Retro Game Road Maps: The Yokohama Line

It’s great when I find a store worth sharing on my blog, but not all shops are created equal. Some might not have a lot of inventory to offer, some might have bad prices, or some shops might be just below what I deem good enough to appear on my blog. Does that mean you shouldn’t visit them? I’d like to leave that up to you. Up until now I have been putting every single store I visit up on my instagram account, along with my pick ups. While that’s great for people that follow me on Instagram, that could leave some people who only read my blog out in the cold. I want to provide a complete picture of the thrift store infrastructure of Japan to help people find the games and hardware they are looking for. To do this, I plan on organizing all the shops I’ve visited by the train lines they are on so that people who want to make a retro road trip to pick up some things can save time and hit up the maximum amount of stores on their trip without having to lose much time running around.

The Yokohama Line (Kanagawa and Tokyo)

I lived in the Yokohama area from 2017 to 2025 and traveled a lot all over Kanto. When I first started my retro game hunting in Japan, it was on the Yokohama line that I used often to travel to and from work. I visited almost every station on the line, starting with Higashi Kanagawa, and went to all the way to Hachioji on occasion. The Negishi line is part of the Yokohama line that starts further down, but I will be including it later on in my Keihin Tohoku line article and just focusing on the stations that you can only find on the Yokohama line. There were quite a few Hard Offs and Book Offs I visited on this line, as well as a few other stores that carried retro games. I hope to create a full list of places you can visit in this article, as well share pictures of my visits to these stores.

Kamoi Station

From Higashi Kanagawa to Kozukue you won’t find any places to stop at (unless you are transferring to or from another train line), but Kamoi station is a good first stop on the Yokohama line. It’s a busy station within walking distance to the massive Lalaport Yokohama mall, but on the otherside of the station you can get to a Book Off about 10-15 minutes away on foot. It used to be a Book Off Plus, but they dropped the clothing part of the store so it’s just a normal Book Off now. That didn’t really change the stock in the store though. It had a decent amount of software but not a lot of hardware at all. What it did have going for it were the prices. Over the 8 years I lived in Yokohama, I stopped by there a few times while visiting the mall. The inventory was limited but I found some great deals on newer games for Switch and PS4, as well as on PS3 and PS1 games. Worth a stop if you are looking for a good deal, but you might not find what you’re looking for if it’s a little more uncommon.

(No pictures were taken at this store for my Instagram. They were posted on my Twitter but have since been locked away.)

Nakayama Station

There is another normal Book Off not far from Nakayama station, and I vaguely remember going years and years ago, but I nothing stood out from that location. It’s good points were being located somewhat close to the station, and there is a GEO nearby with newer games you can check out too. If you’re on a game hunt and have some time to kill, stop in and check it out.

(This was another location I didn’t have pictures before on Instagram because I had been chronicling everything on Twitter before I made the move and pics got lost)

Tokaichiba

Another station with a regular Book Off nearby and another place I didn’t really bother putting on my Instagram because I didn’t think it was that great. The pics I did have of it are lost to the aether of Twitter, which doesn’t let me scroll back further than winter 2022 at this point. If I still lived in the area I would probably have revisited it. If you are working your way up the Yokohama line you should check it out though.

Nagatsuta

Nagatsuta station is home to a decent Hard Off, but it is quite a walk from the station (close to 20 minutes I believe). It’s much easier to get to if you take a bus. They had a good amount of hardware to look through when I visited a few years ago, and a lot of cartridge based retro games. If you are looking for PS1, Dreamcast, or Sega CD stuff there will be slim pickings. Good for Nintendo stuff though.

(You can see the Hard Off here)

Machida

Machida is a great place for retro game hunting. Not only is there a Book Off Super Bazaar in town, but there is also a Surugaya and a Book Off Plus within walking distance from the station (though they are a bit far). The Super Bazaar and the Surugaya locations have especially large inventories of retro games, but recently the prices have been going up at the Book Off. When I lived in Kanagawa I went there many times and found quite a few deals there. It’s a great place to spend a few hours shopping though, and it also connects to the Odayku Line that heads back to Tokyo (which I will cover later). When you go to the Book Off in the downtown area, be sure to check both the basement and the first floor for games though!

