Tokyo Cameras And Electronic Equipment. Shinjuku is Tokyo's prime centre for cameras . Yodobashi Camera in Nishi-Shinjuku usually offers decent reductions and stocks the broadest range, and claims to be the world's largest camera shop (with a smaller branch in Ueno), while Sakuraya also gets plenty of recommendations. You'll find Sakuraya in Ikebukuro as well, but here the market is dominated by BIC Camera, which is renowned for its cheap prices; BIC stores are scattered all over Higashi-Ikebukuro, but their main outlet lies immediately north of the station on Meiji-dori. Alternatively, over on the west side of Ikebukuro Station, Camera Kimura has a solid reputation for new and used cameras. Professional photographers, meanwhile, swear by Shimizu Camera in the backstreets of Ginza, northeast of the Sukiyabashi crossing.
Akihabara boasts Tokyo's biggest concentration of stores selling electronic goods . It can be bewildering at first, with the big stores split into several outlets - each one a megastore of up to seven floors apiece - selling overlapping product ranges. Fortunately, they're mostly concentrated along a small stretch of Chuo-dori and its side streets, all within walking distance of Akihabara Station. Of the big stores, Laox is the best place to start: prices are reasonable, they have a well-established duty-free section with English-speaking staff, and their nine stores sell everything from pocket calculators to plasma-vision TVs. Further north on Chuo-dori, T-Zone Minami carries a good range of English-language software and games. Nowadays you'll also find plenty of discount stores in Shinjuku, Shibuya and Ikebukuro offering competitive, sometimes even cheaper prices, so it's important to shop around and, though you might not get it, always ask for a discount.