Osaka Game District vs. Akihabara

[tokoyama]

okay guys tell me which place has more videogames shops, where are games cheaper and how the fuck is the district named in osaka?:cool:

[Kuang_Grade]

I haven't been to Den Den town as of yet but you might find links of use


Some detailed blog pieces on Den Den down
http://www2.odn.ne.jp/piyokun/gaming/index.htm#20051001Z2325
(although his tour page seems broken...all I get is jibberish)

retro gaming shopping in Den Den
http://tokyopia.com/tk/archives/000378.php#more


English map of Den Den town
http://www.denden-town.or.jp/map_english.php

[Red Floyd]

Doesn't Osaka have a department store devoted entirely to Gundam?

[amdg]

Most Japanese people won't know it as den den town though, you have to say you want to get to Nihombashi if you're going by taxi. By subway, Ebisucho station will put you right in the heart of if, but you can easily walk from Namba. There's no one best place for games, you just have to shop around.

[tokoyama]

okay i got now:

so where are games cheaper? tokyo or osaka?

[CheapyD]

I can't speak for Den Den town, but I haven't been that impressed with Akihabara. Sure, if you are looking for old Famicom games you won't be disappointed, but for current generation games, I haven't found many deals.

[Kuang_Grade]

Cheapy...while the pricing dynamics of the video game market is much different in Japan in general and there seem to be much fewer out and out deals than in the US, the other issue is that the customer density of Akihabara is so great that the few really good deals often don't last very long...a few years back I remember seeing Rez for the Dreamcast, brand new and factory sealed, for something like 680 yen at one store...they had a bunch,(30+) and not knowing better at the time, I thought I would buy one when I had completed my overall Akihabara recon...I came back about 90 minutes later and they were all gone...and this was on a weekday afternoon.

[Kuang_Grade]

I’ve just spent some time in Osaka in general and Den Den town in specific, and to answer the original question, (which is cheaper Den Den town or Akihabara?), I’d say it is pretty much a draw. Video games prices seemed the same or maybe a bit higher in Den Den than in Akihabara while character toy/trading figures seems a bit cheaper in Den Den vs. Akihabara.

Akihabara is larger and has more stores and thus has more opportunity for pricing variations but Den Den town is large enough that there is some competition and you can find most things that most people would be looking for if you look hard enough.

Differences between Akihabara and Den Den town
Akihabara is more blocky in layout and a bit easier to get around…the side streets get few cars and main sidewalks are wider. Den Den town is long and narrow and is bisected by a busy road…the main sidewalks are narrower and constricted by many bikes…so while there are many fewer people around Den Den town than Akihabara, it seemed a bit more harder to get around Den Den

But on the flip side, the stores in Den Den have more floor space on average than Akihabara, so it easier to get around in the stores. While many small Akihabara shops can become clogged with 6 or 8 people, quite a few Den Den stores have aisles large enough for two people to pass one another .

Also Den Den town seems to be less vertically structured than Akihabara…while there are a some 5 or 6 stories buildings, there seem to be more 3 storey level buildings, so you don’t necessarily have to climb up as many stairs to see what’s up there. However, there are fewer shops in general in Den Den than in Akihabara.

The retail mix in Den Den town is far more diverse and less specialized than in Akihabara. I walked pass three barbers (all non-maid related), a large 100 yen grocery store, and a slew of sign making shops. There are also a several large apartment buildings in the area, so it is more of a living neighborhood than Akihabara. And oddly enough, many of the stores seem to split their focus….I saw more than a few shops that when you walk in and you see a few feet of character toys, then a few feet of video games, then a few feet of pachinko/slot machines, and then you go a little further in the store and it turns out that its about 96% hentai. Most stores in Akihabara would clear what they are about and you could tell they are hentai store without even going in. And while you can still find some VHS stores in Tokyo, there are quite a few very large VHS shops in Den Den town…they do sell some DVDs, but judging by their stock, a lot of their biz is selling 10-15 year old VHS J porn for 200-400 yen (they also have large selection of J TV from the same period of time). Also there were video pirates selling bootleg DVDs and software off tables literally every 10 meters on the main drag in Den Den town. I also saw three udon vending machines in Den Den vs only one I came across in Akihabara (although I wasn’t looking too hard for this in Akihabara…and Laox sells canned udon (although not heated) in what appeared to be all their various locations in Akihabara)

I would say the overall vibe in Den Den is less Otaku centric….For example, I saw the DigDug/Mario pin toy sets in probably a dozen stores in Akihabara,…I only saw 2 or 3 stores in Den Den town with them and they were priced 100-200 yen more than in Akihabara. While I didn’t have a diverse shopping basket sample to do comparisons, Super Potato’s prices in Den Den town struck me as a bit higher than in Akihabara but only by 10-15%. Sofmap’s prices seemed to be identical in both places. There appear to be about a half dozen maid related businesses in Den Den town. Maid cafe trading figures seems were available in many stores (although some prices were high) while they were pretty much sold out throughout in Akihabara. Overall, maid items seemed far less prevalent in Den Den than Akihabara, although Donki’s Osaka store in Minami seemed to have a fair stock of maid outfits at a more noticeable location (ground floor at the rear exit) than other Donkis I've been in.

