A visit to an Amano dealership in Japan

[Wahter]

Last month, I was fortunate enough to visit three Amano dealerships in the Tokyo area. (unfortunately, the discus shops I inquired about were not easy to reach, so I didn't get to visit them). :-\ (from what I've been told, Japan does more importing than breeding, but it still would have been nice to visit a shop or two - maybe next time). Here are some photos from the store I liked the most, Aquaforest.

The store's website: http://www.a-forest.co.jp/

They are located in an underground shopping mall called the Subnade in Shinjuku (one of the districts in Tokyo; also the busiest train station in the world). Fortunately, the Subnade is located adjacent to the subway station and the mall's entrance has two display tanks. Unfortunately, the mall's directory is entirely in Japanese characters, so I had to try and match the characters of the store with the directory of the mall!

[Wahter]

This store's display tanks had EVERYTHING Amano - the Amano soils, CO2 injection, lights, tanks, even the cannister filter (has a stainless steel case and they start at about $300.00US). Here's a photo of myself with their webmaster; he goes by the name, "Mr. Kam" (BTW, I'm 6 feet tall):

[Wahter]

They had tons of varieties of plants - several which I'd never seen before. Here's a sword plant hybrid that was priced about $30.00US.

[Wahter]

Here, they are selling the plants grown on rocks and driftwood.

Interestingly, they also had a selection of plants grown emersed (tops out of the water). Mr. Kam told me there are some people in Japan who are interested in keeping plants in the emersed state.

To get an idea of the prices on some things - zebra Pl*cos were $150.00US, but the algea eating shrimps, caridina japonica (yes, native to Japan) were just under $1.00 each. Some of the CO2 diffussors were $125.00 and yes, I did buy a pair of the $85.00+ trimming scissors and about 18 different back issues of the Amano Aquajournal magazine.

[Wahter]

Mr. Kam was nice enough to let me take some photos (I'll post more on my own website later on); one of the other shops didn't let me take any photos initially, but then after my penpal (who went with me) "negotiated" in Japanese for me, they allowed me to and the third shop was absolutely "no photos" (not even the front of the store!).

I'll post more on my own website later.

Thanks!


Walter

[RAWesolowski]

As always, a nice post, Walter. Love to see some more pix and your opinions.

[crazy4discus]

nice pixs

[ChloroPhil]

That's so cool Walter! You go to the neatest places.... How was their wood selection? I saw some neat looking pieces behind your head in that photo.

[ronrca]

Wow! Nice photos and nice store! Did you tell him about simplydiscus? LOL! ;)

Thanks!

[Brian-pdx]

Wow, what a great experience! Thanks for sharing the story and pics with us. I had no idea Amano had created such a marketing brand (beyond the books). This is one more reason to visit Shinjuku (big William Gibson fan). I'll watch your site for your updates!

[jim_shedden]

interesting post

thanks : jim