Otaku Shopping in London - Japan Centre
A long overdue update to the otaku shopping in London series… This time we will be looking at London’s Japan Centre.
The Japan Centre has a large array of Japanese merchandise on offer, including: food, books, manga, cutlery, and lots of other little bits and pieces. As far as I can tell it is the best all-around store for Japanese goods in London.
To find the centre head to Piccadilly Circus, and then walk down Piccadilly road. This is what the front of the store looks like:
There are two entrances, one takes you into a Japanese restaurant, and the other takes you into the store itself. I haven’t been in the restaurant itself, but here is a look through the front doors:
Once inside the store, you will find a load of cups, plates, bowls, etc, for sale:
Around the corner there is a little food market, with a variety of noodles, dried foods, confectionery etc, and of course lots of Pocky!
On the next floor down is a bookshop, and also a small travel agent in which you can arrange trips to Japan:
The bookshop is decently sized (well, considering London is not in Japan), and has material for native speakers as well as gaijin who are interested in learning the language/absorbing Japanese culture.
Nihongo study books:
Manga:
If you are looking for Japanese lessons or a penpal then the notice board in the bookshop could be helpful:
From a previous occasion I can remember there also being a part of the centre selling music CDs, although unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of it this time.
More otaku shopping in London articles soon.. hopefully :P.
The restaurant is a nice -but pricey- place with a sushi stand at the front. For super cheap sushi, check downstairs for yoshino’s (i think its called that) although its hella packed during lunchtime -sometimes find myself queuing up the stairs and out the the main restaurant itself!. Sushi’s made on the spot and then prepacked, not absolute quality but for the price (and considering its london) pretty dang good. theres also a lil japanese convenience store, for all your cup-noodle requirements!
Cool, I will try and check Yoshino’s out when I am next at the Japan Centre. Any idea where there are some other good Japanese restaurants in London? A friend took me to Koi on Gloucester Road which was excellent, although it is also really expensive so I doubt I will be going there very often.
one thing missing: figures! XD
looks like heaven……pricy heaven I assume
I went there last year, for some reason it looks alot bigger in those pictures.
I can remember hanging around the outside not sure if it was the place i was looking for, a japanese couple passed and asked me if this was ‘that Japanese store’ … I said ”uhh .. not sure … lets investigate!” so after passing the restaurant part we popped up the stairs.
I was really tempted to buy an Idol magazine … but i was kind of put off because there was a japanese girl working the till … and i didnt want to come across as a big pervert.
Although I’ll be going into london soon I wont hesitate to pop in again.
I think they might have moved things around a bit since last year, hence why it might look bigger now. I could just be confused and be thinking of a totally different store though.
@5
true otaku will buy idol material no matter what
Uwahh…I wish I lived in London. It’s so tough in America. I could never tell anyone I like anime, or they’ll make fun of me like they do the other known otaku. There is no such Japanese store where I live. I find myself sneaking into bookstores and hiding my face in a book when someone passes by the manga shelves. There are no noticeboards either where I could find a penpal or Japanese lessons. I’m trying to learn the language on my own, and it’s very difficult.