(no subject)
Saturday morning (which happed at 1pm) was hangover free. Thanks Suntory Dakara Life-Partner electrolyte beverage! That evening I headed out to Akihabara - the last place on my absolutely-must-see list.
It’s the electronics capital. It has super-stores, and from what I’ve heard - company factory stores- and even one store with personal robots. Sorry I don’t have a picture with me with Asimo - I couldn’t find that one, or the factory stores. The electronics superstores however……
ZOMG. This was the laptop section of one of the 3 or 4 superstores. Well, about a fifth of it anyway. They are totally holding out on us for small laptops by the way. Each section was as big as a Best Buy with a for just that Item. This 6 story building had Computers, Computer software and Accessories, personal electronics, and entire Apple store, professional and amateur cameras, musical instruments, DJ / studio equipment, TV’s, hi-fi stereophile stereos, video cameras, video games, home appliances, electronic accessories (as in Radioshack, transistors, adapters, etc) car stereo, watches, exercise equipment, and to boot the top was a full toy store. The range in each section went (and I’m not joking) from kids bedroom - to cutting edge professional. You should have seen the camera LENS section. Let me give you another example - look at one of the 5 speaker rooms:
Care for a set of headphones to match your lipstick:
This place put Best Buy, CompUsa, Sony Style, Tweeter, Circuit City, Toy’s R Us, Radioshack, Sears, and (any others I missed) totally to shame. Sorry guys - game systems and games all region coded to Japan. The toy store was a trip too. They had an airsoft gun section for starters. Basically it looks like an NRA / IRA superstore of every infantry weapon you can imagine. Replicas of everything - machine guns and all - that fire plastic pellets (although metal BBs fit too) by compressed air, manual spring, or electric motor. I’ve seen my share of guns - and at about 3 inches - these were INDISTINGUISHABLE. It’s such an out of place sight in such a peaceful place. Now I know what you’re thinking - I can pick you up an MP5, AK-47, P90, Steyr AUG, and Car-15 with a side of Sig Sauer. Not a chance. I don’t even want to think about what would happen at either end of the trip home.
But the most exciting section - where I could barely contain my nerdiness and bored the hell out of my cohorts - was in the model section:
Every Gundam / Car / Plane / Anime thing you can image. You want one - I’m officially taking requests. Name an obscure Gundam - they have it. Not to mention anime dolls from obscure to profane.
Akihabara is also known for manga shops and porn shops. One observation - Evangellion is totally ubiquitous here - I can’t turn a corner in this district without Unit 01’s face and Rei Ayanami (often sexualized) staring me in the face.
Along with the Doujin (look it up) There were also numerous 7-9 story porn shops. Its really an amazing thing, that this is a very polite, formal, proper, and peaceful place - yet sex shops and prostitution are fairly common and wide out in the open. This is downtown - not some obscure run down neighborhood - and you have a tall building displaying every costume you can imagine. As is the way with repression, the popular sex industry skips right past normal and right to the extreme (sparing detail - I've seen some weird shit).
It’s the electronics capital. It has super-stores, and from what I’ve heard - company factory stores- and even one store with personal robots. Sorry I don’t have a picture with me with Asimo - I couldn’t find that one, or the factory stores. The electronics superstores however……
ZOMG. This was the laptop section of one of the 3 or 4 superstores. Well, about a fifth of it anyway. They are totally holding out on us for small laptops by the way. Each section was as big as a Best Buy with a for just that Item. This 6 story building had Computers, Computer software and Accessories, personal electronics, and entire Apple store, professional and amateur cameras, musical instruments, DJ / studio equipment, TV’s, hi-fi stereophile stereos, video cameras, video games, home appliances, electronic accessories (as in Radioshack, transistors, adapters, etc) car stereo, watches, exercise equipment, and to boot the top was a full toy store. The range in each section went (and I’m not joking) from kids bedroom - to cutting edge professional. You should have seen the camera LENS section. Let me give you another example - look at one of the 5 speaker rooms:
Care for a set of headphones to match your lipstick:
This place put Best Buy, CompUsa, Sony Style, Tweeter, Circuit City, Toy’s R Us, Radioshack, Sears, and (any others I missed) totally to shame. Sorry guys - game systems and games all region coded to Japan. The toy store was a trip too. They had an airsoft gun section for starters. Basically it looks like an NRA / IRA superstore of every infantry weapon you can imagine. Replicas of everything - machine guns and all - that fire plastic pellets (although metal BBs fit too) by compressed air, manual spring, or electric motor. I’ve seen my share of guns - and at about 3 inches - these were INDISTINGUISHABLE. It’s such an out of place sight in such a peaceful place. Now I know what you’re thinking - I can pick you up an MP5, AK-47, P90, Steyr AUG, and Car-15 with a side of Sig Sauer. Not a chance. I don’t even want to think about what would happen at either end of the trip home.
But the most exciting section - where I could barely contain my nerdiness and bored the hell out of my cohorts - was in the model section:
Every Gundam / Car / Plane / Anime thing you can image. You want one - I’m officially taking requests. Name an obscure Gundam - they have it. Not to mention anime dolls from obscure to profane.
Akihabara is also known for manga shops and porn shops. One observation - Evangellion is totally ubiquitous here - I can’t turn a corner in this district without Unit 01’s face and Rei Ayanami (often sexualized) staring me in the face.
Along with the Doujin (look it up) There were also numerous 7-9 story porn shops. Its really an amazing thing, that this is a very polite, formal, proper, and peaceful place - yet sex shops and prostitution are fairly common and wide out in the open. This is downtown - not some obscure run down neighborhood - and you have a tall building displaying every costume you can imagine. As is the way with repression, the popular sex industry skips right past normal and right to the extreme (sparing detail - I've seen some weird shit).