Akihabara – Exciting Town of Two Faces

Walking through Akihabara Station’s Electric Town exit on a Sunday afternoon can be like walking into a fancy dress party. And a noisy one at that. Girls in French maid outfits pose for cameras as they hand out flyers and vie for attention with wannabe pop idols and loudspeakers bellowing out the latest deals to be had on electronics.

Welcome to Akihabara, or Akiba to give it its nickname, the electronics capital of Japan and the otaku capital of the world.

Once you get past the crowds in front of the station, it becomes clear why Akihabara is the place to go for electronics. The cramped alleys by Akihabara Station in Soto-Kanda 1-chome teem with small shops and stalls specializing in everything from light bulbs to diodes and walkie-talkies to security cameras.

Beyond Soto-Kanda on Chuo Dori, the main avenue that runs through the area, stores line the streets stocking almost every conceivable home appliance and gadget. The products are as diverse as the prices are competitive and most shops are open to a bit of bartering, which helps to give the area a certain energy that carries over to the backstreets running off Chuo Dori where a roaring trade is done in PC parts and accessories and computer games.

While electronics took off in Akihabara with the black market trading of radios and radio components that rose out of the ashes of World War Two, the area’s other face is far newer. Since the late 1990s Akihabara has developed as an oasis for Japan’s otaku – a subculture of social outcasts typically obsessed with, manga, anime and gaming.

Despite being an apparently socially inept minority, the otaku have had a huge impact on Japan’s economy and Akihabara is now firmly positioned at the centre of an otaku consumer market worth 411 billion yen annually, according to the most recent research conducted by the Nomura Research Institute in October 2005.

Maids in Frilly French Outfits Awaits You
To experience a little of that otaku culture for yourself, take a wander through the comic stores and costume shops that compete for space with the electronics on and around Chuo Dori. While some of the shops are oriented at adult entertainment and probably not the best place to take your mother, most are open to all, like the large Don Quijote (discount store) on the main street that has an entire floor dedicated to costumes and several other floors combining the practical and the quirky.

When exploring Akihabara begins to wear you out, why not have a break otaku-style and hit a ‘manga kissaten’ (comic café) to relax over a cup of coffee and a comic or two? Of course, if you are feeling a little more adventurous, you could head for a maid café to be doted on by young waitresses dressed in anime-inspired frilly French maid outfits who look like they have fallen straight from a page of manga. Depending on the café, you might even end up getting spoon fed!

Although the first maid café only opened in 2001, their popularity with male otaku in search of a place to live out their fantasies and escape the mundane has been such that approximately 30 maid cafes are currently doing business in Akihabara, along with numerous spin-offs like maid hair salons and maid foot massage. The trend has even been exported, reaching China, North America, South Korea and Taiwan; although with recent extensive media coverage the cafes have taken on a less otaku edge and are gaining in popularity among women, couples and tourists.

Maid cafes are a new export, but Japanese animation has long been popular overseas. For anyone with an interest in animation, the Tokyo Anime Center on the fourth floor of Akihabara UDX is small but well worth a visit. Opened in March 2006, the center is a great place to get information about the latest happenings in Japanese animation and is also home to a 3D theatre, a recording studio and numerous events, not to mention exhibits that should satisfy adult anime fans and kids alike. Best of all, admission is free and guidance is provided in English, Korean and Chinese.

Whether you are an otaku or not, or an electronics buff or not, Akihabara will have more than enough to make a visit worthwhile. So get yourself there and spend a day surrounded by the latest gadgets Japan has to offer and experience a very modern aspect of Japanese culture.

Text: Rob GOSS

Akihabara Electrical Town Organization
www.akiba.or.jp/

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