Retro Handheld Gaming in Japan 

I am a Japanese living in Japan, and I have noticed a real increase in the number of foreign tourists over the past few years. In Kyoto, where I live now, there are especially many, sometimes more than my own citizens, depending on the location and time of day. Most of us Japanese don't speak English or are not very good at it, so it can be difficult to communicate with them, but basically I don't think there are any bad people here, just shy. I hope everyone enjoys their stay in this country, even though it may be inconvenient at times. In Kyoto, there is a nice store called NINTENDO KYOTO that was recently opened. I went there the other day and it was a little smaller than OSAKA. The cherry blossoms are beautiful in the spring, so I hope everyone comes and enjoys themselves!

I live in Japan and it's actually pretty common to see an adult man on the train enjoying some retro games. I sometimes make conversation with them. It's really cool.

When retro handheld youtuber comes to handheld country it cant be bad

I am a Japanese who looks forward to watching them every time. I have seen more retro games in Japanese stores than before. The market price has also been established, so my hobby of treasure hunting to find cheap rare games has become more difficult. Tokyo is good, but I recommend you to visit the neighboring Saitama area, where there are many stores. I have a hard time buying imports here because of the weakness of the Japanese yen. If I were to travel with you, it would be odin2. My wife got angry at me for taking a game on a previous trip. This time, I'll bring the RGB30, which is less likely to be discovered. Thanks for all the fun videos! Please come back to Japan!

just bought my first retro handheld thanks to you.

you went to Nintendo's home turf, you're lucky to be alive o7

This video ended up really chill and pleasant. I'm glad you folks had a nice trip!

This video was awesome on all counts. I love the trip aspect, the learnings and the shopping. Really worth the watch! Thank you.

i went to japan in September and stayed for a month and I actually stayed at the Cocoone Ginza hotel at the tsukiji market for most of my trip other than staying at universal and man I traveled everywhere I could there and honestly I cried watching this because man what an alive place that is so unlike anywhere else. seeing you go to the places I was and also remembering my trip to mount fuji and going to FujiQ and all the experiences just makes me so home sick for a place I never thought I would be able to feel that way about. all the way down to them having tags on the trees to service and take care of the flora and taking the old trains and busses to outskirt towns seeing vegetation more intertwined rather than stripped back from the civilization. I told myself it would be a once in a lifetime trip but I will put in the work to make sure i get to go back. Sorry to gush and I did very much enjoy the video but I just wanted to say if you ever thought about visiting japan please do it will truly change your perspective on some things with the beautiful culture. Also I also ate at that wagyu stand and they are so nice and open 24/7 I went there at 2am and the owner sat with me and even provided me with lemons sours and extra a1 slices on the house. super kind and even though I spoke Japanese terribly was very nice and walked me through some of my pronunciation issues

I'm so happy for you! It really is awesome that you got to take some time off and relax!

What an amazing video! I plan to visit Japan next year. I will be using this video as a reference guide!!! Thank u so much!!! Glad u had fun!

Such an enjoyable video, and I liked the opening elements of where you went and what you saw, as well as the retro content.

Dude this video is absolutely awesome. I loved all of it.

Love all your videos, Russ. Your content is always remarkably thoughtful, thorough, and especially empathetic - to an extent that is very rare on the internet. Videos like these are fun to get a little peek into your very interesting personal life. I know I am not alone when I say I consider you a role model in many respects. All the best to you and your family!

LOVE the thumbnail. Must have felt good taking that

Great video Russ! Planning to go Japan in August so really enjoyed watching this.

Thank u Russ for this really cool video - love your blog and game style :)

Russ, that Gameboy Micro is in such great condition. The finish is just so polished. It almost looks like a jewel. Great video, love to watch these!

Nice change of pace Russ! Loved this video and now I need to visit Japan for sure! Hopefully someday!

You’ve become my go to channel for entertainment lol thanks for sharing your family adventure

Living the good life! Have a cool youtube channel that goes over some fun niche video game type of stuff, living in Hawaii, and traveling to Japan. Thanks for showing us what Japan was like for your trip, even being that crowded, still looked fun!

Great video, as always. I got back from Tokyo a few weeks ago. It's such a great place to explore.

Such a dang good video. Awesomely chill as always and such a rad look into the trip and gaming in and around Japan. Thanks for sharing man!

Man, I could watch you talk about stuff like this for hours. Maybe that's why I'm subscribed 😂😂

My wife and I are DYING to go to Japan! I'm trying to learn Japanese so I don't get completely lost. Really excited to see the video and check out the spots when we go!

Thoroughly enjoyed this video, Fantastic!

your friends are so cool, by far my favorite picks in this video were the gifts your friends gave you. glad you had a good time and man i need to get to japan sometime

I thoroughly enjoyed this video. I love your travel videos

That Japanese store, Book Off, with all the old games and hardware looked meticulously well-organized.

