Well, I figure it is about time that I get my act together and finally write about my last two trips to Japan. Needless to say, when I arrived at Narita, I felt like a kid in a very large candy store. The problem was to balance work with pleasure (both trips were business based),or rather, how many vintage toy stores I could fit in. Unfortunately, the other obstacle was that I spoke almost no Japanese, and the places I wanted to go to were not necessarily tourist attractions. But with the combined help of the ever knowledgeable Matt Alt and several fax machines, I managed to locate a few cool places.

Of course, like many others, I dreamed of finally going to all those places at the back of HOBBY JAPAN, especially Magic Box, (with the price list that you can only read with a magnifying glass) the "old skool" grandaddy store of musty cardboard and cold metal and plastic. So Magic Box was my first goal.

Armed with a hand drawn map, and many helpful Tokyo citizens, I wandered around Kokubunji station by myself, unable to communicate with anybody effectively beyond a stupid grin and alot of pointing, looking for toys that may or may not be there...I was in heaven.

Magic Box is located on a small semi-residential street, among a few other retail collectable stores. Most of these, KISS, PAPER STAR, and MICRO are owned by the Magic Box empire. Then there is the literally jam packed from floor to ceiling MAGIC 3. (Picture Day Old Antiques or Outer Limits on steroids) On my first trip, M3 was not open, the ironic "OPEN" sign gleefully mocking me. I silently stood there looking like I had just been dumped by a long term girlfriend. Fortunately, Magic Box was open. I thankfully walked in.

Several young women were attending the store. Glancing up with little more than passing interest, they continued wrapping boxes in plastic. Scanning the store; Lots of vinyl, tons of Tetsujin vintage items...drool drool. Two whole cases. As luck would have it, (and after a difficult session of universal picture drawing on the part of a sales girl) I found that most of the items, including a piece I had been specifically looking for, were TRADE ONLY. Argh...

Surprisingly, not alot of diecast. A good sized glass case filled with old tin robots caught my eye, but I traded my collection of vintage tin for Gaiking and T28 years ago. Plus finding tin prices in Japan to be at least two to three times what they are here. Surprising, until one thinks, those toys were exported almost entirely to the U.S.

(At a well known comic and collectable store in Shibuya, there was a fairly common Sparkey windup robot in the standard grey color for 130,000 yen. It was rusted out and had no box. And you think Chogokin is expensive!?)

Luckily, Magic 3 was only closed for half an hour or so, and I greedily rushed in. For those of you who like Macross, Orguss or Votoms, here is your ticket straight to heaven, or hell depending on how you look at it.

The front of the store windows were literally loaded with the highest breed mech toys. Boxes ranged from c8 to c10. and price wise? Not so bad. About a fourth to a third less than here. Tempting, but I decided to stick with a few things and specialize.

Getting into Mech while you are collecting super robots, is like starting a comprehensive Jazz collection while you are an expert in Classical...it is just overwhelming.

Anyway, both trips oddly enough did not supply me with the endless amounts of stuff that I had hoped for, but it was enjoyable losing myself among the boxes of toys and bad American music that permeated its walls.

I did manage to snap off a couple of shots in the store, but tried not to be too obvious since I would not be able to explain what I was doing it for. I also managed to stop by Planet X and Planet X2.

Planet X is mostly new merchandise, but I did score a very cool Popy logo T-shirt. X2 had a fairly good selection of vintage diecast, vinyl, and tin toys. However, like most stores advertised in Hobby Japan, the killer toys they display for the ads, are long gone by the time you get there. Despite that, I did manage to pick up a Grandizer watering can, in the shape of the Spacer, and a green Gaiking football! Hell yeah.

In addition to the vintage toy stores, I also went to Kiddyland in Harajuku, Japan's equivalent of FAO SHWARTZ. A toy store with about five to six levels of fun. They had all the Bandai Robocon stuff as well as a ton of other wonderful toys.

Also managed to get an interview and my photo taken for a Japanese magazine called My Birthday while walking in Harajuku. The two girls who interviewed me liked my Tetsujin 28 T-shirt. Go figure.

In all, two fairly rushed but exciting trips to Tokyo. I plan to return next summer to stay with friends for a few weeks. It will be nice to travel with someone who knows where they are going, and who doesn't need sign language to do so.

-- Josh