Where to buy cheap electronics?

[siksII]

hey my sister will be in japan this week, and i want her to check out electronic stuff like mp3 players, portable dvd etc etc.. so i was wondering where she should go..

im not sure where exactly in japan she will be, but it will be a major city, so any cheap chain stores or something??

[gekisouzoku]

Hi,

If you or your sister can read Japanese this place is pretty good. It gives you the list of the cheapest places. Only trouble is you have to go through the list to find out which shop is closest to you!

http://www.bestgate.net/

ALso there is yodabashi which is more of a chain - if you check their store locations down the bottom they cover a wide area in Japan.

Have a look anyway!

http://www.yodobashi.com/cm/1045_125.html (This is the Portable Audio page already)

[siksII]

Hey thanks a lot for the help, but neither my sister or i can read japanese oh well i guess i can try googling it !

[DaiOni]

In tokyo - akihabara

In Osaka - denki town

both will be easily identifiable on any worthwhile tourist map - or just ask for help at reception (if she is staying at a hotel)

yodobashi camera (linked above) is a chain store - can be found all over japan. Their prices are usually very good - but you will probably find better deals in the two areas I mentioned. A secret is to look at the smaller shops - some of the bigger places seem to price match with each other.

[Rezz]

In Osaka, it's actually called "Den-Den Town" (sorry to split hairs, but I could just imagine a local Japanese scratching his head for 30mins trying to figure out what the foreign monkey/person just said...), or you can just say "Nipponbashi" (area name)...

[DaiOni]

hehe, knew it was something like that.

[Evo_Lee]

hahaha...you will also be scratching you head when you have to worked through and decide which one you want to buy. Last time I wanted to buy an MP3, I was there for an hour playing with them all then walked out even more confused, in the end I didn't bother getting one...

[siksII]

lol

thanks for all the help, i will speak to my sister soon, and hopefully she will have magically learnt japanese over the past week

[sewid]

Im in Japan now and finding electronic stuff is really easy. Just get yourself to Tokyo JR station then take the Yamanote (platform 5) line to Akihabara station and follow the signs to Akihabara electric town. You cant miss it. Stay away from the big stores like Sofmap, LAOX i reckon as they charge a fair bit more (up to 5000 yen) more than the side streets. The big stores do duty free though if you want to save 5% more. They dont really haggle down prices though.

Right now im in Shinjuku (Again, Yamanote line from Tokyo, platform 4 this time though) and this is definatly the place to get Camera stuff. Akihabara is really horrible for camera gear. Theyll sell you a camera but they dont stock any of the accessories. Shinjuku is great though.　Exit the West side of the station and find Yodobashi camera store. Cant miss it is neon city. Its a great store. I just spent 500 bucks there.

If you can get a Japanese address sorted out then most stores have a points card you can get to save 10% or more. I just made one up, helps if you can write Kanji for that though.

[DaiOni]

most stores will do duty free - but it is easier to get english help at a bigger store

"Akihabara is really horrible for camera gear. Theyll sell you a camera but they dont stock any of the accessories" - I don't agree with this, unless you are really looking for specialist gear (pro slr)

[siksII]

sewid and daioni, thankyou so much, now i have definite stuff to tell my sister i think the small stores/price thing applies in most countries it seems... ie if u go to harvey norman compared to a small computer store, the smaller one will aways have lower prices... service is another matter though

[sewid]

most stores will do duty free - but it is easier to get english help at a bigger store

"Akihabara is really horrible for camera gear. Theyll sell you a camera but they dont stock any of the accessories"  - I don't agree with this, unless you are really looking for specialist gear (pro slr)

I was looking for lenses and stuff for my Nikon D100 which is digital SLR but not really a 'pro' camera. So i guess to qualify my statement i could add that Akihabara is fine to get cameras and your average accessories for point and shoot cameras.

But I find in Shinjuku the camera gear was of far greater availability and a wider variety from point and shoot to pro SLR stuff worth $10k+.

[siksII]

hey guys i just sent all your posts to my sister who is in i think osaka atm..

we decided to get a video camera.. a panasonic 3ccd or mini dv model... i asked my sister to just shop around and see what is best..

also to look for ipods, if they are cheap there maybe i should buy like 10 of them and resell them cheap here..

i really wanted to get the ipod MINI but those apple bastards cant make them fast enough to quench US demand, and therefore have pushed back worldwide deliveries by 3 MONTHS!

anyway.. hopefully my sis will go and get a nice tiny camcorder for me to make car videos with

[akeenan]

Im in Japan now and finding electronic stuff is really easy. Just get yourself to Tokyo JR station then take the Yamanote (platform 5) line to Akihabara station and follow the signs to Akihabara electric town.

If i took myself to tokyo station then akihabara i would be doing things the long way... 1 smooth ride on the sobu line straight to akihabara and the ride is free for me as well

If you go later in the night to akihabara some stores will discount things more... dont buy the first thing you see though it sometimes pays to shop around from store to store and akihabara isnt always the cheapest. but it is good though.