Buried treasure in underground Shibuya
Mandarake is a fantastic wonderland of vintage toys, anime, video games, jpop goodies and more. Its located deep underground (5 flights of stairs) which is probably why it has enough space to quite possibly be the largest toy store in Tokyo.
Even if you’re not a huge vintage toy or anime fan, its worth a visit to explore aisle upon aisle of merchandise. For collectible toy fans and hobbyists, you can easily spend an entire afternoon here while emptying your wallet.
Which Mandarake stores do you avoid? I don’t shop from Umeda or Utsu because their descriptions are usually all in Japanese and translating is annoying to do. I have heard their English isn’t very good either. Perhaps they are the slowest of all the branches? I have no personal experience with them yet so I cannot answer. Also I am sad with Nakano they are supposed to have a deal with DHL so I assumed when I ordered a clock recently the shipping wouldn’t be so bad but bam slammed with a yen shipping fee (yen total) @_@ I did not question it and just paid it. My boyfriend also ordered from them – a lunch box + a prize figure from JJBA and he got a yen DHL shipping fee (what the hell?). He ended up going EMS which was cheaper. Kinda sad how much it cost, but it shipped today (the d) and will arrive tomorrow. Most of my DHL shipment prices have been relatively cheap (below yen) I am not sure what caused this price increase. So which ones are your favorite stores to buy from? Sorry if I do not reply to you personally, but I really do appreciate all the comments you leave! Thank you for your time.