I worked in Shibuya for a few months once. I still get a pang of homesickness when I see it today. The train station exit across the street from the Hatchi was where I got off and then I had a 15 min walk into the residential section of Shibuya.

Thanks for the video Russ, I'm planning to visit Japan next year and it's always good to hear great things from fellow gamer

Man this video was awesome. Really enjoyed traveling vicariously with you.

Really cool to see the segment of "These are the devices I actually used when I had time to play games." Also cool that they weren't the devices you were expecting to use.

believe it or not, i looooved the japan videos. when the video started, the japan vid was cool and i was hoping to see more. thank you!

Been looking forward to this one. I love Russ' travel videos and I've always wanted to go to Japan

What an awesome experience. Enjoyed the video thoroughly. 👍🏼

Great content as always bruh. This is dope. I loved Japan when I was stationed there. Can’t wait to make it back over there.

I really enjoy these kind of videos. They give fresh takes on different ways to enjoy retro games while on trips as well as letting me see places that I had never been to before. You are on of the best retro console RU-vidrs out there mate. I hope you’ll give us a tour of Hawaii someday. I only see Hawaii from Like A Dragon Infinite Wealth.

Great video man! Thanks for sharing the tips

Awesome Video! Japan on top of my bucket list for travel destinations.

AWESOME video! Thanks!

Be honest, you Yuzu'd it up right in front of Ninty HQ

I wish I could go to Japan. I've always wanted to go and this is so cool. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us!

Hey Ross! I would love to watch more of your general trip to Japan, not only the gaming stuff. Please consider making a second video talking more about your personal experience, it would be awesome!

That wagyu beef skewer would have been $100 here, easily.

Thanks so much for sharing as I really enjoyed this video!!!😀😀😀

Great video! Love to see more this type of content.

Thank you for sharing!

'It was only a 6 hour flight' *takes a deep breath*

Looking forward to the gameboy micro review, as it's one of my favourite consoles. Glad you had a great trip, Russ! Cheers!

Going through some crappy events at the moment, and just want to thank Russ for running a positive and uplifting channel. Extremely relaxing and good way to zone out of real world issues. Thank you.

Thanks for sharing! Watching this somehow feels like unboxing christmas presents ^_^

Love the recap of you sharing your trip before jumping into the business

Awesome vid. I'm heading to Japan fairly soon and this was a cool watch

thanks for sharing this video! great you got to go for a little family trip! i hope to go to japan one day

Absolutely love this video

Thank you for the continued content! Still rockin the Retroid pocket 3 plus and Rog ally!

Love these travel videos!

This was a cool vid, think a lot of your fans would dig this kind of vid

Team Pandory are AWESOME!!! Thanks for giving them a shout-out!

Great vidéo as usual ! Cant wait to see the upgrade on your powkiddy rgb30, i had one since christmas (following your great review) and oh boy its been a blast to play with !!!

Jealous! I love ETLandxoxo and I wish I could meet her!! So glad you all got to hang out in Japan ❤

Great fun video, very neat, thank you!

Oh man. I was there the week before. Just missed you. Thanks for the awesome videos.

Went there 20 years ago...always wanted to head back there again. Such a great culture and history ❤I'm happy you had a great time 😊

Loved your video! I graduated high school at a DoD school in Japan, so that retro arcade looks very similar to the ones my buddies and I frequented. Sweet memories unlocked, thanks! We're on a 2.5 month trip in Europe right now and I only brought my modded Game Boy DMG with a flash cart. It's been fun focusing on games that I never played growing up, but also seem to go back to the nostalgic games from my childhood. Probably should have brought the GBC, but that's waiting for me when we get home!

I absolutely loved this video, was drooling over the super famicom box art...

I appreciate people who can prioritize an object's function over it's cosmetic condition. At some point in my life the idea that an object must be perfect or it can't be enjoyed took root and now I focus way too much on it. It's similar to first learning what a dead pixel is and then suddenly they are everywhere.

Awesome video, I'm on my way to Japan next week for the first time, and definitely will visit a few book/hard off locations.

I didn't know ETLand was based in Japan. So cool! I love her videos

the way you pronounce ramen as "raw men" 😂4:27 all love

Great video! Always wanted to go to Japan and visit those retro shops. Hope you can visit Akihabara and make a vid, I am really curious on that place. 3 things I definitely loved in your video: 1. You playing Castlevania Symphony of the Night, my most fave PS1 game (I am currently playing the Sega Saturn one that is patched in ENG, as it is the only version/port that I haven't completed) 2. Seeing a Wonderswan and Final Fantasy I (I played that on a Wonderswan emulator, also English patched) 3. Acquiring a Game Boy Micro (always wanted to add it to my collection!) Thanks for all your past, current and future vids, Russ!

