- [Elea] This Pokemon Game
Boy Micro is 437,000 yen. - Dude.
- Oh wait, is that $4,000? (smooth upbeat music) Traveling to Japan as a fan of video games is an otherworldly experience. It's really cool to see such a passion for games and retro collecting like they have at such a
grand scale over there. Video game tourism is
huge, and they know this and sometimes they try
to capitalize on that. I spent about 10-ish days in
Japan with some of my friends, and the majority of that time
was spent retro game hunting, going to all different
types of retro game stores that had used gaming products
sometimes for dirt cheap, but a lot of the times in
the more touristy areas, (cash register ringing)
they were huge rip-offs. Everybody likes to talk
about how cool it is to see all these rare collectibles
in these infamous stores, and it is really cool to see
an entire section of a city that is just dedicated to
video games and nerd stuff, but probably don't buy
anything from there. We spent a great deal of time
in some major Japanese cities. That's admittedly not where
the best deals are gonna be, but we did find some
fantastic deals hidden away outside of those tourist traps. I had a list of a couple of things that I was looking for
while I was over there, one of which being a Famicom
that I've always wanted. As you can imagine, those
are plentiful over there. Some other things I was
looking for were like Game Boys and DS's that I could try
to find for dirt cheap, maybe some broken ones that
I could fix up later on. But as you can imagine, it's kind of hard to justify fixing up or modding a Game Boy that you buy for $200! (devices beeping)
Holy! But we did eventually
find some fantastic deals. I want you guys to
learn from our mistakes. I'll show you what we
did right on this trip. We went to Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, and for the most part, we
stayed in those major cities. And there were some places I
would warn against going to, but a couple that I would
definitely recommend if you ever plan on making
a trip out to Japan. (smooth upbeat music) This video is sponsored by Factor. (electricity buzzes)
- Ah! (electricity buzzes)
Ugh! (electricity buzzes) (electricity buzzes) - So uh, what are you doing? - I'm trying this new diet now where every time I eat
a carb, I get shocked. (electricity buzzes) - Isn't that like, not good for you? - Yeah, carbs are horrible for you. (electricity buzzes)
- No. Factor's fresh, never-frozen meals are ready in just two minutes so all you have to do is heat and enjoy. You could also be enjoying
clean eating with Factor. They even have Calorie Smart meals with around or less than
550 calories per serving. (electricity buzzes)
- Ah, yeah! I'm sorry, I'm listening. No, keep going. And action! And do it. And you're live! And... And three... And do it. Do, do it. - These meals are perfect for when I don't want to think about food. You can pop it in the microwave
if you're in a real hurry. I usually take about seven
minutes to make it in the oven. And you can try it for yourself
by going to factor75.com and use the promo code YAHUNGRY50 for a whole 50% off your first Factor box. - That sounds awesome, actually. I'm gonna order Factor right now. (chill instrumental music) I can't feel below my neck. (electricity buzzes)
There we go. (electricity buzzes)
- Just eat the broccoli! - No, it's gross! Ew, I
don't wanna do it. (groans) - We decided to get
Akihabara out of the way the second we got to Japan,
the first day we were there. You might have heard of Akihabara before. It's like the weeb Mecca. There's a ton of manga, a
lot of toys and figures, a bunch of maid cafes, but most of all, there's just a ton of games. There's a lot of arcades there, but we were mostly there
for the retro game stores. There are about a dozen
just on one square block. They're all really close. It's crazy to see all of that, and there sure is a lot to do. We spent pretty much the whole day poring through the collections
that these stores had. The first store we went into
was actually Bic Camera. Bic Camera can only be described as B&H meets Target meets Best Buy. They had absolutely everything and a huge selection of
games, mostly modern games and also an awesome jingle that I'm gonna be singing
for the rest of my life. ♪ Bic, Bic, Bic, Bic Camera ♪ - Wood had a field day in
their Nintendo Switch section. This doesn't interest me at all. I want some retro stuff. But their selection was kind
of insane, I have to admit. Lots of wacky controllers. It looks like Japan has a Nintendo Switch controller problem. What's all this garbage? What is all this? What is this? Look, this looks like a cheap tattoo. They had a PC and gaming handheld section. That was pretty cool. They had an ROG Ally with
a Raikiri Pro Controller that I've never seen in a
store before, an AYANEO AIR? Oh my God, are you kidding me? Wait, why am I excited for this? I have this. Get outta here. A ONEXPLAYER? It was cool to see all these handhelds in a major retail store. They also had a whole lot
of very clicky keyboards. (keyboard keys clicking)
Ooh! Oh yeah, baby. That's awesome. From here we went
straight to Super Potato, which is a pretty famous one. It's cool to see what they have there, but don't buy anything there. Their handheld selection
was pretty abysmal. A GBA for $153?
