Wandering Through Akihabara

When I first heard about Akihabara, long before visiting Japan, I was told it was a huge technology district. That is a gross understatement. Since there isn’t anything that truly comes close to this in the US I was under the impression that Akihabara was like the strip in Las Vegas, but instead of gambling there were towers of anime and video games. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Waiting at the Crosswalk	Wandering Around

The sheer size of Akihabara exceeds any preconceptions I had about it. There really is no end to the sky-scraper arcades and department stores complimented by the innumerable smaller arcades and specialty shops. If we had all of the time we wanted then I’m sure we would have stopped into every arcade along our journey for a few rounds of Street Fighter IV against the locals… a slaughter basically. However, we did visit a few staples including Club Sega and the huge Taito Game Station. Both arcades are packed with games on every floor and each floor represents a different genre of game. Floors of racing games, fighting games, redemption games, and sports games are all present here. What wasn’t present were the youth. The arcades seemed to have mostly over-20’s there with a few younger patrons here and there. Arcades seem like a more adult friendly affair in Japan, especially with the smoking friendly environment and smaller arcade machines which allow players to sit while enjoying their favorite game.

Tech Shops	Club Sega Building

Moving back outside along the busier parts of Akihabara you’re field of view is filled with at least 10 advertisements at once. Buildings are used as billboards, billboards are used as billboards, people are used as billboards, and there are even some shops with people on loudspeakers to attract patrons through rhyme. I can only assume they were rapping about the amazing deals that could be found in the store since my Japanese knowledge is very limited and was practically non-existent during my visit. Not only were the billboards in place, but I received so many handouts about video games, anime, club events, and in-store sales that I filled the display on my arcade cabinet up with them instead of getting a piece of art commissioned to fill the void. Even after filling that display up I’m left with a stack of flyers in a binder that serve as memories of the trip.

GAME (huge arcade)	Huge adverts

As we wandered from tech-heavy Akihabara to anime-heavy, game-heavy, and fetish-porn-heavy Akihabara we came across the gaming store of gaming stores. A store you hear legends about on gaming forums. Super Potato. Arranged by category per floor you start at one end of the gaming spectrum and work your way to the other. From the NES and other early systems up through the last generation of consoles almost everything you can think of is accounted for, plus more. The top story of Super Potato is an arcade with candy cabs running games from the past. We couldn’t pass up this opportunity to play some Street Fighter II or take our picture with the life-size mannequin of Snake. Just so I can sound like everyone else who has visited Tokyo and been into Super Potato, if you go to Akihabara you must track this place down. It’s a great store to just wander through and browse even if you don’t end up purchasing anything in the end. I picked up Mother 3 while I was there to remind me of the concentrated awesome that is Super Potato.

Super Potato!	Me and Snake

Ryokans and Department Stores!
During our week in Tokyo my friends and I stayed in a ryokan, or a hostel, in Asakusa, Tokyo. The name of the ryokan we stayed in is the Toukaisou (http://www.toukaisou.com), and if you’re planning a trip to Tokyo I definitely recommend this place. The staff speaks English and the location can’t be beat. You can choose to stay in the commons area, where there are bunk beds and a common kitchen and bathroom, or in a private room, where you get a private bathroom and roll out beds. We stayed in both during our trip and I preferred the private room over the commons area, but both are great places to stay.

Justin in front of the ryokan	Me eating in our room

Right down the street form the Toukaisou is a sushi place that is open 24/7 as well as a 24-hour grocery store. Behind the grocery store, which is the basement to a giant department store called ROX, is a soccer field, two arcades, and a great bar. We stopped by the famous Kaminarimon as well since it is located in Asakusa. The Kaminarimon has a history of being rebuilt and destroyed and the current version was built back in the 1960’s. Not only do you have historic destinations and entertainment at your disposal within a short walk, but the stations are easily accessible as well and no destination is too far from the stations in Asakusa.

Grocery shopping at ROX	Kaminarimon in Asakusa

On day three of our trip we made it to Akihabara. I’ll dedicate an entire post to the insanity and sensory-overload that is Akihabara soon, but for now I’m going to focus on the department store right across the street from Akihabara station called Yodobashi-Akiba. The first few floors are your generic electronics, with each floor having its contents clearly spelled out on the escalator ride up to the floor. Televisions, cameras, home applicances, video games, and toys are all here on dedicated floors. What I’ve only heard of and never seen I first came in contact with on the toy floor, rows and rows of capsule toy machines. In the USA a restaurant of business may have a few machines in the front selling candy or small toys, but the Japanese are light years ahead of us in the capsule toy department. Capsule toys aren’t just for kids in Japan, they’re for everyone and they’re actually fun to collect.

Yodobashi-Akiba entrance	Capsule toys!

I had to buy some capsule toys of course and I left Japan with several Street Fighter (Chun-Li, Sakura, Ibuki, and Cammy) and Evangelion (Shinji and Rei) capsule toys. These six now reside on my desk at work as a constant reminder that I need to go back for a second trip to Japan next year. The remainder of the toy floor houses things similar to those which you would expect to find here in the US: action figures, collectables, puzzles, board games, and more. Anyone into technology and Japanese entertainment like I am could easily spend an entire day in this department store alone, but we needed to get out and see the rest of Akihabara! On our way back to the escalators we found signs that pointed us up a few more floors to the food court and we headed there for lunch.

Lunch in the food court	Yodobashi-Akiba

As we approached the food court floor I had the thoughts of an American mall’s food court in my head. When we reached the food court it was obvious that things here were not just a little different, but completely different. The floor should have been called “Restaurants” because that is what it was, a floor full of restaurants. From the escalator we wandered to the back of the food court to a soba place that all of us agreed on. This soba restaurant was the first place we encountered that did not have an English version of the menu so we used Justin’s Japanese to English (and the other way around) translator to poke our way through the menu. I’m going to take a quick detour here and talk about the translator Justin owns. I don’t know the exact model, but Justin owns an older Seiko translator which came in handy several times throughout the trip. It was frustrating that many “common” kanji were beyond the Seiko’s scope, but it made things like menus and directions more accessible to us. Looking now, Seiko has several newer models of their Japanese<>English electronic dictionary and I can only assume that these newer models cover much more material than the version we had on our trip. Either way, one of these is a worthy investment if no one in your travel party is fluent in Japanese. Back on topic! The food was great, as was all of the food I ate during my stay in Japan, and lunch was just what we needed to give our feet a break and rest up for the rest of the day in Akihabara. I didn’t take any pictures of the food court so I don’t know the name of the restaurant we ate at. As far as I can remember, it was simply straight to the back from the escalator and was the only soba place at the back.

More pictures from the trip are in my Japan flickr set here.

Coming up soon – The rest of our day out in Akihabara!