Akihabara ( 秋葉原電気街) also referred to as 'the' spot to go to in Tokyo if you need any kind of electronics. With nearly 600 shops and merchants offering everything under the sun... this should certainly be one of the first stops on your itinerary as it is a major shopping area where you'll find electronics (Digital Cameras, electronic dictionaries Eng-Jap, flat screen/plasma TVs, rice cookers), computers, new DVD/CDs, robotics as well as anime can be found here.New items are mostly to be found on the main street, Chūōdōri, with many kinds of used items found in the back streets of Soto Kanda 3-chōme.
Parts for PC-building are readily available from a diverse range of shops. Merchants along the cramped passageway of Soto Kanda 1-chome sell any number of tools, electrical parts, wires, cameras, etc.
Laox, Yodobashi and Radio Kaikan are some of the big name shops, with multilingual staff, very popular with out of towners looking for the latest and greatest electronics item before it can be found back home flock here to also take advantage of additional discounts afforded those Duty Free shoppers - come with your passport and your shopping list.
As you walk around Akihabara you'll see many people dressed in cos-play costumes - either fans of a particular anime series or simply an employee trying to get you to go to their cafe or trying to sell their companies products and looking to draw customers with their costumes and signs.
If you are a die hard manga fan you'll want to stop by two spots: 1. UDX Building housing the Tokyo Anime Center (you can record you voice and have it dubbed into an animated movie) or 2. Kanda - roughly a 12 minute walk where you find approximately 160 second hand book shops housing roughly 10 million books many stores specializing in new and used books.
All the best....Mark
1 comment:
I've come across some used book fairs but never realized there was this place for manga.
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