Unfinished Business in Sapporo

Hello everyone and welcome back to Tiro Finale for our month long Sapporo Special. Thus far, we have covered both the tourist attractions as well as the hobby stores that Sapporo had to offer during my short three day visit to the icy northern peninsular of Japan. Aside for Mandarake Sapporo, of which I made a dedicated article for, there are also two prominent hobby stores located just one floor above it. Both these stores are located in the same building as Mandarake, Norbesa (you would not miss it, it is the one with the ferris wheel built into it, and they are Jungle and Surugaya Specialty Store. For those of you who are familiar with hobby stores in Japan, you would certainly be no stranger to these names too as they are one of the bigger names in the industry. 

Jungle, a hybrid hobby store focusing on both re-selling and brand new hobby goods is one that we have covered before in my previous visit to Sapporo. While admittedly I did not see the charm in Jungle's Akihabara and Tokyo branches, my visit to Jungle in Sapporo was a completely different story with me walking out with some rather rare finds. Not to mention, their pricing is very reasonable too especially with such stiff competition from the likes of Mandarake right below. 

Because Jungle is located one floor above Mandarake, a mistake many new visitors often make is overlooking the floor above after visiting Mandarake. And this can be quite a big miss too as, even after all this time, Jungle still remains to be a very impressive hobby store. 

If you are not into figures all that much, do not worry as Jungle has you covered on that front too with goods from all facets of the hobby. To top it all off, everything is neatly arranged and organized according to series and figure types (prize to premium). Just like its competitor below, everything in Jungle was very well spaced and, more importantly, very well priced. It may only be a fraction of the size of Mandarake but, that is certainly no excuse to miss out on this great hobby store!

Which brings me to the title of this very article with its mention of "unfinished business". With only three days in Sapporo to spend, this meant I was only able to spend one evening in Norbesa. And by one evening, I actually mean 3 hours before having to move on to my next destination. Despite the tight window of opportunity, I was keen to take in as much as I could!

Unfortunately, the time I have allotted beforehand was not sufficient for me to visit Surugaya's in Sapporo coming partly down to the fact that I had not been aware of a branch popping up here in Norbesa. Trust me when I say it was a massive disappointment as Surugaya's in Tokyo had always been a hobby store I always looked forward too! Nevertheless, this did give me something important to look forth to in my next visit to Sapporo! 

Now before I forget, there are two important things I must note before closing this piece off. The first, is to not let the language barrier be a deterrent as many of these stores actually have English written guides (!!) and friendly staff who are always willing to assist you. Secondly, Norbesa may host the three major hobby stores in Sapporo but, if literature is your thing, there is also the neighboring Animate and Tora no Ana which you should not miss! And that pretty much wraps up all I have to cover for today. Yes, it is most unfortunate that time was not on my side but, looking on the bright side, I now have more incentive to return to Sapporo! With that, thank you so much for reading and have yourself a wonderful day ahead!