Japan!

Z

zouk05

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Hi, im hopping somebody can help me with some information on Japan, whats the Pool scene like there? where can i find a place that offers Cues and pool tips (Kamui factory maybe).

im planning a holiday trip somewhere in June, any information will he helpful

regards
Zouk05:)
 
My friend runs a shop in shibuya called pro shop usa. Great selection of tips and he has a ton of shafts and tips available to test out on the instore table. Ive spent hours there just shooting around with different cues and tips.
As for the pool scene there are a boatload of weekly and monthly tourneys in the tokyo area with a lot of good players. Everything is in japanese though so its kind of hard to get info. I rarely see any other foreigners playing tourneys around here except for some philipino regulars.
 
I've been wondering the same thing for the Shizuoka area. Moving there next fall with my wife and its really hard to find info on pool in Japan, in english or japanese.
 
Most player pool halls around here carry a pretty good stock of pool supplies, especially tips, but don't expect deals on pool stuff. With the yen being at 80 to the dollar or so, everything you pay for is probably gonna be pretty expensive.

The pool scene is pretty awesome around Tokyo and not bad in other areas, but if you don't read (or speak) Japanese, you probably wont be able to find information on them (Japanese pool halls tend not to update their websites too often, or at all). They are generally posted on information walls in pool halls in Japanese. I would suggest getting in touch with an AZBer in Japan and having them show you around. I'm near Sendai, which is pretty far from anything touristy so you probably wont come here, but there are a few members closer to Tokyo.
 
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I've been to Japan a few times and was surprised at how expensive the cues were, especially Predator and other brand names. And as someone else pointed out right now the Yen is extremely strong, so on top of the high prices you have to deal with a 20-25% currency exchange delta. Make that 30% if someone is dumb enough to exchange their money at the airport kiosks :D

There were a couple other threads before about AZ members meeting up in Japan, and also which pool halls were good to visit around Tokyo. Should be able to find it easily with a search or two.
 
Well i was looking of purchasing some tips as i believe they are japan made hence should be cheaper if i could get there there. i'll be putiing up in sinjuku. hope i can find some pro shops there . I doubt there will be any at Ginza being an upscale shopping district and all.

regards
zouk05
 
zouk05 said:
Well i was looking of purchasing some tips as i believe they are japan made hence should be cheaper if i could get there there. i'll be putiing up in sinjuku. hope i can find some pro shops there . I doubt there will be any at Ginza being an upscale shopping district and all.

regards
zouk05
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I'll be back there again myself next month.

With the exchange rate being what it is right now, even if you could find tips cheaper, I suspect it would be a wash. I went to a small pool room in Abiko City in Chiba last year to pick up a few Kamui tips. They were like 1300 or 1400 Yen each, iirc. Not sure what you'd end up paying if you found somewhere to buy them in bulk rather than by the tip, so I could be wrong.
 
zouk05 said:
Well i was looking of purchasing some tips as i believe they are japan made hence should be cheaper if i could get there there. i'll be putiing up in sinjuku. hope i can find some pro shops there . I doubt there will be any at Ginza being an upscale shopping district and all.

regards
zouk05
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Don't get your hopes up about getting deals here. The MSRP is generally the same or higher here, plus the exchange rates are gonna make it even worse. The thing you can find are things made in Japan that are not yet available in the US for example; Keith-Andy cues, Rei-max tips, various accessories, etc.
 
Kieth Andy

I was shocked by their prices. They cost about twice what they are actually worth. IMHO
 
zouk05 said:
Well i was looking of purchasing some tips as i believe they are japan made hence should be cheaper if i could get there there. i'll be putiing up in sinjuku. hope i can find some pro shops there . I doubt there will be any at Ginza being an upscale shopping district and all.

regards
zouk05
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The closest thing to Shinjuku would be Pro Shop USA in Shibuya (the same one victorl writes about). Shibuya is only a few train stops away, and Pro Shop USA is about a 5-minute walk from the station.
 
zouk05 said:
Well i was looking of purchasing some tips as i believe they are japan made hence should be cheaper if i could get there there. i'll be putiing up in sinjuku. hope i can find some pro shops there . I doubt there will be any at Ginza being an upscale shopping district and all.

regards
zouk05
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Good luck. In Japan you pay extra for everything.
2 reasons. . .First, the guy selling it to you speaks Japanese and knows what a Japanese person wants. This is why regular Japanese people aren't buying a lot of stuff overseas and having it shipped to them.

Second, good stuff costs more than bad stuff. It is a fundamental truth in Japan. If you just raise the price, what you are selling is perceived as better. For example I can buy a certain brand, model, of something in Nakano. The same thing in Harajuku is 20% more. That is because it is better to buy it in Harajuku. Get it. No you don't and you never will. I don't either.

Also, I would expect to pay more for Japanese tips in Japan than in the USA because of my first 2 points and personal economics factor. Right now, you probably have $2 - $75 in your wallet(guessing). In Japan, a salaryman might have $600+ dollars worth of yen in his wallet. It is hard to be relative about tip pricing when you are packing that kind of dough, so people just pay more. If the same tip is more across town, it must be better, so I'll go there. Get it? No, of course not.

