Yamada Denki LABI — Local services in Tokyo

How do you say “mega-fail” in Japanese? It should probably be revised as “Concept Labi”. Ironically the concept of this store is great - floors of the latest electronics targeted at foreigners and offering tax-free payments and accepting Bitcoin. This store should be completely amazing! But it absolutely sucks. For starters it’s a ghost town of bored salespeople who outnumber customers at a ratio of about 10:1, but still seemingly find ways to avoid you. And for a place targeting foreigners, they don’t sell overseas models, for example the Sony Overseas range. So if you buy a Sony Camera there, you better speak Japanese as no English for you! And for a shop that claims to accept Bitcoin, you guessed it, they don’t really. As it turns out you HAVE to use the BitFlyer app to pay in Bitcoin, which is ridiculous for 2 reasons: 1) islands of centralized payments is exactly what Bitcoin is supposed to NOT be, and 2) you have to be Japanese to download the BitFlyer iOS app to start with and then to sign up you need a Japanese address. So yeah, Yamada Denki Concept Labi is a Mega-Fail. It won’t last long as they can’t be selling much, so it will be replaced with something else in short order. Head to Bic Camera if you want to buy electronics with Bitcoin too, they accept real Bitcoin payments from any wallet, just as Satoshi...

April 7th

I really needed an international travel adapter for power. We were in a time crunch before our next train ride, from Tokyo Station to Kyoto, and still had to have lunch before. Quickly saw this place across the street. It's like 15+ floors of electronics. There is English signage to help direct you where you need to go. The staff is super efficient and friendly. I think within 15 minutes I found what I needed. Highly recommended, conveniently well placed next to Tokyo Station.

Thanks again.

P.S. I'm really here to share...

I love to shop here for the location and they have much less people at the store compared to Akihabara with the same price. Some staffs here are very helpful, but not all of them. It’s always better to check their collections before visiting as it’s a fairly large place. I went to buy a headset on the 5th floor and the staff was very knowledgeable who tried all the models available at the store. I appreciate the detail explanations of spec I was looking for. My choice is either this store or Bic Camera...