Shopping Guide

From Haropedia

1 Tour Goods
2 Hello!Project Official Stores
3 Memorabilia stores
4 Music stores
5 Major shopping districts

Tour Goods

See the Buying tour goods section in the concert guide on how to buy goods at a concert and where you can find lists of tour goods online.

Hello!Project Official Stores

The official Hello!Project Stores are besides concert tours the main source for official goods. How to find each one of them and how the unusual buying procedure works, is explained in this section.

See the dedicated Hello!Project Stores section for all details.

Memorabilia stores

Concerts and Hello!Project Official Shops are all well and good, if all you want to buy is the latest merchandise featuring current members of Hello!Project. If you want older stuff, however, you'll have to go elsewhere. Fortunately, there are places where you can stock up on second-hand Hello!Project memorabilia. Here are some stores that are particularly recommended:

TRIO2 - Tokyo (Nakano)
Utahime Dome - Tokyo (Nakano)
Gorakudoh - Tokyo (Harajuku)
Vintage - Tokyo (Jimbōchō)

Music stores

Navigating through a Japanese CD and DVD store can be a daunting task to someone who cannot read the language. If the jumble of kanji and kana bewilders you, simply ask the staff for whatever you're looking for, and they will be happy to help. If you don't speak Japanese, "[Name of artist] ga arimasu ka?" ("Do you have [name of artist]?") will do the job.

If you want to be more self-sufficient, here are a few pointers. Different stores organize their stock in different ways. It is usual for Japanese and non-Japanese artists to be filed in separate sections. These sections may be sub-divided according to genre. If that is the case, Hello!Project releases may be in a section labelled "J-Pop" or "Pops". Some stores even have special sections that contain nothing but Hello!Project.

Within these various sections, CDs and DVDs are generally filed alphabetically by artist. Sections containing nothing but Western artists will usually be ordered according to the Latin alphabet, as used in English and other European languages. Other sections, however, will be arranged according to the Gojūon ordering of the kana syllabaries. Hello!Project artists may be filed under the name of the individual unit or soloist, but they may also be filed under Morning Musume.

Many second-hand stores file high-priced and low-priced items in separate sections, so don't assume that the Morning Musume section that you've found is the only one. The cheapest product (generally ¥105 or less) often resides in bargain racks or bins that are in completely random order. If you have time to do so, searching through the bargain bins can be worthwhile, since they often contain out-of-print, first press, and limited edition releases, sometimes with the bonus photocards, stickers, etc. still inside.

Some important chain stores are: