Totoro in London, Japanese anime anxiety

[ruggedtoast]

Since Ive been living in Japan Ive become very fond of anime and the endless supply of anime merchandise you can get here.

My girlfirend and I are particularly fond of Studio Ghibli stuff, Totoro, Spirited Away et al and would like to have some of the collectibles for our new flat when we return to London in September.

You could spend a 1000 pounds here in Japan and still not have bought a fraction of all the stuff thats on offer here. Unfortunately we dont have anything like that to spend and would rather wait until we've got set up in London before buying as much stuff as we'd like to have.

Does anyone know if its even possible to get this stuff in London - can you recommend a good anime store or is this delightful merchandise available in main stream stores (Hamleys, dept stores etc) . Are prices significantly higher than here in Japan?

If its not possible to buy in the uk we'll have to bite the bullet and start deciding on the must haves from the funds we have available here.

Many thanks for your help

[Pocky-man]

Yes there is, it's close to Picadilly Circus, can't remember the name of the shop but it's got a big JAL sign outside it. They have many books, video's DVD's and other items from Japan BUT it's expensive...

You will have to do a search on the net.. sorry that's all the info I have.

hope this helps.

[Black Cat]

It's called The Japan Centre, quite original ne!

Here's the link....http://www.japancentre.com/index.php?page=home&lang=en.

It might have a few things you'd be interested in but it's bloody expensive. It's best to get what you want while your here and have it shipped back.

[AA]

Indeed there is the Japan Centre and it IS AMAZINGLY expensive. You can find some books/cd/manga in the London Takashimaya store which is 2 minutes walk from Japan Centre but still very expensive. Personally, I buy most stuff on the internet (usually, yesAsia and Amazon.co.jp) or when I go to Japan. Example Utada's album was £25 which is more that $50 in the Japan Centre!!!
There used to be an asahiya bookstore but it closed. :-(

[FLCL]

The Japan centre doesn’t really sell all the toys DVDs etc that it used to. There are a few comic shops that sell imported anime stuff and a second hand manga and bookstore on brewer street (most central London Japanese stores are located here) but it's soooo expensive compared to what you pay in Japan (but the sashimi is quite reasonable for London). I go back and forth to Japan and London a fair bit, so I don't think I would ever be tempted to pay import prices (I would rather wait than pay triple or more) but I were you I would get all you can before you go and if you run out of cash in London just sell it all on ebay (what have you got to lose?). You will make a killing selling to all the anime/Japan freaks I promise, I bought a couple of those Japanese kill bill box sets and made about £70 profit on each.