'Akihabara Denki Gai' is one of Tokyo's most immersive neighbourhoods. Translated as Akihabara Electric Town, the area five minutes from the main Tokyo station is a hub of technology and modern Japanese culture. Famed for it's otaku, or Akiba-kei, the hordes of (mostly) young men that pour into the area to indulge the passions of gaming, anime, and electronics, it's one of the 24hr playgrounds the city is known for. Just leaving the station starts the fun, as the Electric Town exit is filled with people milling about, and girls in maid costumes handing out flyers and tissue packets (a common occurrence in Tokyo). Every tall building here is festooned with lights and neon, even during daytime.
I went there partly to go on a guided tour, run by the Yokoso! Japan tourist scheme. I'm not really a fan of the manga and anime (comics and cartoons, respectively - don't let an Akiba-kei hear you mixing them up), but it's such a Japanese phenomenon that any visitor to the city should investigate, even for a short while. The tour was bizarre, being not a window into the gaming culture, but a procession through shops pointing out plasma TV's (I saw the largest TV in the world), and other electronics and robots, like this self-playing piano. The locals gawped at our group (about 20 Westerners), the same way we'd stare quizzically at 20 Japanese being given a guided tour of PC World.
In a region of fantastic food, Akihabara is something of a black hole - after all, who needs food when you're only there to buy electrical goods or plastic anime figures? McDonalds and curry houses are all there is, the Japanese twist on curry meaning you order from a vending machine outside the doors, then carry in the ticket and present it to the cook who ladles it out. On leaving one of the eletronics shops, we passed this large queue of men waiting for a kebab - the only time I've seen kebabs for sale in Japan. It was the middle of the afternoon, not Friday night, and nobody was drunk. Very different to kebab time in the UK.
Of course, it really pays to visit Aki at night, when the lights are dazzling and the after-work crowds even busier. Light and noise are everywhere - each shop has deafening displays of tunes and chatter of sale prices, music is pumped into the street, bleeps and flashes from gaming arcades compete against each other, it really is an assault on the senses. I took this picture standing in the same place as the first photo, but looking in the other direction. The tissue girls were still there, and now you can really see the detail on each building, with the illuminated escalators leading up between each floor. I've got a special post upcoming on my favourite Akihabara shop, with what kinds of things you can actually buy here (should you wish).
This sums up Tokyo for me - lights, traffic, people. You either love Akihabara or you'll hate it, and if you're not sure you can find out within twenty seconds of stepping out of the station. Just don't go there for peace and quiet...
New Discovery Tour
