The first models we saw were at the Kyoto Steam Locomotive Museum, about a kilometer west of the Kyoto main train station.   While I'll be posting up pictures and some video of real trains in a different thread, they had a couple of beautiful dioramas, including one of the roundhouse that houses the current museum.

While these were all N scale, they had a few larger models as well.

The first hobby shop we found was in the Electric Town part of Tokyo. This was a small shop, and a bit hard to find (especially as I don't read Japanese). The window display was kind of a give-a-way though.

inside, was the usual assortment of model railroad supplies

and some great textured sheets for scratch building

coolest though was this Z scale layout in a box! It was hard to not purchase this to take home.

Also in electric town was Tam Tam hobbies - a multi-floor hobby shop that had an entire floor dedicated to model railroading.

inside, wow! 

While there were some HO models (including a few US prototypes)

most of the product was N scale - and modern.

other things that caught my eye, especially for those of us who are space limited were these "plug-n-play" layout extensions

and these sectional (module) bases from Kato. I wonder why they don't sell these in other countries.

the quality of the construction was very good, with even finger joints on the corners.

Tam Tam had a small selection of Bachman On3 locos

some books

and these great laser cut building packages (built samples in the case below).

most of the track was sectional

but there was one small section of flex - no hand laying supplies.

Finally, we walked into an anime collectors store - and even they had trains!  Some really nice sets.

So that's it for the scale models. These stores were busy with people, and it appears that the hobby is alive and well in Japan - regardless of the recent disaster.

Now I need to collect my prototype images, and get them posted up! 

I really like those Shinkansen trains but for modelling them accurately, I think you'd need a lot of space, even in N scale.  To get anywhere close to scale speed, you'd be starting and stopping very quickly.  But man, are they cool.  Thanks for the pictures, Scarpia!

And I wonder, too, why Kato doesn't sell those modules in other countries. 

Thanks for sharing. A multifloor hobby shop, and I thought we were bad. I like the Tomix track but it is very hard to get Stateside compared to Kato. Do you remember who made the sheet stock?

Stogie

Dave, I agree - the Shinkansen were never appealing to me until I rode them. They are simply amazing, and implimented so well. It makes you wonder why all countries don't have something like this. For instance, our experience was

• 600 km trip in 2:45, with 4 stops.
• Clean, spacious, non-smoking cars
• food service on trains available (mobile carts)
• trains every 10-15 minutes. Yes, this is basically a 300kph nationwide subway system! 
• incredibly smooth operation. We watched another passanger with an open, full bottle of tea on their seatback tray as the train came into, stopped, and left the station. The bottle never moved.
• accuracy. there are signs on the platform specifying where each car, and where each door on each car will stop. Trains stop with 20cm of these signs, everytime.

Modeling, unless you just like to watch trains run, would be a bit dull, and like you say, would eat up tons of space - fast! 

Stogie, I'm sorry, but I don't. One of the reasons I took the picture was to look it up later, now I realize I can't make out the label. Doh! 

Great stuff.

What were the prices like? Internet pricing or more expensive?

Are there any dcc incursions on the way?

Great self-portrait in there.

I am green with envy. Japan is just too far and expensive for me (wife, house, 2 kids and ... dog). 

Prices seemed a bit high, but to be honest, I don't have much to compare it against, nor do I know the market.

Single locomotives seemed to run between 10,000 and 20,000 yen (approx $120-$250), bigger sets were more.

A lot of the single package things (like those laser cut buildings) were under $15.

Scenery materials (apparently Kato has an agreement with Woodland Scenics, and distributes and re-packages their items in Japan) was similarly priced, a quart bottle of WS static grass was around $12

I'm unclear on what you mean about DCC. I did see decoders and harnesses in the hobby shops.

It is an expensive place - and I'd guess mostly as there are only Japanese in the workforce - no cheap labor. The results are spectacular though, the cleanest, and best organized place I've ever seen.  The people are great, and very considerate, so there's no litter (even cigarette butts on the  street were a rarity!).

And it is far. Even from our starting point, it was a 9.5 hour flight out, and 12.5 hour flight back! 

Still, if you can ever arrange it, I'd recommend it. It wasn't even on my list, but now having been there, it would be in my top 5 places to go.