Den Den Town Nipponbashi the Otaku Haven in Osaka

Den Den Town Nippombashi the Otaku Haven in Osaka

If there is Akihabara in Tokyo, then there is Den Den Town in Osaka. The actual name of the place is called Nipponbashi and it is located near (walking distance) Namba and the busy Dotonburi.  Hence, if you are looking for manga, toys (such as Transformers, Gundam, Macross, Gashapons and Figurines including the sexy ones) and also cosplay items, Den Den Town is the best place for you.

Usual scene of Den Den Town

How to go to Nipponbashi via train and Subway:

There is no secret the cheapest transportation in Osaka is via train or subway. Walking is the preferred choice if you near the area but train or subway is always the best.

If you are traveling in Osaka city by itself, we recommend you to take the daily pass ticket which you can purchase at the train or subway station.

The options are as follows:

* Kintetsu Namba Line

* Osaka Municipal Subway (Nipponbashi Station)

o Sakaisuji Line (K17)

o Sennichimae Line (S17)

Since we took the Sennichimae Line from Namba station, we could offer some tips on how to get there from Nipponbashi Station (Sennichimae Line).

Get off at Nipponbashi line via Sennichimae Line and look for Exit 5.

After exiting on Exit 5 turn right and keep on walking until you reach Den Den Town. It should be a 5 min walk.

There are dozens of shops in Den Den Town but we were told that it is much smaller than Akihibara of Tokyo. Thus, we won’t want to compare since this is the best otaku place in Osaka. Our motive was to enjoy and to shop for our favourite collector items!

Where to get Gundam in Den Den Town Nipponbashi Osaka

Looking for your favourite old or new Gundam, check out the recommended toy shop below as how we experienced it.

Kids Land

The two storey toy shop is the dreamland for Gundam lovers. They have sale on old item and clear stock items. Sadly we cannot take pictures within any toy shops in Den Den Town. They also offer other toys but they have the most Gundam.

Opening Hours:

11 am to 8 pm.

Hobby Shop (next to HeroGangu.com)

This seven storey toy shop sells mostly new items and you can hunt your toys here. There is a lift and a directory on the toys category on each floor.

Some of the display Macross toys.

Anime figurines are so easy to find here.

The ground floor offers collector items on sale on their respective spaces in transparent boxes. Collectors will rent the boxes and put their items on sale. Customers will come and purchase their item and the sales will go back to the collector with commission taken. This is an interesting rental and selling concept of toys also available in Akihabara.

Opening Hours:

11 am to 8 pm

Where to get Transformers in Den Den Town Nipponbashi Osaka

We are hardcore fan of vintage Transformers and we have been collecting it for years. We have dozens of vintage Transformers toys in our toy room and we were looking to add more to our collections in Den Den Town. Please check out the recommended toy shops as how we experienced it.

Jungle Hobby Shop

This two storey toy shop is a must visit for Transformers collectors. As most toy shops don’t allow any photography, we took the risk of taking photos for the sake of our readers. Jungle Hobby Shop sells new and vintage toys which is more appealing to us.

Car Robots anyone?

Look at the vintage Transformers G1!!

Can you spot Transformers Browning and Transformers G1 Trypticon!!

We bought a few vintage Transformers toys here as we thought it is cheaper than the other shops. Look for the Italian guy in the shop, he can speak fluent English. Trust us, he can explain much more on the condition and the description of the toys. The Transformers section is on the Ground Floor.

Opening Hours:

11 am to 7 pm

HeroGangu

We were recommended here by transformers blog and we were slightly disappointed by the vintage Transformers stock here. Don’t get us wrong, the two storey toy shop was the most popular toy shops in general in Den Den Town. HeroGangu offer both new and vintage toys selections. However most of the vintage Transformers toys are as expensive as on eBay.com.

Limited Edition Transformers G1 Green Convoy, I was caught taking pictures here so no more pictures of this shop.
They had some of the unique TF toys but the pricing kept us away. However, they also offer other interesting toys that make this toy shop a worth to visit and a mention. The Transformers section is on the First Floor.

Opening Hours:

12pm (noon) to 7 pm

Other toy shops worth to visit in Den Den Town
Get’s 5

This rental and selling toy shop is located at the back of Kids Land, please print the picture and look for the shop. Most of the address printed on their business card is on Japanese so do print out the pictures and ask around. Most Japanese are friendly and some will actually bring you there.

Sexy figurines!!

This is also another collectors rental items on sale. Limited edition or vintage toys can be found here depends on your luck!

Opening Hours:

11 am to 8 pm

There are also dozens of other toy shops that we didn’t venture and promote in Den Den Town. We hope that if you are in Den Den Town, please feedback to us with more tips so we can share it here. Our motive for this blogpost is to create awareness for Den Den Town Nipponbashi as the Otaku haven in Osaka. We ourselves are avid vintage Transformers collectors for years and our visit to Den Den Town had added a few more vintage toys to our collections. We hope with this information, we can help other “otaku” lovers and toys collectors to get their dream toys in Osaka.

The above tips on toy shops in Den Den Town are based on our experience in Den Den Town.

We will be posting other interesting finds in Den Den Town soon. Thank you for reading, we hope you enjoy the tips and comments are always welcomed!