Ok. Finally checked in the room. The wife is ready to turn it in and I am a free man to check out E-Earphones and maybe Bic Camera if I still have time before they close. Darn just checked and they close at 8PM, which is now. And Bic closes at 9PM so I have to scoot out of here now. Later....
Ok. Finally checked in the room. The wife is ready to turn it in and I am a free man to check out E-Earphones and maybe Bic Camera if I still have time before they close. Darn just checked and they close at 8PM, which is now. And Bic closes at 9PM so I have to scoot out of here now. Later....
Just got back from Japan, Tokyo. Never saw a homeless person? Get some Wagyu beef tonight! I enjoyed going to the Sony Flagship store. Went to about 5 Bic Camera stores.
One thing about Bic Camera is they have different stuff at each location. They seem like they never want to get anything from another location, though I get a feeling you could ask them to.
But, I found the inventory to be variable between stores. One store would have five different DAPs the other store didn’t have. All the stores had the main headphones but they never talked about complete chain inventory. When I purchased my Koss Porta Pro’s, they were like “we only have two pair left?” This process seemed strange as the Japanese seem so very detail orientated on every other level. Also it may be some workers limited English, but much of the electronic malls I went to had workers which knew almost nothing about what was either the floor above them or below them.
Of course Apple laptops are best purchased from the Apple store as the Apple laptops outside of the Apple store are only with Japanese keyboards.
In Tokyo the cheesecake is fantastic. Also the steak is amazing. We went on Lonely Planet and did 8 of their top 10 things to do. A fun trip is to take the subway to the Rainbow Bridge. Though negotiation of the subway can really be a thing. You use Google Maps to get the transfers and to learn which places to get off. The subway under Tokyo is a city unto itself. We spent only $80 for the two us to travel the subway all around for a week. Still be prepared to be confused as all the signs are not in English. Still everyone is really helpfull if you ask where to go. We took taxi-cabs too if it was the end of the day and we didn’t feel like doing the subway. The problem about the subway is knowing which direction the train is going on. Obviously taking it north when you want to go south could be an issue.
If you get adventurous...there are like 100 different brands of energy drinks. It’s scary as you may not know what the ingredients are. I’m into green tea really and that’s the place for bottles of green tea. One energy drink was this strange herb that was a fun try, but I don’t see myself drinking it again. Also some drinks look like energy drinks but are simply vitamins.
The Japanese are one of the most polite and sophisticated people I have ever encountered traveling. They are totally friendly and helpful to visitors.
But especially Sony will have a bunch of Japan only stuff. I picked up a cool MMCX cable at the flagship store. Ask for tax free at all your purchases, they staple the receipts on your passport and they account for it on your departure at the airport. A purchase under $50 at one single store does not count for the tax free credit.
Bic Camera also has some special headphones which are “Bic Camera Only” editions. And.... the editions are not at every Bic Camera store? I know about a lot of headphones, so it was funny to see these limited editions in strange color and model.
Tokyo is also a great place to buy a Seiko watch, as I went to some malls which had just about every model including the rare hard to find editions.
@Redcarmoose reminded me of all the vending machines Japan has, so I put some Japanese drink and ice cream vending machines next to the Japan eat and visit links on Post #4 for the convenience of @Rayzilla.
I got to Bic Camera around 8:20PM and they were supposed to close at 9PM. Lucky there was a customer that was going to buy something so I continued testing various model of Radius earphones until about 10:30PM. Then I was told that the store is closed. I was one of the last ones out and the entrance was all blocked up when I got down there.
I really like the sound of many of the Radius IEMs. Not the W line but the HP lines such as HP-NX100, HP-HHR11, HP-BKS21, etc. I will try to go to e earphone tomorrow or the day after.
After a long day of causing panic and chaos throughout Metro Tokyo, @Rayzilla and family have now retreated back into the ocean. Until another day, @Rayzilla , until another day...
Just in case you and the family need some quick traditional and current Japanese phrases, which you may need a pen/pencil and paper (listed down by difficulty, JP and EN switching occurrence, and time to learn):
Thanks for all the tips and links. About to take off now. I'll be staying in Akihabara, so hopefully I can go when the family is resting at the hotel. lol
Since you are in Akihabara, do really check out e-earphone, there is a wide range of IEMs/CIEMs/headphones etc brands for you to check out.
For non-audio related tourist advice do check out Harajuku, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro areas, as well as the amazing underground shopping district at Tokyo Metro Station.
Well that was only one section. My photographs posted maybe don’t show what Tokyo is really like. I just posted random photographs I took. Overall it is way cleaner than any place I have been. It’s a rollerblader paradise as the roads have no potholes and are silky smooth. That picture is from the outskirts of town. Tokyo has no airport so after flying in that picture was taken from a train inbound to the city.
