 yen Toudou lottery prize in Namja Town costs 2,100 yen in Akihabara.<\/p>\n Yes. These shops know that fujoshi are willing to pay the price and they know how to abuse your love for your fave character and your wallet. So be warned. The things that you love could cost a lot.<\/p>\n There are many rental locker shops all over otaku \u00e2\u20ac\u0153centres\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, these are areas in a particular district where all the anime shops are pooled together. Hence, Akihabara and Ikebukuro are some of the best known places to find rental locker shops in Tokyo. Nakano Broadway is a lot less known, but this place also has a couple of shops where you can search for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153opened\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and event only goods. In the Kansai area, Osaka\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Denden town (Nipponbashi) is the place to go. Then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the Tenshin area in Hakata.<\/p>\n I guess it’s no mystery that if you’re thinking about dojinshi, the best place to go to is Mandarake. Animate, K-books, Melonbooks and Toranoana will have dojinshi as well but for some magical reason, Mandarake has it all.<\/p>\n The Ikebukuro and Akihabara branches are great but Mandarake\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Nakano branch has everything you want in one spot and if your intention is to buy dojinshi and second-hand manga, then this is probably the only stop you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll ever need to go to without tiring yourself finding things from one shop to the next.<\/p>\n2. Anime shops (outside of Akihabara)<\/h3>\n
![\"K-books,](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5119\/14152030036_2cd0fd28b6.jpg?resize=332%2C500&ssl=1\")
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\nThis is perhaps the only store in Akihabara that I would recommend for reasons such as that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ginormous in Akihabara. However, I prefer the store in Ikebukuro too because it has more fujoshi-oriented books. I find that this places specialises mostly in goods. So if you didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do your manga shopping in Amazon, this is a good place to go to. K-books also has a good set of dojinshi but are focused mostly on the latest works and popular ships. <\/p>\n
\nThis is possibly your mecha for your fujoshi needs. A lot of anime, particularly fujoshi oriented anime, release animate only goods. That said, while Akiba is your haven, it is not the best branch to go to. My suggestions are as follows: Animate Ikebukuro<\/a> (Tokyo) and Animate Nipponbashi (Osaka)<\/a>. These are two large stores (with more or less five floors for anime and manga goods) and in my experience, they focus on more female-oriented goods. Between these two, I prefer Nipponbashi because quite a lot of goods that have \u00e2\u20ac\u0153run out\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in Tokyo ended up being available in Osaka. For example, the Yowamushi Pedal Pet Bottle cover ran out in Tokyo but there were tons of them in Animate Kyoto and Osaka. After checking out other animate shops, those based near the Tokyo area end up running out a lot of goods compared to those outside of Tokyo. So, if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re crying because you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford to go to Tokyo to get your anime goods, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worry. Just look for the Animate closest to you<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nMelonbooks is really more of a dojinshi store than it is a dedicated goods store like Animate. Nonetheless, I always find their collections awesome and so far, it has not disappointed me in giving me my BL needs, particularly Melonbooks in Nipponbashi. Most of the dojinshi sold here are not second hand. To a degree, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like Toranoana but sometimes Toranoana can be overwhelming so I tend to enjoy Melonbooks quite a lot.<\/p>\n3. GIMME GASHAPONS AND EVENT GOODS!<\/h3>\n
![\"Radio](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5199\/13997518090_5612322747.jpg?resize=332%2C500&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"100](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5528\/13933629430_d6672cd1f6.jpg?resize=500%2C332&ssl=1\")
<\/a><\/p>\n4. DOJIN AND SECOND HAND BOOKS HUNTING<\/h3>\n
![\"Mandarake,](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7350\/14204296623_fda2fa66a0.jpg?resize=332%2C500&ssl=1\")
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\nNow if there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a Mandarake that possibly has everything\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 it will be the Mandarake branch at the end of Nakano Broadway<\/a>.<\/p>\n