Might as well
cross-post my experiences!
Official Hello! Project Store - Shibuya
Despite knowing where it was, it still took me quite a while to find it. I could not find the down escalator, lol.
It's near the sparkly Hello Kitty shop. You have to go down two floors and it's you'll find the H!P Store on the far side of the building.
Differences with the Official AKB48 Shop:
1. H!P shop was about 8x the size of the Official SKE48 Store in Shibuya.
2. H!P shop focuses on photos a lot, whereas the AKB48 shop has anything from clear files, food, clothes, keychains and other stuff.
3. The system. At the AKB48 shop you can grab a sealed five pic set and take it to the counter. At the H!P shop you have to fill in the numbers of the pics you want. You hand in the form, pay and wait while the staff finds your order together. The upside of this you can get single pics, unlike AKB48 where everything comes in five pic sets. The downside is that is takes a very long time. The people before me had long orders and I had to wait ages to get my small order of three pics . You have to write your name on the order form and they call you when your order is completed.
Trio - K-Books - AkihabaraIn Akihabara there is a large K-Books building, which consists of four floors, filled with various idol goodness. On the third floor you'll find a store called Trio (ask for "Torio" if you can't find it). They have a substantial section of H!P goods; posters, photobooks, uchiwas, DVDs, CDs and whatnot. They also have a picture section where you can freely browse and buy single pics sorted by member. Prices vary massively depending on member and rarity. In some cases the official H!P Store may be cheaper, so use your brain.
EventsShinjuku - Fukuya Store in the Subnade Mall: When I was here there weren't any events. I'm not sure if it was poor timing or perhaps they moved the events to somewhere else. It's a pretty cool area, both above ground and the underground mall, so you might want to check it out anyway. The store had some signed photobooks at very good prices, so that's cool if you're into that.
Shibuya - Tower Records: Look for this sign near one the entrances:
![](http://uppix.com/t-IMG_07165004090a00106a26.jpg)
Daily events for various artists, ranging from mini-lives, handshakes and signings. The details for each event differ, so be sure to ask the staff for further information. Read the full details of the Morning Musume event
here.Akihabara - Softmap: Go to the idol section on the first floor and look for the event schedule:
![](http://uppix.com/t-IMG_08125005a0ee00106c52.jpg)
There is also a guy in front of the store who promoted the particular event they have that day.
These events are less high end than the ones at the Tower Records in Shibuya, but the upside is that they are a lot easier to access.
Location: Take the Electric Town Exit in Akihabara (Yamanote line), walk towards the AKB48 Cafe, take a left passed the McDonald's and giant Itano Tomomi sign and you'll see Softmap across the street on the right. It's pretty hard to miss.