More than Tokyo's electronics sector, Akihabara is the spiritual home of Japan's Otaku culture of manga and anime as well as a haven for retro gamers.

More than Tokyo's electronics sector, Akihabara is the spiritual home of Japan's Otaku culture of manga and anime as well as a haven for retro gamers. Photo: Adam Turner

Tokyo's famed electronics sector isn't quite the exotic gadgets bazaar it once was, but it's a haven for lovers of manga, anime and retro gaming.

Just a few minutes from the centre of Tokyo by train, Akihabara was one of the city's best places to buy black market radio components after the war. This old heart of Akihabara is still there today, the Radio Centre is a rabbit warren of tiny stalls right near the train station, but a vibrant collection of electronics stores grew up around it as Japan became the world's consumer electronics superpower. 

The real joy of Akihabara is wandering the streets and discovering amazing things for yourself. If you plan your visit with military precision you'll miss out on other things along the way. 

Of course these days Japan's consumer electronics dominance has been challenged by the likes of South Korea and China, but Akihabara has also grown into the spiritual home of Japan's Otaku culture of manga and anime. It's also a retro-gaming paradise if you know where to look. If your appreciation of such things extends beyond Astro Boy, Godzilla and Mario Bros then Akihabara is a wonderland waiting to be explored. Proceed with caution if you're easily offended, as the line between a comic book shop and an adult book store is thin at the best of times.

I was in Japan last week for Tokyo Game Show, including hands-on time with the PlayStation 4, but I also spent an afternoon exploring the streets of Akihabara. It turned out to be a good time to visit, because as evening fell I saw the transformation as the lights came on and the people came out. Even during the day a walk down the main strip is an assault on the senses. The wall of noise coming from each store as you pass feels like walking through a carnival and encountering the overpowering music from one ride after another. Even in the noisiest parts of Tokyo, the volume goes up another notch if you happen to walk past a Pachinko parlour as the doors slide open. 

If you're visiting Akihabara for the first time like I was, my advice is to wander up and down the main strip first and then explore the back streets. Make sure you revisit the main strip later, as it's easy to miss things when you're first acclimatising.

Yodobashi Akihabara - the electronics superstore

If you're chasing consumer electronics then the nine-story Yodobashi Akihabara department store, to the south of the train station, is an essential stop where you'll find a gadget for every occasion. If you've got a specific purchase in mind, such as a new camera lens or notebook computer, then this is a good place to browse. But as you look around, two things will probably dawn on you. Firstly, most things aren't really any cheaper than they are in Australia. Secondly, even if you see something that you can't buy in Australia you'll almost certainly be able to order it online. 

You can still geek-out in Yodobashi Akihabara and drool over the giant wall of televisions, but I think I would have been more impressed ten or twenty years ago. Back then I would have walked out of there with bags and bags of shopping that I could have never bought in Australia, but to be honest I didn't see any electronics that I really needed to buy right there and then. It was still an amazing place, but I just didn't feel the urge to pull out my wallet.

What I did end up buying at Yodobashi Akihabara was stuffed Mario Bros toys for my children, which brings me to the next interesting point about Akihabara. For a district that draws in tourists from around the world, Akihabara does very little to cater to mainstream western nostalgia – which would certainly be a money spinner, tapping into cashed up tourists. 

East meets West

Akihabara feels very much aimed at Japanese shoppers, offering modern Japanese Otaku and gaming paraphernalia along with modern western icons such as the recent movie portrayals of Iron Man and Wolverine. Most nostalgic items you do come across are also aimed at Japanese shoppers, catering to their twin obsessions for Star Wars and Disney. The two even meet in mash-up Disney figures designed to look like Star Wars characters.

