Retro Game Store Reviews: Zest Totsuka

I found the Zest Totsuka store completely by accident. On a previous retro road trip to some Book Offs and Hard Offs way out in western Kanagawa, I drove past this. Noticing the Surugaya sign I was intrigued. It wasn’t one of their main stores, but I later found out it was a partner store. I wasn’t able to stop by during that first trip, but I made a note of it and stopped by a few weeks later.

The Selection

The selection at Zest Totsuka was less than what you’d expect to find at a Surugaya store, but it was healthy. Their selection tended to skew more towards retro games like Famicom, Super Famicom, and Gameboy games, but it was well organized and very easy to look through. They had some pretty rare stuff as well. I mean do you SEE the Pikachu Nintendo 64 and Pokemon Center Gameboy Color in the case? This place had some very cool stuff to look through. Zest’s one weak point is probably their selection of consoles and accessories. I’ve seen more for sale at regular Hard Offs than what they had here. (You should also keep in mind that this was a picture from last Summer and stock might have changed since then)

The Pricing

These probably aren’t the best examples of their pricing, but believe me when I say these are pretty good deals. I had only seen these games for double the price at places that had them in stock, so I was pretty happy to get them here. Overall they are close to what Surugaya sells their items for, but a little bit cheaper since they are out near the countryside of Yokohama. You won’t find a lot of amazing deals here, but I don’t think you’ll get ripped off either. It was a good balance between pricing and inventory selection. Not like in Akihabara or at any Super Potato where you laugh and walk away when see a price tag.

Access

Getting to Zest isn’t as easy as some other stores I’ve talked about on this blog. It’s located near JR Totsuka station, which can be reached from Yokohama station (or Tokyo if you’re coming from there), but that’s the easy part. Once there you need to take a bus from the Totsuka Bus Center (the 50, 56, and 81 go in that direction I believe) and take it to Nishi yokohama kokusai sōgōbyōin mae station. It took me about 12-15 minutes to get there, then I had to walk over a bridge to get to Zest across the street. You definitely need to have an adventuring spirit if you’re going to go out this way, but fortune favors the brave (or in this case, good retro game deals favor the explorers).

The Verdict

I love these out of the way random stores that I find because they have a lot rarer games than you’ll usually won’t find, and Zest’s prices are pretty good too. Surugaya’s brand also means good value to me as a retro game collector. I know I can trust their quality and find lots of different things there. Due to its location it might not be a store for everybody, but if you’re looking for a little adventure, check it out.

• Selection: 4/5
• Pricing: 4/5
• Ease of Access: 2.5/5

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