Hallelujah!

So I went around Japan for a bit looking for some shops where I could either buy or play Magic The Gathering. The places I looked were in Tokyo; Akihabara, Shinjuku, Shibuya and Takadanobaba. I also went to Osaka; Nara and Shigino. It was my little magic tour of the two big cities in Japan.

Now I know there are more and possibly greater stores out there but I just didn’t get the chance to visit them due to the time frame. What I was looking for mostly were cards and atmosphere. Finding shops in the big cities is no easy task when 1. Japanese is not my native language 2. I don’t have a working phone and 3. it’s averaging 33 degrees celsius with 87 percent humidity at night.

The first place I went to was Card Shop Hareruya. If you’re just looking for directions, scroll down to the bottom for details. In a previous post I mentioned this shop’s name was a play on the English word Hallelujah and the Japanese word Sunny Shop. That’s what first bought on interest. I bought a duel deck from here. Divine Vs Demonic:

for ¥8000 or roughly US$80. For me this was exciting. It was something I thought, did not exist any more. This shop also sells singles online which is relatively rare in Japan. By the way, that was a link to their shop. The package arrived the next day in the outbacks. It was also Sunday. Amazing. I still haven’t opened. Sign of a true geek.

I had to go there. I lived in Takadanobaba for around a year and this place was under my nose the whole time. I would have walked past it every day, twice. Unfortunately I wasn’t into Magic back then. Revisiting the place was nothing less than nostalgic and filled with great and heavy memories.

So upon entering the place I can make an educated guess that there are frequenters here that play competitively. Upon closer inspection I noticed that this store has Magic The Gathering cards and accessories, and nothing else. This store is completely and utterly dedicated to Magic the Gathering. Jackpot!

There are some lovely cards in that cabinet. You’ll have to go there to see it for yourself. I was met by one of the shop staff that asked if I wanted to be entered into tonight’s FNM. It wasn’t what I planned but what the hey. I had a stinky Boros deck and ¥500 to spare so I signed up.

At the start of the match the games-man lays numbers on the tables then sticks the match-ups on the wall for everyone to see. All you have to do is find your name and number then find the matching number on the table and sit. This was startlingly simple as when travelling through Canada, most shops would call out everyone’s names and their opponents then there’d be ten minutes of chop sui name yelling and musical chairs. Not here. It was super organised and everyone knew what they were doing, even me (for a change). The announcer then announces details of the match much like an announcer would at a notched down boxing match then everyone bows and wishes everyone to ‘do well’ (yoroshiku onegaishimasu). Wow, I felt like I was at school again. It was starting to get exciting.

My first match up was noticeably more nervous than I was. I lost quite completely. He played what seemed to be a Grixis Vampires deck. I won the second round due to a fantastic draw of three Wojec Halberdiers two Muggings, a Plains and a mountain which is most likely the best the deck could offer. But that would be the only round I’d win that night. The second guy used a Blood Artist  sacrificing combo. And the third guy was a ‘Bye’. For the uninitiated – that is when there is an odd number of players and you’re randomly put on standby for the match. It counts as a win though so not all is lost.

At the end of the night, the prizes were announced and I won a pack of cards. Amazing. He even gave me a pack of cards printed in English. Later I opened them up to discover a Boros Reckoner and a Boros Charm in the same pack! That was icing on the cake for a fun night. From that, I have anointed Card Shop Hareruya to be the best Magic the Gathering shop in in Japan. Well at least until I visit more. At a cafe, I took a photo of my winnings:

Maybe you noticed like I did that this pull is suspiciously geared for the Boros family. Arrows of Justice, Boros Elite, Boros Charm, Boros Reckoner, a foily Sunhome Guildmage and to top with a Boros Token… did they have the foresight to predict that I was to come to this shop randomly this night and to tailor order this pack especially for me because my Boros deck sucks and needs a boost? Either way, this shop rocks. It definitely gets my thumbs up. Go there if you’re in the area. They hold tournaments every day and post the timetable outside the door and here.

As of 2013, Hareruya is the biggest Magic the Gathering dealer in Japan. They have an enormous  tournament centre not far from their main shop. Because they deal with only Magic the Gathering and they are not a franchise, they are never too busy to help you. Oh what a wonderful place to be. Hareruya!