(You can see the Machida Book Off Super Bazaar here)

(You can see the the Surugaya here)

(You can see the Book Off Plus in Machida here)

Kobuchi

The next stop on the Yokohama line after Machida is Kobuchi, where you will find a Book Off Plus with a “local” selection and “local” prices but you can’t really complain considering how close the Book Off Super Bazaar is to it. If you didn’t like the prices in Machida, it’s probably worth checking out but the stock is a lot less there so your chances of finding what you want are less. There wasn’t a lot of hardware when I went there either. It was mostly software.

It looks like there is also a Hard Off/Hobby Off somewhat close to Kobuchi station, but you’d probably need to take a bus or car to get to it. I don’t believe I had the chance to get to that one while I lived there because of how far it was from the station and I hadn’t thought to rent a car when I originally went to that area. The branch name is the Machida Kiso store.

(You can see the Book Off Plus in Kobuchi here)

Yabe

Now we are starting to get pretty far up northwest in Kanto. Yabe is another two stops later on the Yokohama line, and about 15 minutes from the station you’ll find a Hard Off, and there is also another Book Off Plus nearby. Both had “local” stock, which means smaller inventories, but the Hard Off was a little better. The Book Off Plus is probably worth going to because they are on the same road and you might as well check it out while you are there.

You can also check out an Ota Chu store here that is between the Hard Off and Sagamihara store. Most of the product at this store were geared towards modern systems, but you will find some retro stuff there too.

(You can see the Hard Off and Ota Chu in Yabe here)

(The Yabe Book Off Plus is in the 2nd part of my Kobuchi post)

Hashimoto

Hashimoto is one of the terminal stations for the Yokohama line. Some trains will stop there and go no further, while others will continue on to the very end of the line at Hachioji. Luckily you will find both a regular Book Off right outside the station in the Aeon supermarket building, and a Hard Off/Hobby Off combo store about 10 minutes from the station. The Book Off had some good prices but a very limited inventory of retro games, but the Hobby Off had great deals and a good selection at their store. It wasn’t comprehensive, but they had a decent amount of hardware and software that was well curated.

It seems like there is a House Off near Hashimoto too that has some games, but I never managed to make my way over there.

(You can see pics of both the Book Off and Hard Off/Hobby Off in this post)

Hachioji

Hachioji is our last stop on the Yokohama line, and it is home to not one but three stores you can visit. Not far from the station is a small Book Off with a limited amount of retro game inventory, but if you take the bus (or walk) to the “Eco Town” (a collection of all the Hard Off brand stores) you will find A LOT more. There is also another Book Off right next to the Eco Town. There isn’t a lot there but you should probably check it out just in case. The last time I went to the Eco Town I found a lot of games and hardware, and they even had CRTs as well! Not sure what the inventory is like now, but it’s very popular with tourists and content creators so I would think they keep it packed.

(You can see my pics of the Eco Town and Book off here)

Why the Yokohama Line?

You can easily spend an entire day, maybe even a weekend going up the entire Yokohama line to the 15+ stores there. And that is only counting the Hard Offs and Book Offs! There might be more thrift stores I missed, but I do feel like I was pretty thorough with my game hunting in the area. Overall I would give the Yokohama Line a B-. There are a lot of stores, but many of them lack inventory and are kind of hard to get to. If you can’t visit every store on this list, then Machida, Hashimoto, and Hachioji would be the must visit locations on this line. If you are interested in learning more about some of these stores and how to get there, be sure to check out the articles I wrote about each which are all located in one place now!

But wait, there’s more!

Do you like this type of content and want to see more? Be sure to let me know by joining me on various social media and dropping me a line. I hope to bring hundreds of articles to this website about not only about my gaming experiences, but also about gaming in Japan, game collecting, and even game stores over here! If you plan to visit and are big into gaming (be it on modern systems or retro ones), be sure to bookmark this website and stop back from time to time for updates.

How to contact me:

• Bluesky: @thejapanhobbyist.bsky.social
• Twitch: TheJapanHobbyist
• Instagram: thejapanhobbyist