X-box

I'm looking to buy an American or European x box 360 (new) in Tokyo. Does anyone know a store that stocks them?
Thank you.

Various stores in Akihabara shopping district may carry them.

BUT

If you buy an American xbox, you have to buy american games. Even if the game is in English, if the region encoding says its from Japan, then it won't matter because it won't work in an American/European xbox.

Do you mean xbox 360? And is there any particular reason you want a US or European model? Note that many xbox 360 games work across regions, and if language is an issue you can order english language games from play-asia. Here's a list of games and compatible regions:

http://gaming.wikia.com/wiki/Region_Free_Xbox_360_Games

and play-asia's site:

http://www.play-asia.com/

Thanks for the list, it is very helpful. But yes, I want an American console because I will buy American games ( I already buy PC games from the import stores in Akihabara) 1.because i do not wish to play games in Japanese and 2. The majority of game releases here in Japan are of no interest to me - anime, roleplaying games from japanese anime etc.
In paticular the game i wanted to play was Lord of the rings middle earth 2 and Id already checked and that is not available for the japanese console :(
I guess I will just check around Akihabara next weekend and see what I can find!

1.because i do not wish to play games in Japanese

I understand as I was in the same situation when I purchased mine. Friend with Japanese xboxes however said that the games could be set to be in english if that was the original soundtrack. I'm not positive it that was limited to certain games however

2. The majority of game releases here in Japan are of no interest to me - anime, roleplaying games from japanese anime etc.
In paticular the game i wanted to play was Lord of the rings middle earth 2 and Id already checked and that is not available for the japanese console :(

Generally, Japan gets the same xbox 360 titles as the rest of the world as there isn't really a big xbox market in Japan. And you can play many american games on a japanese xbox. BTW, the site I link lists that there is a Japanese version of Lord of the Rings - battle for middle earth 2.

Either way, I feel your pain, but good luck finding an american xbox anywhere in Japan. There problem is that there isn't much of a market for them even in akihabara and if you do find one it will probably be pretty expensive. What I ended up doing is bringing one back with me the last time I went home. Maybe not the easiest solution, but you're right about the peace of mind having the games being in english and not having to worry about compatibility. Now I can't wait until I go home in christmas to pick up a copy of COD- Modern Warfare 2!

hmm just to let you know, if you buy a "special" 360 available from a few neighbouring countries of japan, you can override the region lock and play copied games. I'm not sure what the terms of agreement for posting on these boards are so i wont link to any sites, but im sure you can find. Although, the RRoD won't be covered which is a big catch. Oh and on that topic, say you find a US 360 for sale in japan, and it RRoD, im not sure what the arrangements are with MS but you may have to ship it to USA to get it fixed...

Oh and on that topic, say you find a US 360 for sale in japan, and it RRoD, im not sure what the arrangements are with MS but you may have to ship it to USA to get it fixed...

If you are able to find an american xbox in Japan then it is definitely grey market and neither microsoft US or Japan will touch it. If it RRoD's then you are SOL. Something to consider since squaretrade reports that xbox's are have an astonishing 23.7% failure rate.

Thanks for all the replies.　Getting an American console does seem like more trouble than it:s worth and after a little more searching around, I found all of the games I want from this site, and they are asian region, but not translated into Japanese ーgood for me!　Thanks for pointing out that BFME 2 was available in the asian version, I looked it up and automatically only saw the US version. I'll post back if I have any problems when buying or playing the games :)

http://www.messe.gr.jp/chaos/kaigai_new/index.htm