Thank you, @shokoshiro ! It ends tomorrow afternoon, but I've had a splendid time here.

I've bought some very unique and interesting lamps... especially from this shop.

Ie:

- A Japanese induction lamp (National)
- A 15w NEC RGB phosphor lamp (1/3 is Red, 1/3 is Green, 1/3 is Blue)
- A 20w Toshiba lamp that is primarily phosphored but has no phosphor down an even strip through the lamp
- two clear globe CFLs, both with white phosphor but illuminate green
- a very early 1980s strobe lamp
- a 40w merc
- tons of miscellaneous metal halide products
- "balafire" type lamps– some candles, some flames. Has the magnet on the outside rather than the inside (i believe Kyp-Go owned that patent)
- and far more. Just as much as I can list off the top of my head.

Also, some of the employees in this shop may join L-G in the near future; I showed them my gallery and they expressed immense interest in the site. They were generally very interested in my lamp "Otaku" (お宅/オタク) and wanted to know what kinds I like, etc.

They let me roam the entire three-story store– I could rummage through anything and everything for as long as I wanted. I paid a grand total of around ¥12,000 there, but primarily because there are some HID lamps that I got which were extremely expensive, at least in Japan. Even still, I think that's about $68?

Also, it seems like the future is dim for lighting shops in Akihabara Electric Town, as well as wider Japan. As everything turns bscomes LED, these smaller shops lose their market position, and begin to lose customers, money, etc. Supposedly Kōtō had just moved their store location back in June, and that I had I come earlier there would have been far more vintage HID and CFLs to choose from. @James - I am very glad you recommended me to visit this place.

No, neither have I, but I remembered about these when you posted this 😎

enjoy your trip! seems like you're having a good time checking out some local places. one day i'll make it over there to visit my friend in Kobe (and also go to like 1 million different shops of all different kinds...)

I've never seen this with Philips HPI lamps.

None of these are actually swelled believe it or not 😎, that black shadow is on the inside of the tube as yours is, if you zoom into the picture you can see it clearly.
It’s also got the halides sat on it, showing which way the lamp has been running in horizontal position 🤔

I think that in your case, the arctube of the Philips HPIs, swelled, hence the appearance.

I wonder if this is the same thing on these Philips HPIs?

I’m just saving anything HID now, even if they’re used and no longer in use!, I won’t see what we still have at work put in a skip🧐

Nice little lanterns Olav. 

These will be tricky to repair without the original replacement parts. As the ballast compartment is very restricted and takes only one certain type of ballast meant for this fixture. Also the lamp socket might be of a shorter type? Any other type will be too long in conjunction with HgL 125W I guess?

For such open rated fixtures 125W lamps with hard glass were available as any other bulb with soda- lime glass will crack when exposed to rain/ snow. Were such special bulbs available in DDR?

Here's a photo of me with the owner of Koto Electric.