I'm on my way to London!

C

Churchy99

Adventurer
Right! In the easter holidays I'm going to London and I've obviously got some things to go and see do etc but I'd like to know what there is in terms of:

1) Video games shops (good prices or merch shops)
2) Anime/manga shops (again it can include merchandise)
3) Any good Japanese restaurants (probably a ramen bar would be best!)
If you guys could tell me that would be great!

Also are there any good markets which sell a bit of everything and does Sega world even exist anymore?

Thanks in advance!
 
let's see:

anime/manga shops:
Tokyo toys(anime merch,anime dvds,manga etc.)
here's the directions i got from the site :
TokyoToys.com Trocadero
13 Coventry St
London
W1D 7DH

Opening times:

Mon Friday:
12pm ~ 6pm

Saturday:
11am ~ 8pm

Sunday:
12pm ~ 7pm

Travel Guide:

By Train: Get off at Charing Cross Station. The it's less than 10mins walk via Leicester Square.

By Tube: Get off at Piccadilly Circus Underground. Then follow walkway leading directly inside the Trocadero Center. Once inside ride on escalator up to our shop.

Forbidden planet(anime merch,anime dvds,manga etc.)
directions from site (including map link!):
View Map

179 Shaftesbury Ave
London
WC2H 8JR


japan centre(import books and mags etc.)
directions from site:
Japan Centre
212-213 Piccadilly
London
W1J 9HX
UK


Japan Centre is situated at 212-213 Piccadilly in the heart of London's West End. It is an easily accessible 30 seconds walk away from Piccadilly Circus underground station. In addition to the Tube, many buses stop directly outside the entrance to Japan Centre.




theres probably more though and sega world closed down sorry :(

hope that helps^_^(now with directions!^_^)
 
oh I forgot to ask in what areas they are in! I can look up the addresses but I need to know what areas of London they are in please sorry!!
 
PIccadilly Circus.

Come out of the tube station and you'll be on one of 4 sides of the street. If you look for TROCADERO signs, follow that way and you'll see an HMV. Go through the door just to the right and there'll be a long hall with shops on both ends. Escalator at the back takes you to a huge arcade. FUNLAND, used to be Sega World. There's also Tokyo Toys in the back of the center on the middle floor.

For Japan Centre, look for the new Virgin store formerly Tower (Picadilly Circus as well). It's down the left road when looking at the entrance, next to a restaurant, you can't miss it.

There's also Misato's which is a gorgeous tiny Japanese restaurant that's very cheap. HUGE Bento boxes and everything! It's tiny but delicious. This is hard to explain to get to, if your interested send me a PM and I'll look for proper directions to this place for you :)
 
The new Virgin is now a Zavvi I recently discovered, just to be confusing.

Also Japan Centre has gone downhill and is mostly food now :( there's an excellent little used bookshop though in Soho. It's well disguised as a laundrette. There's a JP supermarket along the same road. I think it was Brewer Street, but what you do is at Piccadilly Circus, stand with your back to Zavvi then go left onto Shaftesbury Avenue (this is where Tokyo Toys' entrance is). Hug the left side and take a left down one of the shady side streets full of dodgy video shops and you will intersect with a perpendicular road full of cafes and more of the aforementioned video shops. Not far along it you should see Adanami Shobo from the manga in the window. It sells some CDs and games too but is tiny and all in Japanese.

Another good place near Forbidden Planet is Gosh Comics (opposite the British Museum) and just around the corner from there is an excellent okonomiyaki restaurant. Not cheap but relaxed and a great way to sample it. http://www.abeno.co.uk/eating/index.html is their website. I like the om-soba myself :D

Finally, Orbital have opened up a manga specialist store with toys and cosplay items. http://www.orbitalcomics.com/ you want their manga shop; the others have relocated all their JP goods to it so they're a bit boring now. Unless you like toys or comics in which case they'll be worth a look as well.

