Akihabara unplugged: Tokyo's electric town falls flat

Hrmm yes, Akihabara is not really the birck a brack electric town it once was. But then there aren't many iron-mongers left in London either.

However having mentioned darts - you must have gone to LittlePSX the best maid bar in town. Sadly most of our maids have left - sad ties.

Saying that the mayor has a part in the otaku nature of the town is hilarious though - he hates the youth of the nation is a raging racist and fascist, and is generally one of the least likable characters you could come across in politics. If he was German he'd be shunned and possibly in prison. Also the police aren't much better having removed the closed street for almost a year after a tragic event where a man who had nothing to do with the scene murdered a number of people with his car and a knife after being bullied at work.

The mayor even said that the giant tsunami was due to the Japanese not being Japanese enough... God... I could point out more of his wtf moments.

I thought everyone knew that Akihabara is pretty much devoted to the otaku culture these days, anyone who knows anything about anime/manga knows the name Akihabara, the same as anyone who knows tech knows silicon valley.

If you want to find Japanese tech you really need to look for the weird and wonderful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUuJI9dqnXw part 2 is where it starts to get weird with the tech, although part 1 does include security robots.

It truly was a geek paradise

I first visited in 83 and came back with so many goodies that just didn't exist in the Tottenham Court Road. I still have some gold plated phono plugs in a box here somewhere.

Best of all was an Akai open reel cassette pack. It was a cassette shell that opened up and contained tiny removable metal reels of 1/8th inch tape. The idea was that you only needed to carry one cassette for your Walkman but still have access to 10 albums. The reels came in a soft gold-coloured tubular belt pack that apparently enhanced your roller skating experience. Daft, tacky, impractical but too funny to not buy.

Two different planes of existence

This story is so typical of journalistic excursions to Japan. It says more about the writer's inability to access Japan, than it does about Japan.

First Tokyo, next London?

So will we get a story about how the Tottenham Court Road (or even Lisle Street) isn't the electronics paradise of old?

I suppose that comes of being able to remember when Maplin sold electronic components by mail-order, rather than having shops full of no-name plastic tat they have to discount heavily to make space for the next wave of tat no-one wants.

But it is those independently owned places that still remain that are the gems - scratch under the surface, and find the hidden shops on the upper floors and you discover the remaining independent traders which made the area what it was. Radio Kaikan may be a hole in the ground, and there may be a different current visibly flowing through Akiba these days, and Den-Den Town in Osaka is slowly falling into the same trap (but still fantastic in it's own right), but stores such as Super Potato (which still sell original unwrapped mint copies of Gameboy Games out of the original carton that was found at the back of an old warehouse for only 300 yen a game), or the hard-to-find Arcade shops on the fringes of akiba (that will let you handle some of the rarest arcade boards known to man, and then sell you a mega pile of spare buttons and joysticks for only 25 pounds) are what really make those places shine.

And what have we got in London? Tottenham Court Road? I'd rather have a Maid Cafe than a DFS, and Yodobashi Camera than PC World, thank you very much....

Yes, we know.

It's been like that for a while now. I can't understand why Japanese nerds are into manga. I'd think think comics of any sort too juvenile to be of interest to a nerd. But then again, I don't know many nerds born in 1980. The lot of us was more into killing snakes and make small bombs. Can you say BMX? I think we were more interested in the creative possibilities than the technology itself.

Maids

The one lingering memory I will take with me from my recent visit there was the abundance of cuties in French Maid outfits touting their wares in the street. Don't book your plane ticket just yet! They're there to hustle for business in said cafes where you get charged an arm and a leg for service. And they don't take kindly to being photographed - you will get some severe verbal if you try to snap them in the street, which is a bit of a downer if you're a photographer. In the cafe, you will be dispensed a series of instruction cards telling you not to touch the maid, take photos etc., all rather depressing really. Not so much that you can't do those things, but the realisation that there are groping pervs about who try that kind of thing.

Shinjuku is much more fun. The maids aren't there but you will find rows of smiley uniformed ladies with loud squeaky voices in the doorways of electronics shops, all trying to get you inside to buy the latest mobile phone in a continuous stream of unintelligible Japanese. Awesome.

Yodobashi Camera

Yodobashi Akihabara these days seems to be full of Chinese visitors spending a lot of money on TVs, etc. I would imagine that quite a lot of what they're buying is made in China....Astonishing how times have changed.

