Senshutei is a vintage toy store all the way out in a city called Omiya. It's about 25km outside of Tokyo center, and you can get there by taking the Keihin-Tohoku Line put of Tokyo station. It's a long trip, so make the most of it and visit Omiya Koen while you are there.
When you exit the Omiya Station, take the East exit, and then basically look right across the busy intersection and under the scaffolding, there's Senshutei.
Senshutei (洗愁亭) literally means "pavilion for washing away sorrows" and named after first coffee shop in Nihonbashi in 1886.
This store is amazing. Outside is a grand picture window crammed full of vintage toys, most of them pretty worn. Outside the shop is a display case, full of all sorts of toys. Mostly cheap kids toys, but some chogokin.
Inside the shop is sensory overload. Toys are everywhere, and the shop is musty and dusty. Toys are piled high on the floor. Toys are hung from the ceiling. Move a pile of toys aside and guess what? More toys.
The floor is ancient wood paneling, dark and dirty with age. The proprietor sits halfway into the left on a rickety chair. He smiles. You smile too.
You move one thing and toys come crashing down around you. You peek through the clutter and realize there is another room that you (or anyone) cannot get into. There just seems to be no physical way, as toys and boxes are piled waist high. A significant portion of those boxes are Popy chogokin.
Towards the back of the store are display cases, but they are buried in toys. I asked to get something out of one and it was a 30-minute procedure to pull it out.
The man here today is not actually the owner, but his brother. Each time I inquire about a piece, he has to make a call and find out how much it costs. I buy a ton of stuff and he gives a generous discount. I'm sure he was taken back at first by this gaijin, but now that I'm droppin' benjamins he's more than happy to show me around and let me take pictures. He even offers to take one of me.
Words cannot express how much of a treasure this place is. You may not find your holy grail here, as a lot of the choice items seem to be picked clean long ago. But you will find a connection to a long-gone era. This shop is Nostalgia at its best. Dirty, dusty, moldy, disorganized - glorious.
洗愁亭
address:
埼玉県さいたま市大門町1-21
Phone: 048-641-0151
Open: 12-8, closed Mondays
Comments
8 comments postedThat's not to say that you're holy grail isn't there. You just can't find it. That place is insane. Esteemed toy dealer Giovanni Vaciago first brought me there in December of 2006 and the place just blew my mind. Seriously, when you leave you worry that you really did miss something great, that was just buried somewhere. But you still gotta go if you ever get the chance..
"This must be settled the way nature intended....with a vicious, bloody fight!"
Onyx Blackman
Principal, Flatpoint High
How long it takes from Tokyo? It's very very interesting... maybe I should go there sometimes.
Btw there's a Kochikame chogokin... !
I have these recurring dreams where I find little stores full of japanese toys that I want, some Ive never seen, some Ive always wanted and I end up going crazy in the store... I grab boxes greedily and spend more money than I have... then I wake up and groan and get upset because its not real. Fortunately, these stores DO exist as I have now seen. Thanks!, now I only need to get on a plane
Amazing, I can see a lot of my wanted stuffs from the glances of those small pictures. There must be a lot in there that I might be looking for. How much do they let the things go? Like for example the puny Dyna Red in your 7th Picture next to the Kamen Rider Black figure. I hope I got it right by calling it Dyna Red. It might be the release of the Sentai Hero Series item back in the 80s if I am right. I wonder how much they sell for those.
Is it just me or does the Star Wars Episode I stuff stick out like a sore thumb. Kind of like when I go to TRU later today to grab a preview Soundwave,if I were to see a couple Mazingers sitting there.
One of these days, I have gotta take a trip to Japan...
With all that stuff, was it hard to walk around?
love it.
that is what it is all about for me.
I look at that place and can just imagine myself arriving first thing in the morning, slowly digging through everything, hours and hours, pushing boxes and piles of random crap off to either side and then being told I had to leave more than 3/4 of the stuff there still unchecked, walking out wondering what if, what might still be there hiding....