> the electronics stores of Tokyo, particularly Yodobashi Camera and Yamada Denki And not only Tokyo. Yodobashi has a couple of dozen stores throughout Japan,

> the electronics stores of Tokyo, particularly Yodobashi Camera and Yamada Denki And not only Tokyo. Yodobashi has a couple of dozen stores throughout Japan, some of them, such as Yokohama and Umeda (Osaka), as big as the flagship in Akihabara. They're a good source for household appliances, too. I live in Yokohama, and I shop at Yodobashi not for the prices but for the service: More than once a salesperson has saved me a lot of trouble by confirming that whatever I bought (a monitor, a hard drive, a cable) was actually compatible with the computer I was using. The staff know their products, and they are willing to give up sales in order to keep from selling people something they can't use. That makes me a more loyal customer. Yodobashi seems to have a lot of Chinese-speaking staff these days, which is understandable considering the large number of Chinese tourists in Japan in recent years. Probably some of the staff speak English, too, though I've never asked.