All of these places so far are within walking distance. If you start at Piccadilly Circus then wander down Shaftesbury Avenue you should pass close by all the places mentioned, as well as a bunch of other bookshops.

R
 
I got confoozed, of course it's Zavvi now :p

I may have to check out some of those places you've said, never seen them (and I'm a alley walker) :p LOL j/k

Ain't been to Japan Centre for 6 months. Remember they cleared out their CD's, they were way overpriced and expanded their magazine and manga section.
 
Churchy99 said:
...
3) Any good Japanese restaurants (probably a ramen bar would be best!)
If you guys could tell me that would be great!
...
Click to expand...

Yumm, a ramen-ya... how I miss that stuff :) I've been to wagamama, but to be honest with you, I didn't like it at all... Small portions and no rasengan for the dough :(
 
Rather than making my own thread, I thought a good old thread resurrection would be a better idea.
So chaps, i'm off to London for two weeks. While most of the time has already been booked with science tours & lectures (London International Youth Science Forum if anyone has heard of it) I plan to avail of whatever awesomeness I can find during the weekend).

I've been to Forbidden Planet on Shaftsbury before and loved it.
Zin5ki has suggested Orbital & a store on Brewer Street, and on reading I'm great things about Orbital.
Adanami Shobo, Asahiya Shoten, Japan Centre, Gosh!, Advanced Console Entertainment, Computer Exchange, Namco Arcade I could use some feedback on.

Anywhere else I should be looking for or just got any tips?
Evidently looking for manga, anime, figures, retro & arcade games.
+ good Japanese restaurant (we have Wagamama in Ireland too, perhaps somewhere more traditional?)

Hopefully thank you in advance :D
 
Adanami Shobu is that Dry Cleaning shop, I believe. It used to have another shop in Colindale but I don't know if it's still there and the one in Brewer Street was always better anyway.

I was just typing a long reply then realised my old one was in this thread and still applies!

You'll want to swing by Tokyo Toys, which is in the Trocadero. You can't really miss it - it's the floor above HMV, near the cinema. It's expensive but fun to check out.

Gosh is ok but tiny. It's opposite the British Museum and quite easy to find (there's a Batman sign sticking out of it). Japan Centre is also worth a look as it has a lot of tasty snacks, including melonpan, yakisobapan, nikuman and Totoro bread. It's almost entirely food nowadays.

On sit down food my personal recommendation is once again Abeno, an okonomiyaki restaurant very close to Gosh (linked in last post). It has a good mix of traditional Japanese dishes and you don't find proper, cooked-at-your-table okonomiyaki in the UK every day! They'll let you make it yourself if you ask and sometimes have comedic seasonal specials. When we went there during some football event (World Cup or something, I dunno) we got a gigantic rectangular okonomiyaki which was decorated like a football pitch.

R
 
Rui said:
Adanami Shobu is that Dry Cleaning shop, I believe. It used to have another shop in Colindale but I don't know if it's still there and the one in Brewer Street was always better anyway.
Click to expand...
I forgot to mention it's in the middle of the Red Light District, in case that's an issue.

Japan Centre has some anime merchandise and magazines on the bottom floor. One can also dine there.

A while back, TokyoToys relocated within the Trocadero. They are no longer by the escalator and cyber café, but are now in a corner. Still easy to find though.
 
chaos said:
Churchy99 said:
...
3) Any good Japanese restaurants (probably a ramen bar would be best!)
If you guys could tell me that would be great!
...
Click to expand...

Yumm, a ramen-ya... how I miss that stuff :) I've been to wagamama, but to be honest with you, I didn't like it at all... Small portions and no rasengan for the dough :(
Click to expand...

got one of those where i live never tried it in there though, theres a good bakers in China town that does chicken buns and fried curry buns

|3 Hmmm
 
If you have a good amount of money, feeling "adventurous" and enjoy collecting framed/nonframed work, there's a place near the Angel tube station which sells lots of Japanese prints (and even authentic Anime Cells).

www.JapaneseGallery.co.uk <-- That's their website (with directions), but it's best to have a proper look around. Their typical prices can be VERY expensive, but if you ask them to look downstairs, they will have storeage boxes full of bargain stuff too (from £10-100).