(cash register ringing) A clear Game Boy Color for $182. What? A DMG original regular old
Game Boy for $212, man! Who is buying these? Have they
ever seen a Game Boy before? That markup is insane! This is about where I made
maybe my biggest mistake of the whole trip. No, that was the revolving sushi I got. That was a tourist trap. I've always wanted a
Donkey Kong Game & Watch, and I've never seen one
in person for under $100. Part of the reason that I want one, that's the first D-pad
that was ever in anything, and the D-pad hasn't changed since then. That's a piece of history
I would love to have, and this one that they had at Super Potato was looking pretty mint. I'm gonna get this and
then I'm gonna find it in Kyoto for half the price. (laughs) - [Friend] Yeah. - I think I was just
excited to be in Japan. I ended up buying it for $94.
(cash register rings) What I shoulda done was Google
translated this little bit on the label because that says that the screen has some
leaking, and it sure does. I got pretty screwed. This is also the only store on the trip that didn't ask if I wanted to see inside. I didn't even get to
open it and look at it. Why didn't I ask to
open it and look at it? What was wrong with me? Also, looking back at it
now, $100 is like the price of a good condition one on eBay, one that has a screen that's intact. So I got (video game beeping). They (video game beeping) me. And I kind of (video game beeping) myself. I don't wanna talk about it anymore. Let's move on to the next place. The next place of interest was
probably Sofmap in Akihabara. This might have been my
favorite spot in Akihabara. - I grabbed something for you.
- "METAL DOGS." - Oh, hell yeah.
- I saw that. - Yeah, bro.
- Everybody! It's rock 'n roll. It's owned by Bic Camera
so no wonder it's so cool. I think it's just their secondhand store. They also had an ROG Ally on display. Wood once again was preoccupied
with their Switch games. - [Wood] What do you think this is? - That's a Nintendo Switch game. E over here found a really
cool burgundy DSi XL complete in box for just $37, and that was in near-mint condition. I saw a super cheap DS Lite
in my favorite rose color for only $20,
(cash register rings) but it was all sorts of messed up. Two yellow screens. That's fixable. But I decided I didn't want
it. It wasn't worth it. After that, we passed
through the market of cables and then hit a few more stores. One of the smaller ones had more GBAs for an outrageous and disappointing $150. Trader is one of the bigger stores with loads of used games and toys. I bought some used toys there
last time I was there in 2019. They also had a GBA Micro Famicom Edition, another console I've been
dying to get my hands on, for a whopping $264.
