Furu Anime Panikku

I only had half a day in Bangkok, and I made full use of it. In about 4 hours, I embarked on a search for shops that would be of interest to fellow otakus who might be making a trip over there. My post is by no means comprehensive, but merely a rough guide on what you can expect.

For those not sure where the main shopping area in Bangkok is, it’s along the train line of National Stadium to Chit Lom. That’s basically Bangkok’s Orchard Road.

Map of Bangkok’s Train Lines

Anyway, what I did was to start off at National Stadium, sweeping down all the way to Chit Lom. Although the distance of 2 train stations might seem far, it actually isn’t. An averagely paced stroll could take between 20-25 minutes.

When you step out of the National Stadium BTS station, the first thing which would catch your eye would be this.

Mah BoonKrong Shopping Centre

If you don’t plan to shop around and just want the otaku stuff, head to the top level. There’s quite a concentration of otaku shops there.

This shop sells cheap chirashii （mini japanese movie posters)

Sorry for the crappy dark photos. The shop owners were anything but friendly, and it seemed like taking photos of their shops would warrant a death sentence. I couldn’t use any flash as it alert them of my actions. With my ninja skills, I snapped a few photos and headed off before they could approach me.

The top level has an arcade (the cost to play the games is really cheap) as well as some internet cafes. There are also some shops selling game consoles and games.

After covering the top level, I stopped by KFC for a snack. The KFC meals there are almost two dollars cheaper than back in Singapore. The chicken and fries are eaten with metal cutlery.

Finger lickin’ good? More like fork and knife lickin’ good

A few doors away from KFC was Macdonalds. Ronald gave me a fright.

WTF?! Ronald’s Sawadee Kap Greeting

After my break, I proceeded on, descending a level in search of more shops. There were a few other figurine shops on the next level too.

This shop was quite promising, since it was the largest I have seen in the building. Too bad it’s close. Probably due to Chinese New Year.

Eva Mass Prouction Unit w/o Wings!

There’s a floor that sold nothing but electronics. Games, Handphones, Handhelds etc. From what I know, Nintendo DS R4s are not being sold in Singapore anymore due to police raids. If you are looking for one, you can find one at MBK Center. The price should be rather decent too. Too bad I don’t own a DS.

After I’m finished with MBK, I had to pass through 3 other shopping centres to get to the next destination. I skipped the 2 shopping centres as I had been to Bangkok a couple of times before.

I walked, but if you are lazy, you can take the train from National Stadium and alight at Chit Lom. There’s a shopping center named Centralworld which can be easily spotted once you leave the BTS station.

Nothing much in Centralworld, but I went there anyway, since I still had time before meeting up with my family for dinner.

Resin Kit Shop @ Centralworld Level 6. I want that human sized Zaku!!!

Kinokuniya on the same level. It’s within Isetan

There are actually 3 Kinokuniya branches in Bangkok, but I have only been to 2. The other one’s at Siam Paragon, but there are no Japanese reading materials there. This Kinokuniya branch has it, so I just dropped by to take a look. One good thing about this Kinokuniya is that it sells a wider variety of stuff compared to Singapore’s. There were a few figurines and calendars neat the Japanese book area. The books were almost similar to Singapore’s Kinokuniya’s pricing.

And so, my journey ended at Kinokuniya. I didn’t get anything despite all that walking, basically because of the price. Some figurines had prices 10 dollars higher than back in Singapore. Also, there wasn’t anything that caught my interest.

With this post, I end my postings about my trip. I guess I have been posting excessively on it. LOL

Those who would like to add on to any other places which I have left out could kindly do so in the comments section.