Xandria's Quick & Dirty Guide to Buying BL/YAOI in Ikebukuro
Introduction
There are other, better guides out there, but I thought this pictorial might be useful for some. I'll expand this later, but I thought I'd throw this up for now. Photos taken in September 2006 during my visit to Tokyo with Pira. There are other shops in Ikebukoro (i.e. Toranoana), but I'll get into that later ;-)
Map of Ikebukuro & Brief Intro
This is a map of Ikebukuro from the Tokyo City Atlas -- no one should visit or live in Tokyo without this bible. It's all you need to get around. Really. As you can see I've marked the most important things (in brief -- see below pictures for more details):
Faint Yellow Line: The faint yellow line from Ikebukuro Station to Sunshine City is the path we walked daily. It's not THAT far really. You want Exit 35 from Ikebukuro Station. You'll walk down a main street which is rich and fun with all sorts of joy, shops, and I'll talk more about that later.
Shushine City Hotel: While not the cheapest accommodation, it is the most convenient if you plan on extensive shopping in Ikebukuro and the Western side of Tokyo (Shinjuku, Shibuya, Harajuku etc.). Cheap and great food too! All the conveniences are here and I plan on creating a "how to visit Tokyo for minimal expense" some day. I digress. Great big hotel, wonderful service, convenient!
Animate Etc.: This is often considered the main drag of Otome Road, and while it doesn't look like much, bargains can be found at Lashinbang and K-Books.
Mandarake: The Mandarake filled with BL and YAOI doujinshi and manga. But not the only one ;-)
K-Books: Do not forget to go a little further and visit BOTH K-Books up the road here. One is for doujinshi and has two floors and the other is manga (mixed, but still lots of BL/YAOI).
Post Office: My love for this post office knows no limits. Bought too much? Is it 4 a.m. and you can't sleep? Pack some books and ship them off because this post office is open 24/7. In fact, I only went once during normal office hours. After hours entry is through the doors and to the left. You may have to ring for service.
The Details
All right, let's get cracking with the photos to help you get oriented.
From this angle, your back is to the Sunshine City Hotel. To the left is the region where the Red Arrow in the Map points to Animate Etc., and to the right is the region where the Red Arrow in the Map points to Mandarake. Oriented? Good. Let's go left.
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Here's a wide view of Animate Etc. The one block long Otome Road. Cross the road and veer left.
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K-Books Premium. This is for collector cards etc. Keep moving towards Animate.
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K-Books here has a bit of everything. Costumes, Character Goods. Bin diving here was a favourite pastime and always something to find.
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Lashinbang was great fun too. Lots more Character Goods to be found and manga at decent prices.
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Animate. It's Animate. What can I say? Many floors of Otaku and Fujoshi heaven to explore. Find the latest and greatest here. All new, all full prices. All right, time to back track to the corner between K-Books Premium and Mandarake.
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So here is Mandarake. Cross the road and prepare to descend to the depths.
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Bishounen sometimes included ;-)
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Down the stairs you go. So... Mandarake Ikebukuro. As I mentioned before, I thought Shibuya's Mandarake was better for BL/YAOI, but this place was convenient. I loved going through the doujinshi and even their smaller selection of manga. But mostly doujinshi. Time to climb back up those stairs, and head in the opposite direction of Animate Etc. and towards K-Books.
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A block away you will find this. To the left and up the stairs you'll find two floors of blissful doujinshi. You too can spend days here and not emerge until the shop closes late at night. But don't forget the other K-Books shop, past the Family Mart...
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That's right... past the Family Mart, keep going...
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There it is! A small yet stuffed manga shop with a decent selection of BL/YAOI manga at decent prices.
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Again, I'll post more about this later, but a few essentials. Use the medium sized boxes depicted here for shipping books home. They fit perfectly (more pictures forthcoming). A wheeled bag to cart your purchases around is handy. And to the far left you'll see a metal wheeled cart (found at the neighbouring Seiyu for next to nothing to buy) will hold a few boxes of your precious load to the Post Office.
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Your right hand side is to the Sunshine City Hotel, your back is to Mandarake and you are facing the direction of the Post Office (just ahead and to the left).
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Happy Posting!
More later.
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