A few Japan/Japanese questions

[lam47]

I will stick this all in one post rather than make a mess with a few.

Firstly my lucky friends are going to Japan in a couple of months.
They have tickets to the Studio Ghibli museum and a few other things planned. Is there anything that you would recommend they do or try whilst in Japan?
For selfish reasons are there any places you would recommend they shop. Can any Cave bits and bobs be bought in high street shops in Japan?
They will be staying in Tokyo and I am very jealous.

Also I have started to learn Japanese with the Rosetta Stone PC application. It seems pretty good so far though I have only just started.
It uses a clever system or letting you work out what words mean rather than make you memorize them. It seems to be working for me.
It even has a mode that asks you to speak some Japanese and then you can compare the wave form with that of the system. Its not as good as having a tutor of course but its pretty cool.
Anyway the odd thing is the written part of the course asks you to learn to write in Roman characters. Could anyone recommend a good starting point for learning to read and write Japanese properly?

Its a big endeavour for me as I have not tried to learn another language before. However I do love to learn
Thanks all.
x

[gsl]

There's this amazing ramen shop in Kichijouji, maybe 20 minutes' walk tops from the Ghibli museum.  I could possibly make a stab at retracing my footsteps in person, but there's no way I can remember it off the top of my head.  Super delicious, though.  Down some side-alley, super long lines...

I realize there's probably a billion places in Tokyo you could describe that way, and that this is not at all helpful.

[lam47]

No thats good to know! They have been using google street map to see where they would like to go

[gsl]

If they're going to be out that direction, there's of course the Nakano Broadway, which is like a neat mini-Akihabara.  Tokyo residents might know of better places, but I often ran across Cave soundtracks in the Liberty stores and of course Super Potato in Akihabara (of course, you'll be paying a premium; it's almost always cheaper to get them from people here or on shmups).

I'm not sure if they still have them at the Shinjuku location or if everything's moved to the Takadanobaba one, but the Mikado arcade always had a bunch of (mostly INH) superplay sets; I got Mushihimesama: The Secret Lover for 5,000 when I was there, and at the time they had a bunch of the DOJ Black Label DVD sets as well.  Any good Sofmap with a used game section might also have a little area for used game-related DVDs; found the Ikaruga Appreciate for a cool 1,200 yen there.

But like I said, Tokyo folks probably have more up-to-date info.

[adverse]

I found a lot of CAVE stuff in Den-den town Osaka, but have found nearly nothing in Akihabara.  The latter is just too picked over to be of any use IMO.

[Atstroboy]

Hi,

I am going to Japan for the first time in April this year. Any recommendations regarding game centers besides Taito HEY?

Another question, would you recommend to buy PCB in stores like G-Front (that I will visit no matter what) or is it cheaper to buy online?

Thanks!