Exploring Akihabara you rarely strike something which you'd recognise from mainstream westernised Japanese entertainment, such as Mario Bros, Astro Boy, Voltron, Battle of the Planets or Space Blazers. Of course most anime which made it to western television was renamed and heavily edited. Star Blazers ran in Australia in the 1980s on the ABC in the pre-news timeslot alongside shows like The Goodies and Monkey. For western audiences it was portrayed as a retelling of Jason and the Argonauts, but in Japan it was known as Space Battleship Yamato. The western reworking played down the powerful symbolism of raising the battleship Yamato – the pride of the Japanese fleet which was sunk in the final days of the Second World War. Battle of the Planets ran in a similar timeslot on the ABC, a version of the Japanese cartoon Gatchaman which was so heavily edited for western audiences that a voiceover and new characters were added to help it make sense.

That list probably gives away my late-thirty-something age bracket, but even if you're younger than me you'll probably only see glimpses of stuff you recognise apart from Pokemon and Power Rangers. Ultraman seems very popular, but that might be because it has recently returned to television. If you're after things you'd recognise from a western childhood, try Takarada Musen – where you can also snap photos from the stairwell looking up the main street towards the red Sega building. You could also try the Akiba Culture Zone, which has the K-Books store on the ground floor. 

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that Akihabara wasn't wall-to-wall Godzilla and Astro Boy. I'd much rather explore the less westernised material, even if some of it is lost on me. But it just seems like a huge missed opportunity. If one shop put a giant Astro Boy in the window surely westerners would gravitate towards it. If someone was selling Godzilla t-shirts at Akihabara Station I'm sure they'd do well. Call me shallow, but I would have bought one. Yet such tackiness is just not the Japanese way.

It's not just Akihabara, it seems to be a common theme across Tokyo. Even at the touristy places there's not a lot of tat overtly aimed at foreigners. For example there's no-one standing at Shibuya crossing selling "I heart Tokyo" t-shirts, as you'd find around New York's Times Square. But that's part of the reason why Tokyo is such an amazing place, because it doesn't just feel like New York with kanji slapped on the neon signs. Even in the Harajuku market strip much of what's on show feels more aimed at locals than tourists.

Dining delights


As you walk away from Shibuya station, over the crossing and up the neon-lit mall towards the HMV sign, you'll soon encounter a McDonalds opposite a Burger King. Next to the Burger King is the Uogashi Nihon-Ichi Standing Sushi Bar, a small shopfront only three doorways wide. Technically it's a chain because there's a string of them across Tokyo but even this one seems mostly frequented by locals. The food is incredible and standing at the bar, watching the Sushi master hand-prepare food fresh from Tsukiji fish market, you're a world away from the Burger King next door. You'll find similar Sushi bars around town, including near Akihabara station, but you'll need to hunt them down and typing "sushi" into Google Maps isn't much help.

Finding your way

Getting back to the main strip of Akihabara, if you're keen on manga and anime then make sure you visit both Toranoana and Takarada Musen on the main street along with shops like K-Books and Mandarake.

Don't rely on Google Maps to find your way around Akihabara, as some stores are marked in the wrong place or simply don't show up at all. A google search is generally more useful, finding blog posts about specific stores and maps for their locations, but you can burn through time doing this. I think you can pick up an English map at the train station but I'm not sure which stores it includes. I'll try to give a few directions here to help out, as it can be difficult to find some stores even if you're standing near them.

Start from the red Sega Club building at the south end of Chuo Dori, the main strip of Akihabara which is to the west of the train station. The Sega building is on the opposite side of the road from the station and next to the overhead rail bridge (here's a Google Maps link). From here cross the main street, back towards the train station, and then turn right to head south along the main road under the rail bridge. You'll find Takarada Musen on the next corner, across the side street. The ground floor is mostly playing cards but make sure you explore all the way to the top.

Back at the Sega building, head north to the next main intersection (with a giant glass building on the corner) and turn left. Walk past the next street corner and you'll find K-Books on your left. It's in the ground floor of the Akiba Culture Zone so work your way up.

Mandarake is a little more hidden away. If you're standing in front of K-Books, look across the road and you'll see a laneway slightly to your left. Walk up that laneway, to the first cross intersection, and you'll find the big black Mandarake building on the corner. 

