GOING SHOPPING IN TOKYO, ANY TIPS?

cowatf · Post by **cowatf** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 3:47 pm

Hi,

I'm going to be in Tokyo for one afternoon only and I'm trying to locate some good old gear (old korg/roland/yamaha synths and drum machines as well as the various oddities)

Anyone out there got some recommendations of places to go?

I'm not looking for any new gear, i'm looking for nice, old interesting instruments.

I do know they introduced a law against the sale of vintage gear in Japan but there are ways around this that people have employed, it's just a matter of finding these nice people.

MarkShovel · Post by **MarkShovel** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 4:14 pm

Take alot of money. Last time I was in Tokyo, breakfast was $39US and beer was $16US per 12 ounce can. Dinner was usually $350US for the three of us.

That said, it is the one place I would like to live.

Mark

cl516 · Post by **cl516** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 4:44 pm

Enjoy yourself! It will be an amazing time.

JSRockit · Post by **JSRockit** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 4:46 pm

I say forget the synths and just enjoy tokyo...especially since you only have one day.

Post by **tunedLow** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 4:59 pm

I think Clueless on this forum lives in Japan. You might want to PM him.

clueless · Post by **clueless** » Sat Aug 04, 2007 6:26 pm

I'm with JS on this...... you should just enjoy the sights. Especially Shinjuku or Shibuya at night!!

However.... if you really must go "shopping" I wouldn't bother with "Five G" (the mecca of synths) but rather "Echigoya" in Shibuya where more bargains are to be had.

PS.... Stay away from Ropongi. (don't ask.... just stay away!

)

(Here's me thinking I was gonna stay away from VSE for a little while.... but when your names mentioned (thanks tuned

) you just gotta ain't you.)

Antonino · Post by **Antonino** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 12:23 am

I've been recently in tokio.. stayed there 2 days, so I didn't have a lot of time.. anyway, from what i've seen, five-g it's really a great place where to stop.. no good for shopping ok, but it's amazing.. i tried synths that I would have never had even imagined to touch in my life

and anyway Harajuku it's a fun place to be.. the first day I just did a bit of walking.. Shibuya => Harajuku => Shinjuku.. I must say I got lost several times

then I also stopped in Ishibashi and bought a Microkorg for 38000 yen.. they had also an R3 for around 60000 Yen (366 euros), that it's a very good price.. and a cs-15d for 37000 yen.. there were also some ms20's but the prices where quite normal.. good stay in tokio!

Postblank · Post by **Postblank** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 1:08 am

Find me a Yamaha CS-80. I'll buy you candy.

What's the deal with Japan prohibiting the sale of vintage gear? You can't forcefeed demand, it just doesn't work like that.

OriginalJambo · Post by **OriginalJambo** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 2:18 am

Is Japanese made Japanese gear all labelled in English too? Wouldn't surprise me if it was.

ndkent · Post by **ndkent** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 2:23 am

Been to Tokyo many times.

First off go to buy or go to look?

Nothing comes close to FiveG. What you have to understand is their stuff is almost always serviced and in better than average condition. You most definitely are paying for that and their prices make sense in that context.

Echigoya is the #2 place. Again it makes sense, their prices are somewhat though not a lot lower and their condition is on average not as good. It's worth a look but nowhere near a "I've never seen so many old synths in one place" type of an experience.

Ishibashi is not one place, it's a chain like Guitar Center if you know U.S. retailers. The shops are medium size and in many cities and neighborhoods that have lots of musicians. The shops usually have a couple used pieces scattered around especially if a particular store has more room.

Okay first off see the sights you are going to be dissapointed if you think you'll find bargains on the hot synths everyone desires. I think a lot of people sell their gear privately on and offline. There's a lot of people wanting to buy up anything desirable including I'm sure a couple people who systematically snap better stuff up as it appears for sale to resell to people in other countries and Japanesse musicians who don't care to wait for a better deal.

What you can sometimes find is Japanese digital gear from years back for pretty good prices. In general, like anywhere I guess if there is more of something on sale than there are people buying it the price slides down to where people start buying it based on the cheap price. So there are some old synths like say a Yamaha CS-5 or CS-10 that there are plenty of (don't wait for a CS-30 or CS-80 they aren't all over the place or cheap) - so certain more common items aren't too bad but you'll have a heavy synth to deal with that arguably doesn't do all that much. In japan really new used equipment sells for very near new price in Japan. You have to get into older digital gear to find something cheap. Obviously to to a European some of the Japanese new list prices are pretty good in comparison.

I'll confirm Antonio's prices on used gear.

As for breakfast and coffee some places cater to the rich (or easy to take advantage of foreigners) and provide a luxurious atmosphere at the price of expensive food. There are plenty of places with Japanese coffee or Japanese brand beer for normal prices. You can find expensive restaurants expecially in hotels in any big city. I guess depending on the exchange rate it's maybe a third more expensive than American food on average, at the most 150%. Most restaurants have prices posted. I'd only be wary of restaurants that look expensive and have no prices or prices in Chinese numbers. Avoid places full of older people in formal wear, etc. I mean you can find crazy food prices but you have to first stumble on them or maybe be too scared to venture out.

