Summer Trip: Nakano Broadway

I'm just back from a trip to Tokyo and Shanghai, and I wanted to share some vacation pictures and information on some hobby related stuff that I found there.

Before the trip, I had the tough choice between staying in Nakano or Akihabara. I decided on Nakano because it was a family vacation, so I wanted to have all of my hobby related stuff concentrated in one place where I could go to do my own thing in the evening after a day of sightseeing etc. That one place was Nakano Broadway, and it was less than a 10 minute walk from the apartment where we were staying.

The Nakano Sun Plaza is a covered shopping arcade that faces directly across from the north exit of the Nakano JR Station, and leads directly to the entrance of Nakano Broadway.

A nice background history of Nakano Broadway can be found at Hamadayama Life. One interesting note, is that the dungeons from the original Dragon Quest (or Dungeon Warrior as it was known here in North America) were supposed to have been inspired by the layout of the Nakano Broadway floormap.

At first sight it can be a bit overwhelming, and many people have said that they had a hard time navigating the place, but I didn't have much of a problem finding my way around. I headed up directly to the second floor.

I took a few hurried pictures of shops I wanted to get back to after an initial survey, but better pictures of the various things that you will find can be seen at Danny Choo's website here, here, and here.

Ranka-chan working diligently at sorting trading cards in the Mandarake Card Shop.

I was able to find the Matchbox PLAAF MiG-15 that I've been looking for since 2004 on clearance for ¥1,000.

I limited my spending in my three forays to Nakano Broadway, but in hindsight I should have bought more stuff while I had the chance. Then again, if I did it would have been rather troublesome to get it all home.