Since I had been so successful finding a Nikoli puzzle book yesterday, I decided to try my luck at finding an Otamotone within one of Japan's sprawling technology stores. After being tipped off by a year-old Reddit thread, I first looked in Yodobashi Multimedia Akiba, a massive 9-story venue dedicated to all types of electronics.
Toys were all stuffed onto the 6th floor, and after roaming the aisles for 30 minutes I finally managed to track down a not-extremely-busy-looking store attendant to ask where they kept the Otamatones. He pointed me to an aisle, but mentioned they might be sold out. I still couldn't find any, and so I gave up on Yodobashi.
The second store I tried was BIC Camera Yurakucho, which is basically the exact same thing as Yodobashi, just 3 km south.
It was easier finding a non-stressed store attendant this time, but I was told that they were also sold out. It was then I realized that I might be arriving in Japan a year too late to have any chance of finding Otamatone stocked on store shelves. Thoroughly defeated, I went back to the capsule hotel for the night.
But now that I have an internet connection again, it seems that instead of lacking the popularity to be stocked on store shelves, as I had thought after visiting BIC Camera, they may be too popular to be kept in stock for long. A video released only 5 months ago demonstrates a new variety of Otamatone that was just released (Otamatone Techno). I find it hard to believe that they would expend the effort to design a new Otamatone a year after the original was revealed only to run out of the demand to sell them in stores five months later! And so my hunt for the Otamatone continues...
I end this post with my favorite of all Otamatone videos, a stupidly beautiful rendering of Schubert's Ave Maria.
Heya Phil, i'm also currently looking for the Otamatone, do you still remember which isle does the staff point you at? Is it the toys isle?
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