Although Takadanobaba is in Shinjuku, I went to the central business district to find Magic the Gathering shops. Here I found three shops that were listed as selling MTG cards and have space for Friday Night Magic. Unfortunately it was Thursday. So unless any of the shops held a tournament on a Thursday during the midday, I wouldn’t be playing at their shop. Here’s what I found:
Mint Collectibles <- Wiz Link
So, the first shop I found was called Mint Collectibles. It’s a chain store than can be found in some parts of Japan. Their other stores offered more. This one was not so good as a Magic the Gathering store.
Mint Collectables isn’t a shop dedicated to just magic the gathering. They have other card games such as Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon and what not.
Of all the shops I went to in Japan I must say that Mint Collectables had the most organized card collection. They were neatly categorized in plastic trays and sorted by set, rarity, color, and in alphabetical order. Their stock was reasonable and focused mainly on standard. There were a few modern trays but not so much legacy stuff. From sifting through them, I found about 30% of the cards to be in English.
The featured cards were mostly standard and only cards that exceeded ¥200. There were also card recommendations from the staff. It was great to see Doom Blade in there. It wasn’t great that it cost ¥200. About half if these rares and mythics were English cards.
I talked to the staff a bit and found out that both of them didn’t play Magic. I asked them who gave the staff recommendations for the cards in the display. They told me they mostly came from the Internet. When taking a look around the shop I couldn’t find any evidence that a Friday Night Magics took place here. There were no tables or space for playing. I’m guessing for the events they clear out a space and put tables out. The wizards locator has listings of when the events take place.
Here’s a link to the Mint Collectibles, Shinuku website.
Game Space Kashiwagi <- Wiz Link
The second place I went to was some walk from Shinkuku Station but not so far away from Okubo Station. Unfortunately it wasn’t open. This would be one of the stores that I would have loved to visit on the Friday. It was small, located in an apartment block and had the super ‘Local’ atmosphere. Later I was to find out that Tomoharu Saito visits there every now and again for a draft or game night.
And what a logo for the shop. I couldn’t find any where on the net to find out what “Sekisyu” is. In all the cards I have seen across all the games, this is the first card that I have seen where the hero is holding a cigarette. 100% Awesomeness. (and why didn’t “Awesomeness” show up in the spell check?!) On their website they have the slogan “The way of the Kashiwagi”. This also warranted a web search. Apart from a big boobed Yuki Kashiwagi and an oak tree, again I couldn’t find anything.
So without further ado, here’s a photo of the door 🙂
I must note. If you go here, it is on the third floor and is in among other apartments. So being the paparazzi ninja I am, I propped myself up and took a photo through the window.
Looks great! It is an apartment. To the side there was a sink and cooking amenities. I can’t say I’ve seen those kind of facilities in any other gaming stores. They could learn a thing or two from this store.
Well, if you want to check it out, come at 8pm on a Friday night. If you do go, ask someone what Sekisyu and Kashiwagi means and relay it back to me. I’d love to know.
They have their events listed on their website. Go there.
MTG Zoo 