Import Game Stores in Osaka?

[Anonymous]

I'm a console gamer (I own a US/CAN Playstation 2) and I just recently moved to the Osaka area. Last week, I visited Osaka's equivalent to Tokyo's Akihabara, Den-Den town, and was shocked to discover that there were no import game stores, and no one that I asked (foreign or native, in either English or Japanese) knew of any either. I can't believe that the second biggest city in all of Japan would not have one single import game shop. Tokyo's Akihabara has at least two dedicated shops that I know of, Messe Sanoh: Chaos and Game Hollywood. They are a bit on the pricy side, but when it comes to games, the extra 1000 to 2000 yen you pay often saves you a lot of waiting and hassles with getting your friends to send stuff over (I'm currently waiting on yet another package that has dissapeared into Canada Post/Japanese Postal Service limbo).

Does anyone know of any stores in Den-Den Town or in the Osaka/Kobe area that sell import games (preferably with a dedicated, up to date section as opposed to some half-assed Duty-free shop with a small handful of ridiculously overpriced games from two years ago)? Any info would be appreciated. By the way, I've already asked Messe Sanoh if they do mail order and they said no. I don't know about Game Hollywood. I might have to rely on Tokyo friends -- at least they'd be in the country! I just want to save myself the hassle of asking a non-gamer friend to go shopping for a game that they wouldn't even have the slightest idea how to look for even if it was staring them right in the face...I might as well be sending my grandmother!


Thanks in advance,


K. Taylor

[Andy]

Hi K'

cannot help you with shops in DenDen Town... well, honestly speaking, I doubt that there are (m)any shops specializing on imported console-games in Japan like the two ones you mentioned (which, to be honest, I didn't even know about). - Whenever I had the chance to go on a shopping frenzy in either Akihabara or DenDen Town I always went for the Japanese games that never, never, never would make it to the western coasts - and thus I didn't pay much attention to any import-games.... however I'm sure that they would have caught my eye somehow.

I really think that you'll fare better with trying to find some online store. At least that was where I got my console games from during the time when I was still a hardcore game-addict (those times ended with the demise of the Dreamcast, btw, and nowadays I only play the occasional game of DDR or Samba de Amigo... and of course ShenMue).
Ok - my situation was vice-versa, since me, living in Europe, desperately wanted to get my hands on the Japanese games - but I still think that trying your hands on an internet-based shop is your best choice.

Have you tried:
http://www.therage.com/
I remember that they used to have even quite obscure titles in their list, and they definetely do mail-order worldwide.

If you want, I can check with a bunch of friends, who still are addicted to console-games, and who use mail-order services for games frequently.

ja ne,

-andy