I’m making a trip to Tokyo in two weeks and am hoping to get a recommendation on yoyo (or kendama) shops that have an actual retail location to visit. I remember either Spingear or Rewind had a booth somewhere, but don’t remember which one it was. Also, are there any advantages to buying in yen? I’m hoping that YYR and the Japanese brands would be more affordable when purchased locally. Any insights appreciated!
Generally speaking things are more expensive in Japan and not less expensive but with yoyos that might be different, but I don’t think so (but I’ve totally been wrong before & for your same it would be awesome if I were). The exchange rate is horrible. But I think you will have a blast and I hope it’s the time of your life!
Have fun… both spingear and rewind have stores, I’m not sure either is actually in tokyo.
Yoyos from them are certainly -not- cheaper (in fact many will be way more expensive), but it’d be cool to stop by anyway… and you can probably find some stuff that isn’t as easy to find here.
Kyle
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Be sure to stock up on candy, food and drink. Japan has the best of all.
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Ask this guy:
http://yoyoexpert.com/forums/index.php?action=profile;u=857
As far as I know he moved to Japan and has the DL on the yoyo scene there.
Rewind’s in Nagoya, a little farther. The closest you can get is Spingear which is in the Akihabara district in Tokyo.
But hey, even though the prices may not be favorable to you there are still yoyos you can only get in Japan. So try new things!
Sorry for reviving this thread, but Im in Japan right now and I just found this cool spingear shop that was mentioned here and I bought a regular freehand zero from them since Id been meaning to try out freehand stuff. I also saw some more expensive free hand zeros that had different colors and picture designs.
I didnt know about this place before but it sounds like when searching the forum for “spingear” that there are spingear yoyos? Does spingear sell modded yoyos or something? Is there anything cool here that I should pick up? I saw a bunch of cheap Coca Cola yoyos, Hyper Raiders (I heard this is the old Japanese version of the Raider?), and a bunch of other stuff. They sell Kendamas too which Ive been meaning to also try out.
The big thing that spingear sells is S.KON related stuff but it’s normally pretty spendy
There’s also spingear yomega/duncan/yoyojam products along with select other spingear branded throws if you look around
Ah I see thanks. What exactly is a spingear branded yoyo is it just the aesthetics or is it actually different?
A spingear branded yoyo is generally a stock yoyo such as a yomega or duncan with the spingear logo on it. It’s a fairly common thing among stores. Dave’s Skill Toys used to do it all the time.
p.s. Before you get your undies in a bunch over the mention of another store, it’s been closed for a number of years.
Won’t be different on most occasions
The s.kon spingear fhz’s are sold at their store though and those are definitely different. I think it’s $120 for an S.kon zero though and then it’ll come with spingear caps and a neat box. Play is very unique though and it’s just a really neat addition to your collection.
There’s also NB painted stuff which is just really pretty and expensive and his zero’s are probly the most popular thing he does but they’re pretty limited.
Ah I see, thanks for the info. I’m still new to yo-yoing so maybe I’ll go for some of that more expensive stuff some time in the future. Spingear is pretty cool, I went there again today and there was a bunch of people playing with yo-yos and I ended up staying there pretty much the whole day. The guy who runs Spingear, Taka was also there.