I recently returned from a trip to Japan. Rail-fanning is easy there since trains are EVERYWHERE! A sampling of some pictures and a 10 second movie are on my website (see below) if you care to see them.
The Kato shop in Tokyo is really terrific: several layouts in N and HO on the display floor as well as display cases containing jus about everything Kato makes, Japanese as well as US and European. Visitors can use the layouts with some supervision if the store employees don't know them, and unassisted if the user is known. I saw a couple of youngsters setting up their trains to run on one of them. We visited the store on a Saturday and it was jammed with people, especially 10 - 15 year olds ogling and buying. Too bad more US stores are set up this way to encourage younger participants in the hobby.
The selling floor was above the display floor, and essentially everything was available. I bought an N scale Tsubame Shinkansen 800 (runs in Kyushu) and a JR "Yamanote" commuter train (runs in Tokyo; talk about selective compression!) Kato's japanese website (in english) is at