Game shops in Kyoto

Den Den town is slightly better on certain formats as I found more interesting CD soundtracks that were cheaper then most shops (and much cheaper then the ass raping prices that Super Potato try to get away with), more MSX games and titles (although saying it has 5 times more is a bit like saying there is at least 3 more shelves...), more electronic games at reasonable prices, 1/2 price of most shops in Tokyo, yes please, more adult mahjong games that I couldnt find for love or money in Tokyo and for near nothing too. Super Real Mahjong IV for Windows 3.1 200 yen? yes please. More range of 3DO games too and found some Pokemon Mini games there too, something I've never seen in Tokyo... As for other formats, mainly same old and mostly same old prices, didn't really notice that great a difference on prices, with hardware being more expensive then it is i in Super Potato in Akihabara...

As a whole it isn't much different and Super Potato in denden town looks like a bomb hit it, it's too small a shop for the stuff in it and there is far too much shit there too with the back end of the top floor being a sea of crap games.

As for getting there, Shinkansen to Shin Osaka then a tube to Namba, then you can walk to Nipponbashi as there is a long shopping area tunnel that connects the two stations, doesn't save a lot of money but as the distance is long it probably takes just a little longer then getting the train.

As for Kyoto, I spent several days just visiting the Temples and spent no time at all looking for games shops.

 

Was it just me or is DenDenTown one hell of a confusing tunnel district? It took its time to get even out on the surface to see the light of day again after I got out of the subway!
I finally found a street called "DenDen Town", so I walked it along and there were some pretty good shops but I did not find Super Potato, just Game Tiger (filled from top to bottom with reasonable priced games... and trash) and Sofmap (great to buy LEs for DC/SAT... incredibly cheap and you find stuff that is very uncommon in Tokyo, at least when I was there).

But I had some issues to get back to the train, its way more confusing than any other place I visited in Japan, including some residential quarters I visited around Ueno Station and unlike DenDen I did not even have a map of those.

 

Getting a Osaka map would help (You can get one from the Osaka Visitors Information Centre 3rd floor of Shin Osaka station... http://www.octb.jp/english/) I found it really easy to find but it is quite a walk from the metro station, but all the games shops are on the right hand side.

 

thanks for your hints guys. I will visit Kyoto for the temples mainly, but I thought if there is a good game shop or arcade on its way why not have a look at it ;-)

 

btw, a friend asked about a game shop called Magic Box in Osaka. Does anyone know if this game shop still exists? Should be a good shop for retrogames

 

btw, found good sites for trip planning with the train

www.jorudan.co.jp/english/
http://www.hyperdia.com/ hit english button

just enter start and destination.

 

Hyperdia is good but is flawed as you do need to know the exact spelling of the place you want to go and some of the suggestions it gives for journeys are interesting...

To see try going from Ikebukuro to Nakano...

 

Its not too hard to travel the JR-lines within Tokyo Area though. At least I never had problems b/c if there was a name whose Kanji I couldn't remember, there was always a map with romanized names somewhere.

@Jamtex
Wow, 138km from Ikebukuro to Nakano and you need to take NEX and Shinkansen... I remember some odd results using Microsofts internet route planning applet. I wanted to know the route for Paris-Hanover and he sent me via ship to England, then up to scotland -OK-, then I had to take another ship to Norway (!), from there I ought to go south via Sweden and another ferry down to Denmarks islands and voilà, after approx. 6000 kilometres and 3 ferries I'm home.

 

Went to Wanpaku yesterday and found a couple of smaller stores whilst wandering about.

Nothing much to write home about to be quite honest - but that's not really the purpose of the trip

I can add things to our map if it's still alive