They can have small personal vehicles which have 12 inch diameter tires due to the roads being so smooth. They are like electric tricycles with places mounted on the back to hold stuff. Bikes are allowed on the sidewalks and somehow never disturb anyone.
All and all it wasn’t like I thought it would be. It is my wife’s favorite place in the world.
It has become one of my favourite places to visit too! I love eating and good Japanese food is not cheap in Hong Kong. The same quality is much cheaper here than it is in Hong Kong. I wasn't looking for running shoes when I came here but my wife and kids were looking at shoes and so I started to look and found that the prices are cheaper than in Hong Kong as well. I was looking for a pair of Nike Air Max but they missed my size by 1 number only in European sizing.
Just in case you and the family need some quick traditional and current Japanese phrases, which you may need a pen/pencil and paper (listed down by difficulty, JP and EN switching occurrence, and time to learn):
Thanks for these videos but I am one of those that cannot pick up languages easy. I've been living in Hong Kong for almost 10 years now and my Cantonese still sucks pretty bad.
I'm trying to get a chance to go to e earphones but once again, we didn't get back to our hotel again until 7:50PM and it closed at 8PM. So then I was going to go to Yodabashi on my own but to be nice, I asked my wife if she wanted to go out with me and maybe have dessert. She said that she couldn't go until 9PM but they close at 10PM. But I could see she wasn't happy when I said that I'll meet her out there, so I waited. We didn't get there until about 9:20PM. We went up to the shoes department first to see if they had the Nike Air Max but they didn't. Then we went to the 4th floor where the AV stuff were. The service there totally sucked. I wanted to try out the new ATH-ADX5000, which was in a display cabinet. The service guy was useless. He pointed for me to go to the AT HP area but I already knew they didn't have one for display. So he checked the listening rack and of course there was none on it. Then it was obvious that he wasn't going to take the display one out for me to try. So then I asked him to let me try the SE846. Again he was pretty useless and finally took me to try it but there was only 10 minutes until closing. He took his time walking to the demo 846 and then gave it to me to listen to. Instead of taking me to a table or counter or anything, he just stood there with me and staring at me while I was trying it on. After a couple of minutes, I just said forget it and left. Then my wife told me that some guy told her it was closing and that she had to leave (she was waiting at a point when we got to the HP area). The we walked past the useless guy and she told me that was the guy that told her she has to leave. Anyway, it was a disappointing time at Yodabashi. Hopefully I will get to go to e earphone tomorrow or the day after.
Since you are in Akihabara, do really check out e-earphone, there is a wide range of IEMs/CIEMs/headphones etc brands for you to check out.
For non-audio related tourist advice do check out Harajuku, Shibuya, Shinjuku, Ikebukuro areas, as well as the amazing underground shopping district at Tokyo Metro Station.
Is there anywhere else other than Bic Camera (Akibahara), Yodabashi and e earphones for buying and testing out HPs and IEMs?
I went to Shibuya yesterday and there were a lot of places to shop. One area we went to used to be an old waterway, which dried up so they turned it into a street of shops. All kinds of name brands.
Today we went to shopping/walking in the Ueno train station area. Very cool and more down to earth type of shops. Almost Hong Kong, Mong Kok area like shopping. Very enjoyable shopping time and had dinner at a cooking on your own grill. I wasn't sure if it was Japanese or Korean because it was a lot like Korean BBQ.
Is there anywhere else other than Bic Camera (Akibahara), Yodabashi and e earphones for buying and testing out HPs and IEMs?
I went to Shibuya yesterday and there were a lot of places to shop. One area we went to used to be an old waterway, which dried up so they turned it into a street of shops. All kinds of name brands.
Today we went to shopping/walking in the Ueno train station area. Very cool and more down to earth type of shops. Almost Hong Kong, Mong Kok area like shopping. Very enjoyable shopping time and had dinner at a cooking on your own grill. I wasn't sure if it was Japanese or Korean because it was a lot like Korean BBQ.
It’s always a struggle to balance family and testing headphones. My wife is pretty easy going, but of course I’ve tested her limits with the maniac I truly am.
But there are actually electronic stores that sell headphones all over Tokyo. I’ll get you one or two more stores to maybe see tomorrow? But what worked for me was going to exciting places which we would go to anyway, which then either had a Bic Camera or some other 6 floor sales building with no windows. So it was like “Oh we’re here.........and they sell headphones”
Bic Camera has 14 stores or something. But you do have to find the right sales personal.......some were pretty helpful. I was looking at IEM cables and it was confusing, but they knew their stuff.
Another great place to go is Singapore. There you have Stereo. Also the Sony Flagship Store. Music Sanctuary is there too, but I haven’t been there to see it yet. I can’t recommend Stereo more, they have a great selection and are completely easy to deal with. Still I’ve never seen more headphones than Tokyo. And like I said, many of the Bic Camera stores had different inventory, with some having more inventory and some less.
Hopefully you’ll get more suggestions on places to go, from people here.
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