(cash register rings) Which honestly isn't that
terrible for what that is, but it's not great either
so I didn't buy it. And that's about all I have
to say about Akihabara. We left there kind of disappointed. I'm sure people are gonna
say that I should have gone to this place or that place, but A, there were a lot
of places that we went to that I just didn't put in the video. And B, I don't believe you that they would have been any better. I went to Akihabara for
the first time in 2019. I did basically the same
thing that I did now. I went retro game hunting through all these different stores. I vlogged the whole experience. I just never released that vlog because it was incredibly
disappointing even back then. Everything I found then was the same price or higher than the prices I found on eBay plus shipping to America so
like, it's not worth the trip. In 2019, the one game I
was really looking for was "Super Back to the
Future" for the Super Famicom. That's not a game we have here in America. And I got it, but it wasn't cheap. It was about the same price as I could have paid for on eBay. I was just excited to be there. If you're going to Japan anyway, you should check out
Akihabara if you've never been just for the sights and for the toys. It's cool to see all of that stuff there. And the toys, actually, you can find some pretty
good deals on toys, but if you're going there
for the retro gaming history, it's cool to see it all,
but don't buy anything. The next day, we took
a trip down to Nakano, which is an awesome spot
with this big, long market. But inside that market was a mall that was almost like a
flea market of manga. There were tons and tons
of used manga stores. There were lots and lots
of toys, vintage toys. I picked up a Metal Gear
toy for about 50 bucks. There was one shop with tons
of original anime cells. This Mandarake place,
they're all over here. It's like a bunch of different stores, and it's all used books and stuff. And this is where they're
processing everything that everybody's selling back. So like manga, art. You got old used books and CDs and stuff. It looks like a fish market,
but it's all used manga. I think there was supposed to be a couple of retro game stores in this mall, but maybe they were all closed that day because we only saw one. But this one ended up being
one of my favorite stores that we went to on this whole trip. Lashinbang, which is apparently a chain. They had a small little shop in Nakano. Finally, we've got some handhelds. Another rose DS Lite for $20, this one in slightly better condition. A GBA for just $50.
(cash register rings) We're getting better now. They had broken PSPs
for between $10 and $40. I actually regret not
picking any of those up. I've never owned a PSP before. I have no idea how to fix one of those up, but it might have been
a cool little project. What I ended up buying was a
"RockMan Dash" Pack for PSP. I might not own a PSP, but I like me some "Mega Man Legends." This was just $33.
(cash register rings) "WarioWare: Twisted!" for $20. I just liked the look of this box. And a blue broken DS Lite
for an eye-popping $12! It took a little while to figure out what was actually wrong with it. The bottom screen had some
yellowing in the corners and the top screen was pretty messed up. But at the very least, this
would make for a fine candidate for a Game Boy Macro. But I also have a donor top screen from the last Game Boy
Macro mod that I did. And I have a donor bottom
screen for some reason. So for just $12 and a little bit of work, I could have a brand-new fully
functional DS Lite for $12! Pop an R4 and an EZ-FLASH in there and we have one of the
best handhelds you can get, even still to this day. A near-perfect emulation
machine for everything up to DS! But I haven't worked on it yet because I actually think
I have another project I wanna use it for, and that
will be a whole video in itself if all goes according to plan. I haven't mentioned this
yet, but the yen is way down. When I went back in 2019,
one yen was about one penny so the conversion was pretty easy. Now it was like, three
quarters of a penny. Food was pretty cheap. Sometimes these retro game stores and these tech stores were pretty cheap. Sometimes you would get tax-free. You just show them your
passport and you're good to go. Sometimes like in Bic Camera
they give you a 5% off for using a credit card. Remember when I said E got
that Burgundy DSi for so cheap? It was actually less than that 'cause he got 5% off and no tax. - It was like 5,200 yen,
which is like 43 bucks. - That's crazy.
- And it's tax-free. And with a credit card it's 5% off so it ended up being like
35 bucks for an in-box DS. - That is crazy.
- At TooManyGames, you already know this,
this would be like $300. - Uh-huh.
- Easy. - I spent the next few days in Japan just kinda enjoying Japan. I wasn't really thinking
about game stores. I was trying to enjoy
the food and the coffee. I had coffee from a different
place every single day, and each one was amazing. I'll have a video on the Bob Wulff channel that's just about all
of the different coffees that I had while I was in Japan. After about five days in
Tokyo, we took the Shinkansen down to Kyoto to stay
at the MARUFUKURO Hotel. This is Nintendo's old headquarters and warehouse from the 1800s. They had a lot of cool
bits of Nintendo history, but for the most part, it's
just a really nice hotel that just so happens to
be in the exact same spot that Nintendo was founded on. We did some cool stuff in
Kyoto, had some amazing coffees, and found a store similar to Bic Camera called Yodobashi Camera. They had lots of controllers. That's the one. Monitors, streamer equipment, this thing that I saw everywhere, and a Hit Box controller for $256. This isn't a great deal, but
the reason that it's notable is because those things
are always sold out online. It's hard to get your
hands on one of those, and I had it right there in front of me. The only reason I didn't
pick this thing up was because it's big and bulky and heavy and I didn't wanna lug it all
around the rest of our trip and also on the flight home. While staying in Kyoto, we
took a day trip to Osaka to go to Universal Studios
and see NINTENDO WORLD. (video game coins ringing)
Hey! That was all right. The coffee at Toad's Cafe sucked ass. But that night we headed
straight to Osaka proper because Wood discovered
my other favorite store of the whole trip,
Sakugaya Specialty Store. These guys were a gold mine. This was by far the cheapest
stuff we've seen all trip. Japan-exclusive orange GameCube for $60. A PS1 for six bucks.