Overall, I would say if you were in Osaka, Den Den would be certainly worth a visit. But if I was in Tokyo, I wouldn’t make a special trip just to go to Denden town because Akihabara is probably a better place to shop overall. Likewise, if I couldn’t get to Tokyo, I would say I could get 80-85% of the Akihabara experience by visiting Den Den.

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Yamada Denki enters Osaka's competitive electronics market

Cutting-edge gadgets and electronic home appliances were in great demand as shoppers flocked to the grand opening of Yamada Denki Co. in the Minami entertainment district of Naniwa Ward, Osaka, last month, signaling the arrival of a major new competitor in the area's electronics market...The Yamada store is the third mega home appliance shop of a Kanto-based chain in central Osaka, following Yodobashi Camera Co.'s Multi Media Umeda near JR Osaka Station in Kita Ward and BicCamera Co.'s Nanba outlet. Yamada Denki is especially intent on challenging Yodobashi Camera, saying in a press release: "The competition among home appliance stores in the Kita and Minami districts is about to heat up"...Although the battlefield is Osaka, the competing firms are all Kanto-based retailers--Yamada Denki is headquartered in Maebashi, while BicCamera and Yodobashi are Tokyo-based, the former in Ikebukuro, the latter in Shinjuku. Meanwhile, the Nipponbashi district in Naniwa Ward, a center for electric appliance shops known as Denden Town, is meeting the threat to its existence by undergoing a metamorphosis. Yamada Denki's Labi 1 Namba is the chain's first retail outlet situated in the center of a major city

...About 300 meters southeast of Labi 1 Namba, lies the Nipponbashi district, home to a concentration of home appliance shops. However, since the opening of the BicCamera and Yodobashi Camera outlets, many of the relatively small and independently owned shops are facing an uncertain future, as they are unable to compete in the price-cutting wars of the major chains. Membership in Denden Town Kyoeikai, an association of mainly home appliance shops, has fallen from 86 firms in October 2001 to 77 as of the end of February. The number of shops operated by the member firms also dropped to 106 from 152 over the same period...The nature of the district has already changed, especially since 2000, according to Ashibe. Instead of home electric appliances, many shops now deal in anime and related items, such as DVDs and video games, similar to the trend observed in Akihabara in Tokyo, which calls itself Electric Town because of its profusion of shops selling computers and all kinds of electronic gadgets. There are also several maid cafes, in which men enjoy being pampered by waitresses dressed as maids. "The district has become more subculture-oriented," he said.

Ashibe believes the change is inevitable, saying: "Nipponbashi's character has changed from time to time. Before World War II, it was known for secondhand bookstores. After the war, electronic parts dealers were on the rise. In the 1960s, stores selling consumer electronics became popular, and in the 1990s, computer shops attracted customers." In April, Nipponbashi Machi Zukuri Shinko Gaisha, a firm established by the shop owners, launched Nipponbashi CG and Anime Village as part of its efforts to revitalize the district and turn it into a center for the computer graphics and anime industries. The village provides cheaper workspace for computer graphics artists and animators. Four firms and groups have moved into the village. In December 2004, the firm opened Robot Factory, a store selling robots and parts, in the hope that it would help revitalize stores dealing with electronics parts in the neighborhood. To attract attention, the district held the Nipponbashi Street Festa, an annual festival in late March that was first held last year. During the event, busy Sakaisuji-dori avenue, which runs through the center of the district, becomes a pedestrian-only thoroughfare.

During the event, people dress up as anime, manga and game characters for a parade while demonstrations of robots and computer graphics are featured. The shops also hold a special discount sale. This year's event, held on March 21, attracted 154,000 people, an increase of 15,000 from the previous year. Ashibe said: "The life of Nipponbashi as a town of electronics might not continue much longer, but the district will survive in a different form."

[Mulboyne]

I can't make out what on sale here but, whatever it is, you can only buy it in Osaka's Nipponbashi.

[Kuang_Grade]

It looks like a a moe-upped version (I can't make it out, but those might be cat ears on the top) of this guy (who's name has slipped my mind at the moment but he is a Osaka icon)

[tokoyama]

okay i am living in japan for the next 12 months so tomorrow im gonna visit osaka and hopefully ill find the dendentown!