Might be heading off to the land of the rising sun for a couple of days with work next week – anybody know what shopping for bikes bits is like in Japan (Tokyo)?

I'm kind of hoping that somebody can confirm that it's possible to pick up Shimano stuff dirt cheap ….

(a chap can dream!)

not gonna be in osaka at all are you ? ive been after a part for my hozan (based in japan) wheel truing stand but cant get one to uk at all for some reason. its part number c-334 and is about a tenner for them
http://www.hozan.co.jp/cycle_e/catalog/wheel/C-330.htm
id cross your palm with silver 😉

its a long way from tokyo tho lol

Hmmm … Tokyo to Osaka looks like about 400km? I'll only be in Japan for a day or so, but if I get grounded because of Icelandic volcano ash I'll see what I can do …. 😉

aye its a big trek lol 😉

I went to Tokyo a few years back and had a little look at the bike stuff and found it pretty expensive.

Having said that i didn't find any 'proper' bike shops, just a reasonable department in a John Lewis type of place.

It's a pretty insular place so unless you speak the lingo i reckon you'd be hard pushed to find a website in english or a proper bike shop anywhere in the centre as it'd be very expensive rent wise for a bike shop.

Having said that, i could, of course, be completely wrong. 🙂

Great place though, worlds apart from the other places i've visited.

nothing cheap at all, even m952 xtr was at full retail in the tokyo shops I found, new stuff was all more expensive than here, overheads are crazy in japanese cities so it's not a cheap place to buy many things

sorry for the slight hijack, but anyone got any similar knowledge of hong kong? – stopping over there for a couple of days on the way back from aus in mid-august.

Best bet is ask a local as they're generally very willing to help. Pick someone who looks under the age of 25 though, as most of the kids speak excellent English, and in my experience the older folk tend to shy away from 'gaijin' regardless of how fluent your Japanese is.

i was in tokyo a while back… there's a street of sports shops in jimbocho (quite near the imperial palace) but as others have commented, it's not so cheap… nothing's cheap in japan!
they do have some nice ss stuff you won't find in europe, though

Thanks for that, guys. Was really hoping to pick up a nice Shimano groupset for next to nothing … I've been told before that I'm a hopeless optimist!