(cash register ringing) A PSP for $40 that I probably shoulda got. Next time I'm getting a PSP. Game Boy Colors ranging from $46 to $67. A bit of a better deal
than what they were trying to rob me for over in Akihabara. Everybody walked away with huge bounties. I got a loose "Metal Gear
Solid: Peace Walker" for PSP in the junk section for
a staggering 73 cents. Now you're appreciating
the friendship. (laughs) - [Friend] No, you're
forgetting to realize I'm good for something. - I picked up one of
those Game Boy Colors. It was a clear one for 46 bucks,
which wouldn't be that good of a deal except it was
in near-mint condition. Maybe a couple of micro
scratches on the lens. But the buttons and the casing were mint. No yellowing or anything. This is the most perfect
stock Game Boy Color I've seen since the '90s. This one isn't even worth modding. This one should be preserved as is. But I also got something that I spent the whole whole
trip looking for, a Famicom. This was nearing the end of our trip. I think we had one and a half days left so my bags were getting full. I was hesitant to bring this
big Famicom back with me, but it was $12.
(cash register rings) I'm gonna throw out some
underwear or something. And finally, I got a baby
blue DS Lite complete in box. Everything was still wrapped
in plastic for Christ's sake. This is another near-mint find. Very, very slight yellowing
on the shoulder buttons, but not a scratch on it otherwise. The bottom screen has some signs of usage because it's a touchscreen. But I realized it has a
damn screen protector on it. I'm gonna leave it on.
Obviously, it's been used. Somebody was doing that to it, but I could just peel that off. (laughs) And then you have a perfect
stock DS Lite for just $39. Again, a DS Lite, one
of the best handhelds you can get right now, especially paired with an EZ-FLASH and an R4. That store was by far my favorite that we went to the whole trip. Everything was just so cheap and such good quality over there. Sticking to major cities did
make things harder for us, but that Sakugaya store really
saved the whole trip for us. I probably won't even be using any of the consoles that I got there. Everything was just in
such good condition. Except for the Famicom. I'm
gonna definitely use that. That was only 12 fricking dollars. Everything was just so cheap
and in such good condition. That's why all of us left
with such big bounties. If you haven't noticed, I still haven't found a good
Game Boy Advance for myself. And this was kinda it. This was the last store we were going to. The next day we were going back to Tokyo and then we were hitting
the plane and leaving so we kinda called it. But that night when we got
to our last hotel in Tokyo, Wood decided to do one last Google search of game stores near that hotel so we ended up at this
little hole in the wall. The name on Google Maps is Famicom Shop Mario Shinbashi Store. I don't think that's the name. I think that's just some
word soup for SEO reasons. This guy means business. They had signs all over
in Japanese and English. Don't come in if you
don't wanna buy anything. Our prices are high! Deal with it! And also (video game coin rings) you! And then they called me bald. They did have a lot of near-mint stuff, but after that Osaka
store, I wasn't impressed. A clear Game Boy Color for $120? What did I get it for, 1/3 of that? Game Boy Light, $187?
