Out in the sticks : where the big shops are!

If you`re a fan of the Japanese video game TV show ”Game Center CX”, you may have seen the episode where Arino visits a huge used goods warehouse outside of Tokyo, known as "Chiba Kanteidan".

What you may not know is that Kanteidan is a chain of stores located countrywide and Chiba is a very large area. Chiba alone has over 10 of these warehouses!

The only problem is that they are out in the sticks, probably due to land prices.

Kanteidans are not only located in the middle of nowhere, but can be located on busy highways a fair walk from the train station., 

My 1st trip out to a Kanteidan was a slightly disastrous affair due to gradually worsening weather, and anyone else with the urge to go visit one of these places should heed my warning NOT to go in bad weather! 



My target for the day was TOUGANE KANTEIDAN.

Closest station : Naruto.
Journey time from Tokyo, about 3 Hrs.



I had just started researching the locations of these warehousesI decided to just go with the notes I had made and go to the first on on my list, which wasn't the one seen on GCCX, but from an old blog post I'd seen. They seemed to have a decent selection of stuff so I went with that, although it was a long ways out.

Sadly I didn`t actually check the surrounding area on Google maps, this is a move would regret.



As I took the epic train ride out of Tokyo, the grey skies got progressively worse, and the scenery became more and more sparse..

Arriving at my destination, there was nothing around the area of the train station, being the tiny little place it was - and no taxis.

Not to mention the fact that a tiny town out in the countryside on a national holiday had no buses running either, another lesson learned.
 


After 10 mins of walking in freezing cold rain with my inadequate umbrella blowing inside out every few steps I already wanted to die give up, but it was only 30 Mins walk according to Google maps.

Sadly the weather got worse, the wind from across Tokyo bay got stronger and my legs started to become numb , but I soldiered on.

At last I spotted it, 45 minutes up a windy wet freeway with no pavement, 2 large warehouses, one for games, CDs and figures, the other for instruments and clothes..
 
The selection was rather good, but there was a surprising lack of hardware.

2 sorry looking PC Engines, 2 Dreamcasts, and a few white Sega saturns, all unboxed, slightly tatty, but all reasonably priced at around 1500 yen each.

Games wise they had a healthy selection of PS2 and PS3titles, but nothing of note that you couldn't find in any local used game shop in Tokyo , the PCE and Megadrive shelves were stocked with pretty good amount of stuff, yet suspiciously, no loose PCE cards, MD carts or game soundtracks.

MD shelf


PCE shelf


As a pricing example, a decent title such as GUN DEC, unboxed on the famicom was priced at 1200 yen.


 


SuperFamicom carts were in equal abundance, and there were shrinkwrapped blind bundles of 8 available, the only game you could see was the one at the front.

One thing I noticed was there was no "premium" items (the REALLY expensive stuff in display cases) as shown on GCCX.

If you wanted a power adapter for a SuperFamicom , PCE etc. , there were bins full, but pads and multitaps and such were very thin on the ground.

Looking outside, the freezing rain was now sleat. And I saw a grim vision of me being stuck here overnight should the weather get worse.
I walked to the next station, which was a tiny bit closer than the one Google maps suggested I get off at.

Soaking wet, freezing cold and now starting to snow heavily, I started the train journey back to the city, the scenery had changed from wet and brown to this..
 


I think I timed my escape just right..

For the hardcore, Kanteidans are a great spot to gig for electrical goods, games and toys, but for a vacation to Japan, maybe not the best idea unless you are truly commited, well researched and in good weather!

I`ll report on some more easily done Kanteidan trips next time!