PS, this is meant to be kind of humorous and true at the same time.

oh yea, and to find something about pool in Japan, try this search; ビリヤード、ナインボール、キュー、チップス、ビリヤード用品、and the name of the train station near where you want to go like: 新宿、原宿、池袋、六本木、上野、渋谷、恵比寿、 and so on.　　As you can see, we don't like to use them crazy foreign character which have no meaning unless you read them. We like to look at a word and know what it means right now and then try to figure out how to say it later!
 
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bigg7 said:
I was shocked by their prices. They cost about twice what they are actually worth. IMHO
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They are priced to compete with mid-high end customs imported from the US. The build quality reflects that. In fact, Keith-Andy has much better build quality than even high end cue makers in the US.
 
Masayoshi said:
They are priced to compete with mid-high end customs imported from the US. The build quality reflects that. In fact, Keith-Andy has much better build quality than even high end cue makers in the US.
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Who makes Keith Andy cues? Who is the actual maker? The person who cuts the wood.

This is a key point. If I pay that money($4000+), there ought to be one guy, known to be the best in the world, managing and cutting wood! This matters.

People here sometimes buy Keith Andy cues saying us cues warp. To them I say, control your home temp and humidity levels! Seriously, living spaces in Japan have no environmental controls! Keith Andy cues are Japan seasoned and thus stay straight.

Btw, KA cues hit good.
 
nksmfamjp said:
Who makes Keith Andy cues? Who is the actual maker? The person who cuts the wood.

This is a key point. If I pay that money($4000+), there ought to be one guy, known to be the best in the world, managing and cutting wood! This matters.

People here sometimes buy Keith Andy cues saying us cues warp. To them I say, control your home temp and humidity levels! Seriously, living spaces in Japan have no environmental controls! Keith Andy cues are Japan seasoned and thus stay straight.

Btw, KA cues hit good.
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Jun Shimizu is the primary owner and builder for KeithAndy cues. He started out as a cue peddler by visiting the US and all the cue shows. Buying relatively unknown (in Japan) cue makers cues and selling them in Japan. He had his favorites..............primarily Andy Gilbert and Keith Josey thus the name KeithAndy. I have heard claims that he spent some time with both makers learning the trade, but I haven't heard those claims directly from Jun. I suspect he's more likely picked lot's of brains rathar than done any actualy apprentice time. Jun is not the only guy in the shop, but I'm not sure how many he has. However, he does run a very tight quality control operation and makes a fine cue. Truthfully, right up there in quality and playability with what I've seen compared with other well known cue makers. He prices them to compete with the Japanese market prices of US made custom cues sold in Japan. So, in Japan, his cues rival or actually beat the quality of US makers, and are priced a little better. His cues will never sell very well outside of Japan however because of his pricing. You can pay close to $1,600 for a KeithAndy plain jane, or anywhere from $1,100-$1,700 for a Sugartree plain jane. In both cases, you'll get a great playing well made cue, but for the same money..............you have to buy the name that will be valuable outside of Japan.
dave
 
Totally agree Dave. They are a fine cue. I have met Jun once or twice here. It sounded like he wasn't cutting wood, but I may have misunderstood him. At the time, it was an important point to me. We talked about his work selling US customs here, the issues, etc.

I get it. I just wonder how a semi-production cue can demand that price. I think he gets that too.

The key is Japan doesn't need the world. There are plenty of cue buyers with 100's of 10,000 yen bills burning a hole in there wallet here who will buy KA cues at whatever the price. They don't have the poor pool player stereotype here. The place I play in has a lot of Keith Andy cues in there.(That's why many wives are on a bicycle?? Just kiddin') I told my wife I am buying a custom cue instead of getting her a car when we return to the US. . .I'm still recovering from the bruise!:angry: I would say US cuemakers probably don't need the world market either. If money were no object, I would own a KA.

I also found it funny that they are sold built, not custom ordered for the most part. Weight and everything pre-determined for you. Also, they are being sold with LD shafts almost exclusively.
 
You wonder how a semi production cue can demand such a price, but all you have to do is see how much the Mezz Exceed line, or the Adam Musashi line sells for over there. I don't know how long you've been in Japan, but I'm sure you've seen it first hand at your local pool room (Utsunomia Bagus maybe?) Kids in their 20s playing at 3 ball run speeds, and playing with Ginas, Tads, and Southwests. Head down the road to Eagle in Kawagoe and it's even worse! You'll see a couple high school kids with Black Boars! Young men in Japan typically stay at home until marriage unless their employer demands relocation, and even in that case, they live in company dorms where their housing expenses are a bare minimum. So you have all these 20 something kids that don't make a whole lot of money, but also don't have much to spend it on except for hobbies like pachinko, pool, fishing, surfing or whatever. And, they work such crazy hours, they don't have much time to spend it. That is why the Japanese consumer will go out and get nothing less than the absolute best, and in many cases in Japan, the best means the most expensive.
If you hang out at the Bagus in Utsunomiya, say hello to Kaneko (Neko). If you don't know him, he's the ugliest looking goofball in the place wearing color contacts and is always in the 'Goku' game on the main table.

dave
 
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