I am seriously thinking of taking a trip to Japan this coming summer. Was wondering if there are any thoughts of where I should go? Being a part of this board, I of course love English and Japanese titles of Bishoujo games…so, are there any good places to go to check out what they might have in Tokyo?
All the English language games are uncensored, and therefore not legal to sell in Japan.
There are a very small number of exceptions. Some Japanese releases chose to add English translations as a kind of bonus feature … years ago, so good luck finding copies now. I don’t think it ever caught on (it’s not cheap to translate the whole script, and Japanese customers would find it interesting for a bit, but probably not a huge draw).
Also illegal to simply distribute uncensored stuff. That’s the reason why Japanese eroge customers don’t have an organized movement to simply uncensor the stuff on their own. From what I understand, they can own uncensored images: just not share them with someone else (or have an intention to share them).
However stuff that “de-mosaics” things is totally legal. 
Hm…gotcha…does anyone know any stores in Tokyo that would carry bishoujo games (Japanese language is fine, I hope to learn how to read the language by the time I go to Japapn)? Stores that I could, I guess you could so, go crazy at? I do have a non-regional DVD player, so as you might see with other discussions, I can play Bishoujo-DVD games…I’m asking because I’d like to have an idea as to how long I should stay in Tokyo itself before heading out to see the rest of Japan…
Akihabara is the electronic, eroge, and otaku capital of Japan:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akihabara
Go wild. Just remember to save enough money for a ticket back. 
Well I have to ask , is this a formative " someday I wanna go to japan type thing" or do you have concrete plans “Im going on xxxx 2010 ?”
that said Narg said Akihabara . Ive heard that sofmap carries a huge variety of Japanese electronic goods.Also [from importing experience] expect to pay out the ass.
If you are going soon though live out my dream and go to a pachinko parlor and an arcade.
if you get a chance to use a camera sho wuse how the gameplay works on some wierd arcade machines like this…
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/ … yo_RCrkqZw
http://translate.googleusercontent.com/ … 67P7rlunjA
and of course the coup’ de grace
The second hand eroge market in Akihabara is amazing. You can get a mint condition title that retailed for 9800 yen at a third or quarter of the price - sometimes with the preorder items untouched. It’s really a different world: literally an Eroge Heaven. The importing of eroge is quite expensive for foreigners, but it’s nowhere near the same for the natives. The Japanese have no idea how spoiled they are compared to us.
Then again it’s the same in reverse. There’s a small community of Japanese PC’ers who want certain Western games that never got official release in Japan (like Knights of the Old Republic), and pay out the ying-yang to get a legit copy. Akihabara kinda helps though, since there are stores that sell bestselling software in Australia, which seems to get things released in the UK.
Dont forget the part where you can actually walk into a brick and mortar store and buy these games. As opposed to diggling around middlemen and such here in America. the EN fiasco has probably made this even worse.
I dont suppose you recognize those from your Japan travels do you Narg?
Yeah but you still won’t pay under $150 for a copy of Moshimo Ashita ga Hare Naraba wherever you go =P
And furthermore, there are a few eroges that extremely difficult to get hold of outside of Japan (pretty much only available on certain dl sales sites that happen to block gaijin).
Edit: Following on from the example you gave, another problem is that prices never fall for us unless we use a proxy to import from Amazon or another store. Erogeshop and the like still charge full price + their markup for games, no matter how long it’s been since the release date.
In Akiba you’ll find more adult rated stuff then you’d imagine. It’s really taken over the district. For new games, any Sofmap should be fine. For used stuff, Trader generally has the most fair prices. There are several and easy to very easy to find.