Akihabara (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
The name Akihabara Electric Town has a legendary air to it among computer and gadget nerds, video gamers and manga fans. While it is an interesting experience to walk its busy streets and many, many stores, I came away from it somewhat underwhelmed.
As circumstance would have it, Akihabara was both the first area I went to from Narita Airport, and also the last I hung out in before returning to the airport.
I actually arrived on the day when the PlayStation Vita, the latest and highly anticipated handheld games console from Sony, launched. That really influenced the vibe of the area, with demo booths for the console and its roster of launch games outside and inside the biggest stores, such as the new Yodobashi store. Some stores were sold out already, while others had long lines. It was quite frantic!
Other than games, the area has a truly overwhelming number of stores for computers and computer parts, various gadgets and electronics. I wandered through some of them, plus a visit to Animate, a veritable haven for fans of anime. It is eight floors filled with a dizzying array of anime volumes, character merch, games, etc.
Maid Cafe Staff (Source: Wikitravel)
I did not visit a maid cafe, which apparently is an Akihabara specialty – cafes where young women dressed as French maids serve you. Maybe I’m getting old, but the girls on the street handing out fliers for these cafes, shivering in their outfits but smiling bravely, did not make me want to try one.
Overall, I would probably have been a lot more excited about visiting Akihabara were it not for these factors:
- The globalized economy means that very little of unusual gadgetry is unique to places like this. Most stuff gadget nerds like me are interested in can be found on the Internet and shipped anywhere.
- I am currently not interested in computer building and upgrading, so hundreds of computer parts stores just lower the signal to noise ratio of the area for me.
- I have already experienced areas much like Akihabara in Seoul: Yongsan Electronics Market (and, to a lesser degree, Tehcno-Mart) – and #1 and 2 hold true for those places as well.
Super Potato
A familiar figure from the Super Potato interior.
One place really deserves mention, though, and that is the retro gaming store Super Potato. It’s notoriously hard to find, and I even passed by it twice despite having marked it on my Google Map!
The second time I heard some faint theme music from a certain iconic game franchise (pictured right) and found it! Basically, this store is over three floors. The top floor is a mini arcade where you can play some of the old arcade classics of your youth (if you are as old as I am or older).
The other two are simply packed to the brim with games and games consoles. I am tempted to say that if there is a console that ever came out in Japan, Super Potato has at least two of them for sale, plus a lot of the game cartridges that came with it.
In addition, littering the narrow aisles were stations where you could play most of these old consoles, including a rare Virtual Boy – Nintendo’s failed attempt at a 3D home console with huge, uncomfortable 3D glasses instead of a screen and an equally bad controller. Having tried some kind of Wario game on this console for a few painful minutes, I can see why it failed!
I really cannot do justice to this place in words, but many have put videos from it up on YouTube – I recommend that you check it out if you are at all interested. Here is a sample:
In conclusion, if you are going to Tokyo, you should visit Akihabara (and especially Super Potato), but you may want to keep your expectations in check.
