I walked in the shadow of the elevated Japanese Rail track from
Asakusabashi to Akihabara – known in shortened form as Akiba, or alternately
Electric Town or Geek City. At a noodle bar on a street corner, I bought a
ticket from a vending machine outside, turned it in at the counter, and then
sat eating my fill while the two cooks went about their work in the narrow,
steamy kitchen on the other side of the bar.
In Akihabara itself, there are two main shopping streets. Both are
full of shops selling animé and manga merchandise, and there are large video
screens across many of the facades. Girls dressed in maid uniforms and various
other costumes hand out flyers. Noise from shop salespeople talking through
loudspeakers forms a background din. Both streets have a building almost
completely covered from top to bottom floor in a plain red advertising hoarding
with the Sega logo in the middle.
Like in many other of the districts I have visited, almost everyone
is young. I wandered into a couple of shops and was lost amongst the rows of
action figures, animé t-shirts and collectible dragons and monsters.