Tiz just a suggestion, but I hope it helps.
 
Any suggestion is a welcome one.
Not sure about buying something framed though, luggage weight & how intact it'd be. Might get something without a frame though.
Thank ye :)
 
Hey guys churchy here again! I always pop in here when I can! Saw that this was being revived and I just went to London again last week for a NIN gig but went anime/manga/video game shopping too and found some extra places that might be of some use to you. Also I'll give you some feedback on the places you mentioned as since I first made this thread I have been to these places many times now.

One thing to keep in mind is that most of the best places for anime/manga/video games or anything Japanese is usually located in the city centre around the Leicester Sqaure, Picadilly Circus, Tottenham Court Road, Covent Garden area. Also because we are talking anime/manga goods and in London be prepared for a bit of a sting on the wallet sometimes!

Shops

Japan Centre is a really great store. They mainly sell Japanese food from light snacks and sweets (yes they do pocky and calpico) to proper meals and cooking ingredients, japanese cutlery on the ground floor. Then in the basement they sell a variety of books, manga and comics (in Japanese). But they do sell some English books on Japanese culture and Learning Japanese.

There are three main CEX (computer exchange) branches in london but only two are for games and other media. There is one in Tottenham Court Road and one in Rathbone Place. Both of them are very near eachother. However I recommned the one in Rathbone Place much more as they have more room, greater stock and a better anime selection in the basement. Plus it feels a bit more personal because it feels like a proper 90's store.

Oh just a warning with Tokyo Toys. They are moving shop soon (in about the next week or two) but they will still have a store in London (possibly another area in the Trocodero or somwhere near like Covent Garden when I talked to the owner) so if you find it isn't there don't be too surprised!

As said about Adanami shobo its located in the red light district and the banner at the top says they are a laundrette. They only sell things in Japanese that includes manga, CDs, some video games (even Snes last time I looked) but they also sell posters as well that are either rare promos or posters with rare artwork. Last time I picked up a nice Tenchi poster.

I know there is a hello kitty shop in London near the covent garden area if you're interested in that but I'm not sure where it is specifically.

Arcades

If you want an arcade to go to then there is a small but really good one next door to the CEX on goodge street. I found this completely by accident and it is AWESOME. It has some brand new and some good retro games. When you see it it looks like a small one with only about 5 machines but there are some stairs that lead down into a basement where the main games are. It also wasn't very busy when I went as well.
Games Include:
- Tekken 6
- Street Fighter (2, III Third Strike, IV)
- King of Fighters (The new number XII is in there and by the looks of it they hold tournaments on it!)
- Blazblue (the new fighter from the makers of Guilty Gear)
- Metal Slug (I know they definately have 2 and 3)
- Other old school
- A multi arcade machine with the likes of old school games like Ms Pacman

I actually preferred this to the big arcades in the Trocodero as it was not very busy so I could play the great games without having to wait hours and there was a great selection of old and new games for such a small arcade.

If you need maps to these places then there is a good guide here with links to maps.
http://www.otakunews.com/article.php?story=1457

Restaurants

Mentioned earlier in the thread someone gave the name of a place called Misato's. I have been several times and it is a really nice and cheap japanese restaurant with some good food in big helpings but beware it can get a bit crowded! If you want directions just pm me!

As a final note. You will probably find many Japanese restaurants just walking around London (I've found quite a few before) and you might find a few surprise shops just by walking around London so you might get lucky.

Anyway I hope you have an enjoyable trip and find some places that you like!

Pm me if you want any more info
 
Animetal Have a stall in Camden market. There are also a number of anime related things in some of the other stalls
Thinking along these line suggested at the expo a London meet up, and wander round anime shops. If people like the idea let me know.
 
I'd definitely try to attend a meet-up if it happened between now & the twelfth.

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