(cash register rings) I got one of those for
like 50 bucks on eBay once. A Game Boy Macro, that's
half of a DS, $400! This place kinda ain't it. But randomly, they had a GBA
SP complete in box for $53. This isn't an amazing
deal, but with a screen that's that well-kept with a box and with an official charger, it suddenly becomes a decent deal. It's an AGS-001 model, which
means that it has a frontlight and it's not as sought-after
as the AGS-101 model, which has a backlight. But I don't want the AGS-101 model because I wanna mod this thing. I would never mod an AGS-101 because that's already good as it is. I wouldn't mind putting a little work into a 001 to make it a little nicer. The only imperfections on
this thing were on the case. It looked like it had been
chewed on or something. That's an easy fix. After taking it home and
inspecting it some more, I realized that this is another one of the best condition retro
consoles that I have ever seen. Even with those bite marks,
I think that Japanese people just take really good care of their stuff. And also, these stores just
really care about the quality of the stuff that flows through them. I thought about maybe not modifying it, maybe just leaving it as is 'cause it's in such good
condition and it even has the box. I thought about just
maybe keeping it together and keeping it nice,
but it's not an AGS-101. It's got some teeth marks on the case. It was also only $53,
so why not make it cool? I hope that guy at the shop
isn't gonna get mad at me for what I did to his precious Game Boy. I got a bunch of stuff from Retro Game Repair
Shop, not an affiliate. It needed a brand-new case for sure. And you can get cases that
fit brand-new IPS screens, so you might as well get
a brand-new IPS screen. Now, they suggested putting
the included foam backing behind the screen as a sort of spacer, but in a clear shell, this
would look ugly as hell. So I quickly 3D printed a simple spacer with a cute little Wulff Den logo on it. That'll be front and center when this whole thing is finished. I've actually never done a GBA SP before. This was another one of the
simpler mods that I've done. The only issues I had were
with the shoulder buttons. Those springs are always terrible. Somebody can't develop like,
a better shoulder button that has the little
standoff and the spring and the shoulder button all as one piece so you don't keep losing it and having to put it all together and having it pop off every five seconds. It takes like 14 tries to get the shoulder
buttons in the damn thing. I think what made this extra bad is that I stripped one screw when I was putting it all back together, and then I had to open it
back up again for some reason. And I had to place the
shoulder buttons back in there like I was building a (twinkles)
model boat in a bottle. But now I have one of the most beautiful Game Boy Advanced SPs that I've ever seen. Absolutely worth the
two-ish hours I spent on it and definitely worth the trip to Japan and the sacrificed $50 Game Boy Advance with teeth marks on it. Thank you very much, Shinbashi guy. Long story short, go to
Akihabara if you've never been, but don't expect to get
any good deals there. Nakano, Tokyo, and Osaka are where it's at if you wanna stick to the
major cities, which is great 'cause you can take the
train to all of these. I really wish we spent more time in Osaka because I wanted to go to Dotonbori and eat all of the food and we
didn't really get to do that. But also, 'cause even now looking at it, I'm seeing a bunch of other
retro game stores around Osaka that could have been just as good if not better than the
Sakugaya store that we went to. But if you really want the
good retro gaming deals, you gotta rent a car and go
drive out into the sticks. Retro Future actually just
uploaded a bunch of videos where he did just that. I also just got finished
watching Trainer Tips' video on his second channel
where he gets in a car, drives to all of these
different retro game stores and then mods a Game Boy
Advance just like I did. I kinda wish I saw that while I was there. Maybe I would have made a better effort to go out into the country. They both went to a lot
of BOOKOFFs and HARD OFFs, and those are great, but
the ones that I went to in the cities were not I didn't even include them in this video. One of them basically
only had Switch games, and you'll probably see
that in Wood's videos. Wood is making a bunch of
videos about this trip. I think I'm gonna be in some of them so go keep an eye out for
that over on his channel. What do you guys think
about the Japan trip and what we ended up getting in the end? I'm kinda happy with the
stuff that I walked away with. I'm most happy with
how good the quality is on some of this stuff. Also, let me know what you think about that Game Boy Advance in this video. Leave it in the comments
below, add me on Twitter, any and all this other
social media garbage. Don't forget to check out
the Bob Wulff channel video about all the coffees that I drank. Thank you guys for being here. The most important thing you
can do is just subscribe here. Share this video with a friend, a friend who maybe wants to go, and you can learn what not to do. Thank you very much. Have a good week. Come here, give me a hug.
(warm instrumental music)
