it's friday and nearing the end of the long week of work (nevermind the 2hr report i composed at home last night to bail us out from losing a large client). i figured i deserved a long lunch and trip to mitsuwa to spend more money on unnecessary things. headed straight into Asahiya Bookstore first to check on some Japanese CDs i wanted to order. while they checked the prices i scanned the mags determining which ones i'd come back to buy later. got the CD info and placed an order for one of them. left for j1toy, the toy store across from Asahiya. i noticed on the way into the bookstore that j1toy had rearranged the exterior of the store so now the entrance is at the far end near the west doors into Mitsuwa.

where the entrance used to be (facing East) is now the complete home for both DDR games. sigh. so i scan the few display cases that still face outward before heading into the store. the store has been completely rearranged yet again and there is a lot more space inside to get around the store. there's a whole new corner cavity for gashapon toys but sadly none i was interested in. i perused the remainder of the store. same ole shit: tons of Gundam kits and related items. i was mainly looking for the new Microman AcroLady figures since they told me the last time i was there that they would be getting them. sure enough, they had 'em all right. for 19 bucks a piece. WTF? the $16 microman batman figs i could deal with since that's close to the going rate online but $19 for the AcroLadies? jesus. my cost to get 1 shipped from Japan from HLJ is $14.70 SHIPPED!

I looked thru all the displays now facing inside the store hoping to find that really cool reasonably priced item to drop cash on... but nothing spurred any interest from me. the only things i really liked are all overpriced. my disinterest got the better of me and walked out empty handed. that toy store just isn't the place it once was not so many years ago. went back to Asahiya and dropped $36 on mags (New Type Live: Cutie Honey cover, Figure King, and Cure: VisRock mag). they sell multi-region DVD players there and i have my eye on the panny S-27 - but i forgot to ask the price. dammit. supposedly it's a $70 player but who knows how much Asahiya marks it up since they overcharge for everything else in their store (Panny canada lists it at $200 CAD).

left there to grab some sushi for lunch and walked into the grocery area to find myself pleasantly surprised (finally!) during my trip. Apparently the grocery store has decided to bulk up on gashapon and trading figures and the like. was only a few months ago when it appeared they were dissolving that whole section due to the increased competition w/J1toy. But now they are back on board w/a slew of fine little knickknacks. besides much of the usual fare you'd expect to see, they have the mini-CD anime trading discs. these are pretty cool but i passed for now. instead i picked up a Cutie Honey trading figure (shaking a few boxes trying to figure out which might have 1 of the 2 CH figs in the assortment). I look forward to seeing the movie whenever the bootleg DVD hits. I also threw 6 Pokemon series 3 figures in my basket. with my luck i'll probably get only 2 new ones and end up w/triples of each. oh yeah, there was a plush Bulbasaur in another boxed Pokemon series that i grabbed.

checked out, paying my $40 for the toys, sushi and green tea then returned to the office feeling a little better about having dropped $76 on pretty much nothing. that said i'm still disheartened by the direction the toy store has taken. it seems to be catering more and more to the rich suburban gaijin kids that have bottomless pockets of quarters to spend. ugh. thank hell for the internet.