So great that you got to meet with Juntaro!!!!

"RU-vid gaming content creators going to Japan" vlogs are some of my favorite content on this site no doubt.

Awesome video!

A decent sized wagyu skewer for $25 sounds like a steal tbh, especially considering how much Wagyu would go over over here in the States.

Nice to see an early video to start my morning! Also from Hawaii

That's nutty bringing that many handhelds on a trip.

Hey Russ been watching your channel for around a year now and love your dedication and attention to detail. Would you ever consider doing some Let’s Plays of some of your favourite games. I think your commentary over gameplay would work really well. Keep up the hard work

Man even if the review is short that color wonder swan will be cool to see and you picked up cool games for it.

Thanks Russ. Great video

What a good video. This is what a handheld yt channel should look like. Greetings!

What a great video 👍🏼

Hakone is one of the places that’s on my list to visit when I get the chance to make a trip to Japan, primarily for its influence on JDM culture and racing games such as the maximum tune and arcade stage series

Thanks for sharing. I still have my Black Gameboy Micro I bought from Target when they were released in November 2005 in Australia. I mainly used a 99 in 1 Cartridge that was full of NES games and mainly played Contra and 1942 on it. The system itself has a good weight to it. The Start and Select button light up blue. Just plugged it in to recharge, still has an awesome bright screen.

Great video! My wife and I are leaving for Japan next Friday. Can’t wait to eat some good food and do some retro game hunting

That blog post is incredibly wholesome

I continue living vicariously through you Russ lol . Wish I could go to Japan….

Its surprising some people have not seen a gameboy micro, especially for a retro gamer like yourself. but its not too late, enjoy your purchase and looking forward to your review. myself went on a short 3 day trip with family. had to pick a handheld, and brought only a 2ds with me, and only played it at night in the hotel. its quite a robust little machine, especially with a case and glass screen protector. didnt even bring a charger as it lasted the trip easily. its convenient to put it to sleep and wake, with a slider instead of opening a clamshell. i didnt hack it so brought 4 cartridges - 2 3ds and 2 ds. i also didnt have any digital purchases on it, but it came with built in new smb 2, which my son ended up playing. its amazing how old nintendo handhelds are still better in many situations than the current generation of handhelds from both major and smaller companies.

Thanks for this! This was very helpful. My family and I are going to Japan in May, and I am hoping to pick up some nintendo consoles (Famicom, Super famicom, N64, GameCube, maybe a Wii, maybe a Wii-U, and some handhelds). It was good to see the prices are not too crazy yet.

Awesome video. I’ve lived in Japan for twenty years now so it’s nice to one of my favorite you tubers come here :) I love Super Potato. Please come visit Kansai next time you are here 😊

This video is amazing! I was a military brat and spent 6 years between Yokota Airforce Base and Misawa Army Base. We used to take a pilgrimage to Yokosuka because their exchange had a better selection of American games and films. They had Saturn games months before Yokota had them for some reason. Our first system was that top loading famicom though, so this video is like nostalgia stacked on nostalgia.

I'm planning to go to Japan within the next 2 years, I'll be checking out some of these locations.

I loved this video❤

Coincidentally, I am heading to Nagoya in few weeks time, and some of your travel tips esp. shopping at Hard Off are very useful to me. Thanks for the vid!

I love going to Japan for all the games and retro stuff. Although this year when I was in Japan over Xmas and New Years, I ended up hunting out a Steam Deck OLED as I was in the country just at the right time for their first restock in store and got the OLED on Christmas Eve from Edion in Yokohama. As an Aussie, getting a 1 TB for AU$820 instead of AU$1499 was a real Christmas Miracle. I didn;t see a single out outside of that one store the entire two plus weeks I was there and I kept checking while searching for some Steam Deck Accessories. I also previously got a retro game console that plays cartridges and can rip roms from Carts directly (Although it does put DRM on the ROM so it can only be played on the console) But it was great to be able to play my old SNES carts like Terranigma, and start buying some more. Last trip I spent a fair bit of time outside of the large cities and ended up checking out all the Hard-Off stores in smaller places which had some pretty cool stuff. There is definitely still hold over demand in tourism for Japan with many people still doing their missed trips from 2021-2023 so it can be pretty hectic. Although I am not helping since I am alreadty planning on going abain next Sakura season.

Great video

Good choice with the GB Micro!! I was lucky to have brothers who had Gameboy Micros from when they launched. Great devices

Great content

Hey Russ! I saw your community post about a week ago on the games you bought and I was expecting only that amount to be showcased in the video. But damn did you get a HUGE haul or what!! 😂 Looking forward to the upcoming retrospective videos on all of these!