Hunting in Kashiwa

Hello everyone and welcome back to Tiro Finale for the third part of our Kashiwa anime guide. A few days back, we did a brief overview of the hobby and anime stores in the city of Kashiwa followed by a tour of Animate Kashiwa. Today, we will be going through the three other major hobby stores in the city starting with the popular re-selling store, lashinbang.

Together with the other hobby stores, lashinbang is located on the basement floor of Marui (0101). At first, it may be a little difficult to find as there are no signs or indication of these stores anywhere on the ground floor. Under normal circumstances, you would only find out about these shops if you were intentionally looking for them. Stumbling into these shops by accident while possible, is rather unlikely especially granted the secluded locale of the basement floor.

Kashiwa's Lashinbang may have been small but, it made sure to make the best of the space available cramming every last bit of shelf space efficiently with as much merchandise as possible. With Winter Wonder Festival 2018 just having ended, there was a special section dedicated to the exclusive figures sold during the event. Of course, these figures were sold at a very handsome premium as they would not be attainable otherwise. 

Close to the ground level are the home of the plush toys including a whole section of Love Live plushies featuring characters both from the original and Sunshine. They even had the rather rare Hello Kitty collaboration Nozomi selling for only 1,200 Yen. In fact, most of the plushies on sale were very affordable with only a few exceptions to the case here and there. 

As with every other hobby store, the first thing I always look for is the Madoka Magica section. This stores had it too albeit a considerably smaller selection with nothing of particular interest towards me. Many of the straps and can badges on sale were either from the recent Magiccraft or Magica Record Ichiban Kuji. 

Something I do not see very often when browsing hobby stores are Youjo Senki merchandise. So much so that I do not actually actively look out for them. It was by luck that I managed to spot this small section dedicated to Youjo Senki featuring several can badges and rubber straps.

Unfortunately, they were not very cheap with each Tanya rubber strap selling for 600 Yen. While it is not exorbitant as some of the Love Live Sunshine or Fate Series straps which were selling for over 1,000 Yen, it was more than I was comfortable with spending on Tanya straps at this very moment. Add that on to the fact that I had already purchased several Tanya straps previously and it meant that I was happy waiting for a little while more for her price to drop. 

Keeping my eyes on the ground throughout the way, I spotted these two plushies in the general plush toy section. The plush Dia at 800 Yen was a little below market value but, it was the plush Shinobu which really stood out the most. At 1,000 Yen, she was selling much below the market price where plush Shinobu's by Gift (the manufacturer) often go for 3,000 Yen and up in the re-seller's market. 

In fact, the lashinbang in Kashiwa's best items were indeed their plush toys which sold at prices much below market rates. Take for example this Rem and Ram plush pouches. While I would have loved to dive in to look for more steals, the staff then was keen on doing a little reorganization of the plush toys. So, I moved onto the figures instead.

Despite being a smaller store, the lashinbang in Kashiwa still offered a good selection of figures including some rather rare ones. One particular row which caught my eye was the trio of Eli figures featuring the Alter, Birthday Figure and Dancing Stars on Me version. All three very valuable Eli figures that fans would no doubt want in order to complete their collection.

With lashinbang done and dusted, it was time for me to pay a visit to the next store, Yellow Submarine. More than just anime goods, Yellow Submarine is also a very well respected and recognized hobby store.

In the case of the one in Kashiwa, this was probably one of the only places for many miles where one would be able to find high quality hobby and modelling goods. From model kits to tools and paints, Yellow Submarine had it all and they crammed it all into as little space as they could. 

The pictures may give the impression of space but, it was indeed much more cramped and narrow than it looks. For most of the rows, the width would only be able to accommodate a single person. Hence, clever movement is a must when navigating this store. 

Since space is at a premium, the model kits in Yellow Submarine are arranged with little separation between the different types of kits. Cars, tanks, planes and mecha were all separated accordingly but, with no clear partition between them as you would have seen in other Yellow Submarine stores. Not a problem as their selection certainly made up for it with a large variety of model kits on offer. 

Lastly, there was the third component of every Yellow Submarine stores which was the trading card section. I cannot confess to knowing much about the trading card scene but, Yellow Submarine certainly looked like it had everything in order here. 

Moving on to the third and final store, Village/Vanguard. From the outside, the store may look like a normal fashion and oddities store but, it is on the inside where you will be able to find the bevy of anime goods. 

It especially had a very, very large selection of Love Live merchandise. The most in Kashiwa without a doubt and the most I have seen concentrated in a single area for quite some time. This was certainly a very impressive sight to behold with Love Live merchandise spanning the entire two generations. There may not have been any figures but, it more than makes up for it with a huge selection of rubber straps, clear files and many other novelty goods.

With all three stores thoroughly explored, we have covered all the bases of Kashiwa's hobby scene. While it certainly does not hold a candle to Akiba's offerings or even the neighboring Chiba city's, Kashiwa is still a prime example of small hobby/anime caches which exist all around Japan to cater the needs of the majority who do not live in Tokyo's city center. 

I may have left Kashiwa empty handed but, I certainly learned much more than I had initially expected about this hobby. Of course, if you have any questions, do feel free to leave them in the comments section below. Until the next time, thank you so much for reading and have yourself a great day ahead!