Many of the stores in Akihabara span multiple floors. Often, each floor is dedicated to a single genre of goods. Akihabara Gamers, located just a minute from Akihabara station, is no exception.

The fourth floor of Akihabara Gamers is lined wall to wall with girls goods. This includes things like blankets, fans, umbrellas, plushies, stationary, and keychains with characters from popular female centric anime.

K-on fans will find no shortage of Akiyama Mio and Azusa Nakano items all around the store. Some may even come as a surprise. Take for instance the K-on snack food located in the anime food section!

To see more cool stuff like this make store to browse around FlutterScape.

Shopping in Japan can be a hyper local experience. Each city boasts its own unique products, sometimes exclusive to a single shop location. Take for example our recent visit up to Sapporo where we found One Piece goods made specifically for Hokkaido. 

Located in the Sapporo train station and in souvenir shops across the island are all sorts of exclusive One Piece products that show off your recent visit. You can find puzzles of Tony Tony Chopper relaxing in the Hokkaido lavender fields or Luffy socks with the iconic Hokkaido moss ball.

Regional One piece products are not limited to just Hokkaido. You can find special items all over Japan. But that will wait until another issue of Window Shopping…

In part two of our exploration of Japan’s UFO Catchers we visit the first and fourth floor of the SEGA arcade in Akihabara. On these two floors there are both traditional stuffed animals and many non traditional prizes. For those on their first visit to Japan some of the prizes come as quite a surprise.

If you were looking for a K-On coffee mug or AKB 48 memorabilia, the SEGA arcade is the place to go. The UFO Catchers in this arcade have everything from mouse pads and head phones to wall clocks and character blankets. You could deck out your room 100 yen at a time!

Make sure to check out part one of our UFO Catcher prize exploration. And don’t miss all our regular store Window Shopping posts.

An iconic part of Japanese arcades is the UFO Catcher, or the crane game as it is known in the West. Unlike Western counterparts, UFO Catchers in Japan offer up more than just plush animals.

In the multi-story SEGA arcade, on the corner across from Akihabara station, UFO Catchers take up the entirety of the first four floors. Each floor is themed slightly differently but all games are tailored to anime fans.

In the first of a two part series of Window Shopping, we explore the second and third floor of the SEGA building. The UFO Catchers on these floor contain figures from some of Japan’s most popular anime such as One Piece, K-On, Evangelion, and Dragonball.

For fans, becoming skilled at the UFO Catcher is necessary to collecting some of these exclusive figures. For others, UFO Catchers can be a cheap way to get a desired prize, often for as little as 100 yen!

Next week FlutterScape explores the first and fourth floors of the SEGA arcade to show off some other interesting products available as UFO Catcher prizes.

Tucked away under Tokyo station is the Jump Shop, filled with One Piece, Bleach, Naruto and other Shonen Jump merchandise.

In December the shop is decked out in Christmas decorations. Many of the characters that line the walls wear Santa hats. Red and green colors everywhere further enhance the store a festive feel.

This has to be one of the most packed shops we’ve covered in Window Shopping so far. Jump goodies are stuffed on the shelves and hang from he ceiling. In fact, the wall itself is a product. One of the many items featured at the store is Jump wallpaper made to look like a comic page (see image below).

Since pictures do a better job showing off the store than words please check out the shots we took during our recent visit.

And when you’re finished make sure to browse through some of the great Shonen Jump products on FlutterScape:

• One Piece
• Naruto
• Bleach

The Gundam Cafe, located in Akihabara, opened it’s doors in April 2010. A year and half later there frequently is a line to get in and have a meal. While a Gundam themed pasta can only purchased on the inside of the cafe, there are still tons of Gundam goodies (many edible) available in the gift shop just next door.

The gift shop is tiny, just a few meters by a few meters, but it’s still packed with all sorts of merchandise. The best part is many of these goods go along with the “cafe” theme and are exclusive to the store. For instance, you can buy Gundam coffee beans or Gundam drip coffee bags. There are also Gundam tea biscuits and chopsticks designed to look like a beam saber. 

Perhaps the coolest item of all is a 1/12 scale, edible beam saber! That’s 70cm (as long as your arm).

Make sure to check out all the Gundam discoveries on FlutterScape and visit the store for yourself next time you’re in Tokyo.

Today the much hyped Evangelion Store opened in Harajuku. Since FlutterScape’s office is located just down the street, we took a little field trip to check out all the cool Evangelion merchandise.

On arrival we were greeted by a mob of Evangelion fans waiting for the doors to open. This gave us the opportunity to appreciate the attention to detail that went into creating the store. The exterior is mostly steel and glass with the NERV logo on the front of the building and silhouettes of all the main characters on back. There was even a special Evangelion Coke machine tucked away by the back exit. Once inside, the purple staircase and the hexagon motiv also further enhanced the overall experience.

As far as Evangelion goods, there was no shortage. This includes shirts, bags, watches, shoes, stationary, cups, and candies. In fact, many of the items in the store are exclusive to this location.

If you still need more, take a look at the cool Evangelion products on FlutterScape.