This past January I was lucky enough to have some time off work and made the most of it by visiting Japan. I chose the country for two main reasons, to experience Japanese culture, and to check out the amazing hobby shops. For all the talk about “the hobby is dying” I’d argue that Japan alone could self sustain the hobby, the demand here is insane. Every shop big and small was packed with all ages, It’s such a night and day difference with North America.
To be clear, this post is not going to be an exhaustive guide to the various shops in the country. There are far better guides detailing the pros and cons of each shop along with videos on YouTube of people visiting them. Instead this post will serve a a general overview of the modelling aspect of the trip and my take on how things turned out.
To start off, I knew that near the top of my priority list was to visit the Tamiya headquarters in Shizuoka. Tamiya has a small visitors section that requires you to book in advance. Shizuoka is a relatively (compared to Tokyo) small city about a hour and half Shinkansen ride outside of Tokyo and is the home of Tamiya’s main headquarters. I’m not afraid to admit this visit meant a lot to me. I’ve been building Tamiya kits for over ten years now and to be able to visit the inception point carries a certain weight. In terms of what to see there are to main gallery rooms. The first is dedicated to historical Tamiya kits going back years and years to the 1960’s. Of particular note was a section dedicated to remembering Sheperd Paine which caught me by surprise. I grew up reading about Shep’s dioramas and this was the first time I’d ever been able to see them first hand. I can’t think of a higher honour for a modeller than having a entire section dedicated to you in Tamiya’s official showroom and if anybody deserves it, it’s him.
The other Tamiya showroom is dedicated to Tamiya’s current product line and showcases much more modern products. It’s smaller and less interesting but it’s definitely worth mentioning. Tamiya also has various vehicles on display and something that I found particularly interesting is that they have an early lathe that would have been used to make the metal molds for plastic injection, very cool! The headquarters has a small gift shop that’s worth checking out and I picked up a shirt along with some official Tamiya stickers.
While I really enjoyed my visit to Shizuoka I won’t lie the trip absolutely wiped me out. I had booked my train ticket for pretty late in the morning and did some sightseeing prior to leaving. Looking back now this was a mistake. The Tamiya building is deceptively far the train station in Shizuoka and the city does not have as good pedestrian infrastructure as Tokyo. I was totally wiped out after getting back to the hotel in Tokyo that evening.
Sticking with the Tamiya theme, next on the list was the Tamiya Plamodel Factory which is sort of Tamiya’s factory store in Tokyo. While the gift shop in Shizuoka is good, it doesn’t have the same selection as a dedicated hobby store which Plamodel is. The next day I visited quite a few stores including: Yellow Submarine in Akihabara Radio Kaikan, Volks Hobby Yodobashi Camera, Leonardo ET and LG, and Tam Tam Hobby.
Yellow Submarine Radio Kaikan
Yellow submarine is one of the more well known stores in the Tokyo area and was fairly impressive. I’ll preface this review with the fact that they don’t have a super extensive selection of kits but are definitely well stocked. I was on the lookout for a very specific kit when I came to Japan (Gecko Models 1/35 LCA in British service) and by pure chance it was in the very first row I walked down. Tool selection is good and I picked up some scribing stencils and chisels as well. Good decal selection as well.
Volks Radio Kaikan
There is a Volks hobby store in the same building as Yellow submarine and as the retailer of Zoukei-Mura kits they have excellent selection of them available. I fully expected to be able to pickup their new Fw-190 in person but they didn’t have any for sale and no marketing material on this kit was up either. Considering that the pre-order period of this kit was spring of last year and that they supposedly started to send them to customers in October of 2023 I was very surprised to not find any for sale. Visit wasn’t a complete wash however, there are a lot of neat builds on display and a good tool selection as well. I picked up a 1/700 Akagi and an accompanying photo-etched set.
Yodobashi Camera
To start, Yodobashi Camera is a big department store of which one section of one floor is dedicated to scale models. Despite this, Yodobashi Camera has the most extensive selection of tools I have ever seen. The entire back wall of the store is filled with a wide variety of modelling tools that I didn’t know I needed until now. Yodobashi Camera is a cut above the other stores because in addition to the great tool selection, the kit selection is fantastic as well with a lot of brands available for purchase. My favourite store in Tokyo by far.
Leonardo ET and LG
I don’t know what the history is between these two stores but supposedly they come from the same person (people?). While the prior mentions were big box stores, Leonardo ET and LG exemplify the mom-and-pop shop. Very small area to move around in and absolutely packed to the ceiling with kits. I liked the atmosphere and selection but to be honest with both of them, it’s kind of too difficult to move about and see the entirety of the selection available.
Tam Tam Hobby
This one is close to the Leonardos’ and besides that was utterly forgettable. Some Tamiya selection and a few tools but nothing of substance here, won’t visit again on a repeat visit to Japan.
Hobby Land Osaka
And last but certainly not least is Hobby Land in Osaka. Out of all the hobby stores I saw in Japan Hobby Land was by far my favourite and did the most to bankrupt me. The store is not large by any means, but has a *insane* selection of aftermarket accessories. Virtually every AM brand is represented in this store. A huge quantity of Eduard and Aires resin sets were available along with Voyager, Legend, T-rex and many other AFV detail sets were also available. Hobby Land does not stock these brands in limited numbers either with a large number of products per brand available. Also available was a large number of reference books for modelling as well as modelling how-to books showcasing various builds. Really great selection of books to choose from and I picked up a few.
Pricing
before my trip I was having issues nailing down how much exactly to expect kits to go for. Typically people will say that kits in Japan are X or Y percent cheaper but no actual prices. It’s dependent on the store you visit as well and boxes with a little damage will be discounted. Here’s what I picked up and what I paid on my trip:
- Tamiya 1/48 F-14A Tomcat (Late) – 8,223 JPY / 56.76 USD / 76.17 CAD
- Tamiya 1/35 S35 Somua – 3,553 JPY / 24.53 USD / 32.91 CAD
- Tamiya 1/35 German Infantry Set (Late WW2) – 1,496 JPY / 10.33 USD / 13.82 CAD
- Dragon 1/35 Panther G Late – 5,800 JPY / 40.04 USD / 53.59 CAD
- Dragon 1/35 Tiger I “131” Early – 5,500 JPY / 37.97 USD / 50.82 CAD
- Gecko Models 1/35 British landing craft – 8,900 JPY / 61.44 USD / 82.24 CAD
- Tasca/Asuka model M4A1 Sherman – 5,000 JPY / 33.70 USD / 45.37 CAD
Overall I’m pretty happy with what the kits cost and I’m happy I went with some extra room in my suitcase. I was particularly satisfied with the selection and prices of the Dragon Armor kits as here in Canada they can easily go for $100+ especially for the German stuff.
Nomad Models 