Watch out for the 4th floor of Mandarake, it's definitely Not Suitable for Work. Even in this famous store you're unlikely to find much that is familiar to a mainstream western audience, even if you've dabble in mainstream anime classics such as Akira. But if you're looking to explore the genre then you're faced with a smorgasbord.

There are plenty of other manga and anime shops to visit in that area but it's also worth heading over to Shosen Book Tower, which is away from the strip and lies between Yodobashi Akihabara and the river. From Yodobashi Akihabara head east until you reach the north/south train bridge, but turn right (south) before you walk underneath the bridge. Walk south alongside the train bridge and Shosen is a tall building on a street corner, on your right just before you reach the river.

Gaming nostalgia

If you're into classic computer games then Super Potato is an essential visit. Start from the red Sega building again, head north to the next main intersection and turn left. Now take the next left to the south (if you walk past K-Books you've gone too far). Keep walking south and you'll find Super Potato on your left, just as you reach the first street on the right. It's a dark building with Pacman and Mario on the front up high, but they're hard to spot from street level. 

Also keep your eye out for a little place on the main strip called Retro Game Camp – it's on the train station side, two doors up from the black Tsukumo building on the corner. Once again look up and you'll see Pacman and Mario on the front of Retro Game Camp along with a yellow DVD & Game sign. Don't expect to find a giant sign with the name of the store at the front of either of these retro gaming shops, from street level they look just like any other cramped consumer electronics shop. It's why you need to explore Akihabara rather than just glancing in the doorway of each store and moving on. Be prepared to climb some stairs or squeeze into a lift.

In shops like Super Potato and Retro Game Camp you'll still find the PlayStation 2 and the original grey PlayStation 1, but you can also go much further back and pick up a Nintendo GameCube, Sega MegaDrive or Super Nintendo Entertainment System (known in Japan as the Super Famicon). If you're after games for these old consoles and others then you'll be in heaven. I lost track of how many hours I clocked up as a teenager playing Street Fighter on the Super NES with my friends. 

Rise of the machines 

Of course Akihabara is also famous for its robotics stores, such as Tsukumo, but these are also tricky to find. Don't be fooled by the big Tsukumo building on the main strip near Retro Game Camp, you're actually looking for the small Tsukumo near Super Potato. Walking down from K-Books you'll see a few stores with Tsukumo signs. The one you're looking for is past Super Potato, a little further south and on the other side of the road. It has a red and green neon Tsukumo sign above the doorway and it's just before the overhead train bridge with KFC underneath. The robotics floor is up two or three flights of stairs, with statues of Astro Boy and Professor Ochanomizu in the doorway. If you hit the camera floor you've gone too far. 

Tsukumo has a range of robots set up for you to play with, from robotic arms to full mechanoids. It's pretty cool but there wasn't a lot on display when I was there so it's worth checking out the newer Vstone Robot Center. I think it's next door to Tsukumo, right next to the overhead rail bridge, but to be honest I ran out of time and didn't make it there.

That's the biggest challenge when visiting Akihabara, finding the time to take everything in. I chewed through a bit of time googling and criss-crossing town in search of different stores. I wish I'd done a bit more planning before I hit Akihabara, as I was talking about last week, so I could have been a little more systematic. I hope these directions help other people find a few of Akihabara's highlights. This is no way an exhaustive list and it's certain worth reading widely on Akihabara's highlights, especially if you're chasing something in particular.

That said, the real joy of Akihabara is wandering the streets and discovering amazing things for yourself. If you plan your visit with military precision you'll miss out on other things along the way and perhaps lose that atmospheric sense of amazement and wonder. Some of my favourite memories of Tokyo are the places I discovered by just wandering around, from eating at that little sushi place near Shibuya crossing to drinking in an alleyway bar in Shinjuku's Kabukicho red-light district – a place I'd struggle to find again even in the light of day with a clear head.

If you're planning a trip to Akihabara, try to allow for some time to simply lose your way and explore the back streets for yourself. It's not the bargain-hunter's paradise it once was for gadget shoppers, but it's still worth making the pilgrimage to Akihabara to immerse yourself in the Tokyo's Otaku mecca. 