Anyway your time would be much better spent just hanging out in Akiba or Shibuya or even Nakano Broadway if you like pop culture collectables. Go somewhere that intertests you that isn't just shopping. I always feel kind of stupid after a trip if all I did was hunt or shop for CDs or see synths that I wouldn't mind owning but wouldn't want the expense and effort of trying to get them home (not that I've not bought gear, I guess I've averaged one piece a trip, but no big or pricey ones)

I must plug the little record shop Mecano in Nakano Broadway, half the store is just Japanese technopop artists (i.e. YMO, P-MODEL, Plastics) and the other half is just european and american synthpop artists (Devo, Krautrock, Bill Nelson, etc.). CDs and Vinyl (well its called "Analog" in Japan), no contemporary techno or dance stuff but you can get that somewhere else if you want it and if you don't then you don't have to skim through it to hopefully find the retro and synthpop stuff.

FiveG pretty often has a CS-80 though not this week and one is never out and sitting there to jam on. They do let you check out stuff you think you will buy though. I remember the price was around $3000 give or take. (right now they have a CS-50 for $600) I don't think you'll be able to fit either the overhead bin though.

ndkent · Post by **ndkent** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 2:49 am

OriginalJambo wrote:Is Japanese made Japanese gear all labelled in English too? Wouldn't surprise me if it was.

Actually a good question. There may be some exceptions but generally all pro gear is just in English and non-pro home music gear like for a hobby usually has labels in Japanese though there might be exceptions with simple home gear just being in english. Sometimes pro gear with an operating system will have languages in the ROM but I don't use much of that kind of gear to know. Computer music gear is in Japanese so there's no real distinction between the pro market and the DTM market.

The manuals will be all in japanese. Though you can usually download a manual if the gear was ever sold overseas.

I guess if you are a real gear-a-holic then you'll spot the occasional piece of gear never sold in Europe or America. Yamaha, I'm near certain has the number of Japan-only items out. I guess a sort of boring but maybe unique example would be the Sequential Pro8. It's almost the same as a boring Sequential Split-Eight but cosmetically very different and only originally sold in Japan. It's not rare though some people might want to trick synth collectors into thinking it's a real collector's item.

Also be warned that Japanese gear is 100v not American 120v, so even if you are european and have an american voltage converter you might fry some touchy old gear. I pretty much concluded that's what happened with a U.K. artist's old synth a couple years ago. It's not something that always happens. In most cases it might run 100% fine or run hot but not burn out. Newer gear tends to have switched power supplies so it's mainly an issue with older gear or something only made for Japan. You can get a converter to be safe but it usually takes a fair amount of hunting to find one.

As for for the ban on old gear, what I understood is it was revised because enough people complained. People like Sakamoto were skillful to mention to the media a threat to cultural pride that politicians couldn't ignore. He said something to the effect that in order for Japanese artists to remain creatively competitive internationally they need to utilize classic vintage equipment that others around the world use. But I don't know the details.

nick
nickkent.net

OriginalJambo · Post by **OriginalJambo** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 3:46 am

Thanks for the fascinating insight, ndkent.

I'll never understand the Japanese and their use of English. From the nonsensical lines in J-Pop tracks to all the arcade computer games with their uses of "START GAME", "1P", "OPTION", "VICTORY", "WIN/LOSE" etc. with the main game dialogue often being in traditional Japanese (kanji, hirigana).

They seem to really like our language for a lot of applications...I'd still love to visit though.

clueless · Post by **clueless** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 11:10 am

Nick.... did you go to SOAS by chance? Do you know Adam? If the answer to one of those is "yes" then I think we have met.

Antonino · Post by **Antonino** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 4:36 pm

ndkent wrote:... Obviously to to a European some of the Japanese new list prices are pretty good in comparison...

The prices of new gear are amazing for an European ..

microKorg here in Italy it's 390 euros new.. in Japan it's 240 euros with included the bag..

R3 here in Italy it's 699 euros.. in Japan it was 366 euros..

mikie · Post by **mikie** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 4:15 am

i agree with just about evry reply posted so far. a resident musician 4
a looong time humbly offers this advice. if u r coming 2 tkyo mainly 4
the gear, check out 5G and echigoya ,they're not that far away from each other. but if ur on a schedule, i'd do one shop and sightsee tkyo or yokohama etc...i know i didn't say much, sorry, i'm new,
enjoy yourself.

Ensonq TS12, KorgM1, Synclavier?

GOING SHOPPING IN TOKYO, ANY TIPS?

GOING SHOPPING IN TOKYO, ANY TIPS?

shopping in tokyo