I miss the old Akihabara, it really was geek heaven.

I visit reasonably often, and it is interesting to chart the history of 3D TVs. I can remember when they first came out Yodobashi was full of them, with very prominent displays of many different 3D TV sets. It wasn't long before that changed. Nowadays they are still there, but it definitely isn't a selling point.

Akiba Ichi building was a park before it was built

This article is all wrong..

Akiba Ichi was a boring flat concrete slab with some basketball hops before it was built.

No small stores were driven out of business by the mayor to get Akiba Ichi built..

Here's proof in case you don't believe me.

http://www.geocities.co.jp/SilkRoad-Desert/4530/akiba1.htm

Get your facts straight and do some proper research before you pretend to know everything about Japan by watching "Manga".

I was in Akibahara in 2001, and it was very much geek paradise then. Did not buy any electronics, I was too busy not losing 25 science students in the maze that was then Akibahara. I did get an eyepiece for my scope at the time. I also remember the "German Beer Cellar" they had in Ginza street, with waitresses in German dirndl dress. Weird (but they had good beer).

I suppose it only be a matter of time...

Until stores such as Circuit City (Circus city), or Best Buy (I won't go there) start popping up.

Thankfully places like Fry's electronics here in sillycon valley still exist (not that I'd ask a sales droid the time of day). They still have components so you can get some (non ROHS!) solder and make it work.

Now that the Raspberry Pi is on its way (they just billed me!) I can play some more!

Two sayings:

The difference between Men and Boys is the price of their toys.

He who dies with the most Toys wins!

I was there a few years back and it was awesome. I did not have much time to spend, but it was much better, then the pictures you posted. There were huge SEGA stores and even Apple shop, if I remember correctly, alhough the Apple was not hat popular in Japan bad then.

Misplaced youth

The problem is that these places are attractive to people who fail to grow up. Someone I once knew ended up married to a loser who spent all day sitting around practicing his guitar and reading comics but failed to complete the Phd he was supposed to be working on. What a waster.

I was in Tokyo last year, and spent a day in akiba. I disagree with the overall tone of the article, and would still encourage people to visit (if you wanted to in the first place!)

There's still lots to do. The anime museum and gundam cafe by the station exit are worth a visit. Do a loop around ending up at Yodabashi and you'll still see your fair share of tech and game shops, some new, some "retro". I never went into a maid cafe, but it was still a novelty to see maids on the street and tell them "arigato gozaimasu" for my free "gift" (some promo tat, nothing exciting).

I think the biggest problem is that the world has caught up with tech. Before worldwide shipping and engadget, maybe a small part of tokyo could lay claim to being a tech-center, but now anywhere with an internet connection can be as informed, this is hardly akiba's fault.

(The japanese are a little to blame actually. For years we heard how amazing their mobile phones were, but while I was there it seems they've given them all up for iphones.)

Overrated ...

I've been in the district several times. In 2005 I spent a troublesome couple of hours trying to locate a CompactFlash card greater than 2Gb and failed. In the end I paid triple the price for a 2Gb card that I would have paid in the UK. With the exception of cellphones and blu-ray recorders there was no tech that was cutting edge and unavailable elsewhere. Most of the shops sold bog standard kit available anywhere and basic souvenirs of Japan catering to the tourists.

'TGV' themed? Really? Not Shinkansen Super-Express themed?!

Was Akihabara ever impressive?

It's pushing ten years since I was last in Tokyo and even back then, Akihabara left me distinctly unimpressed. A shopping area just to the west of Shinjuku station was far more interesting.

I think Charlie Stross beat you to it.

See blag.

Tis a bit late to see anything but a tourist destination on its way down, really.

Its hard to pickup bargains in Japan now especially now the Yen has doubled against £ sterling in recent years.

I have had 245 Yen to £1 in the past.

Singapore

You can still (or still could last time I was there) get a bit of the long-gone frisson by going up some of the back-alleys on 4th+ floor of Sim Lim Square in Singapore - absolutely worth it if you're ever passing through. Ground and first floors are OK but head upwards as soon as you can and it gets more interesting

Pachinko?

Is pachinko dead then?

That's a shame.

That's a shame. When I was younger, I wanted to eventually go to Akihabara. Now, not so much.