Akihabara, Kanto, Japan

5KokiOta 5:00 PM Jul 23, 2022

Attractions of Akihabara
In July 2022, I went to Akihabara to look at PC parts. Located between Tokyo and Ueno, Akihabara is a town where electronics stores flourish and where so-called "otaku" (geeks) who love computers gather. Recently, with the popularity of "Evangelion" and "AKB48", it has become a tourist destination where otaku culture such as anime and idols spread, and it is also known overseas by the abbreviation AKIBA, attracting many foreign tourists. On the way to the store, there were queues in front of some stores. It was probably an anime event or a goods sale. The queues included not only Japanese but also many foreign tourists, indicating that Japanese culture is loved beyond the seas. PC stores in Akihabara sell not only common PCs for general consumers, but also individual parts for home-built PCs. Many of the stores also sell used products called "junk," and many visitors to Akihabara come here for this purpose. Junk is a good way to get high quality products at a reasonable price. I visited several new PC parts stores that day, and the staff at all of them were kind enough to explain and compare products. Akihabara is not only home to PCs and anime, but also to many popular restaurants. On this day, I had lunch at a popular ramen shop, "Menya Musashi Iwatora". The two large pieces of pork chashu pork and the thick back-oil soup are very tasty, so please stop by if you visit Akihabara.

4Elisabethmh 5:00 PM Oct 14, 2020

Fascinating in a strange way
Akihabara is primarily seen as the center of modern Japanese culture and the main shopping area for video games, anime, manga and various electronics. Icons from popular anime and manga abound in advertising everywhere. Here you will also find countless "maid cafés" and many young girls in various outfits who turn their voices into something they most likely think sounds sweet - to promote shops and cafes. There is something about this area that is quite fascinating albeit in a slightly strange way. It looks innocent on the surface and a lot is certainly so too. If you look a little closer, it's still easy to see that the difference between "innocent-anime" and let`s call it "adult-anime" flows a little into each other.