Tokyo: Nakano Broadway Collector Hunt with an Insider
ID: GYG1495864-2290437
Category:
Country: Ecuador
Duration:
04:00 hours
Description
Four floors of glass cabinets in a 1966 shopping arcade, where the rarest things in Tokyo are sold by specialists who each stock one narrow thing.
Nakano Broadway is a shopping centre from 1966 that slowly turned into the densest collector market in Japan. Four floors, hundreds of tiny units, and each unit sells one narrow thing extremely seriously: vintage watches, 1970s robots, film cels, idol photographs, antique cameras, sealed toys nobody opened.
The problem is that it is almost entirely in Japanese and the good units look identical to the bad ones.
Your guide walks it with you and reads the room. Which unit is a genuine specialist and which is a general reseller. What the grading stickers mean. What a fair price is for a sealed 1980s figure versus a loose one. Which shops will negotiate and which absolutely will not, and how to ask without causing offence.
We also do the parts of Nakano most visitors never reach: the ground-floor food arcade where the locals actually shop, and the covered shopping street outside that runs back to the station, which is where you eat.
There is no obligation to buy. Plenty of people come for the museum effect, because the cabinets are a museum, just one where everything has a price on it.
This is a private tour. Only your group, and if you want to spend two hours in one unit, we do that.
Many units keep their own hours and some close on Wednesdays. We will only offer dates when the arcade is properly open.
Highlights
- Four floors of specialist units, read by someone who knows them
- Learn what the grading stickers mean before you spend
- Which shops will negotiate, and how to ask without offence
- The ground-floor food arcade where Nakano actually shops
- No obligation to buy, the cabinets are a museum with price tags
Guiding languages
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
NOTHING YOU BUY IS INCLUDED. This is a guided walk with translation. Purchases you make yourself at the unit.
Individual units set their own opening hours and many close on Wednesdays. We will only offer dates when the arcade is properly open.
Some units do not allow photography inside. Your guide will tell you which.
The building is old. Lifts are small and slow and the escalators do not reach every floor. Tell us if stairs are a problem.
About 2 km of walking plus four floors.
If a particular unit is closed we take you to another specialist of the same kind.
Price is for the whole group of up to 6 people, not per person.
INCLUDED
- Private van and English-speaking driver-guide for 4 hours
- Hotel pickup and drop-off anywhere in central Tokyo
- Guided walk of all four floors and the outside shopping street
- Translation, grading advice and price guidance
- One snack each in the food arcade
- All parking and road tolls
NOT INCLUDED
- Anything you buy
- Other food and drinks
- Gratuities, which are never expected in Japan
When should I book?
To guarantee availability book as soon as possible. Early booking is worth consideration especially if you planning the trip during high season like public holidays or weekends.
Cancellations
This excursion you can cancel with no cost up to 24 hours before the start of the trip. If you cancel it after 24 hours or not show up on the excursion you will still be charged the full price of the activity. Being late on pick-up or departure will be considered as not showing up.
