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Japan Things To Do in Tokyo: Akiba – Akihabara Electric Town – Day 1

April 21, 2012 | By Karim Kanoun | 1 Comment

This article is the first post of the “things to do” list during two weeks stay in Tokyo. Akihabara Electric Town (also known as Akiba) is suggested as the first thing to do in Tokyo for a truly geeky experience.

Akihabara is the world largest electronic goods center. It has also several manga and anime goods. Besides the big department stores, Akiba has also many small shops full of electronic gadgets and manga goods. This place is mainly dedicated for geeks and nerds and anyone who needs to buy electronics. You can also sell your used electronic devices in Akihabara as well (e.g., Sofmap store). There is some huge department stores specialized in electronics like Softmap or Yodobashi. Yodobashi is really huge, you can ﬁnd there whatever you are looking for. They have one ﬂoor dedicated for cameras, another one for video games, another one for house equipments, another one for manga and material used to construct your own maquette (architecture will love this ﬂoor). They also sell a miniature of your favorite anime character. For instance, for One piece, you can build a miniature of the Going Merry boat or the Sunny Go boat. At Yodobashi they had some glass-free 3d TV, the salesman kindly put a 3D video sequence for us to show us the 3D effect without glasses :). The last ﬂoor of Yodobashi building is full of restaurants, I have tried the one with the Katsu menu twice and it was delicious. If you feel like singing, there are also some karaoke centers where you can enjoy singing with your friends or having fun with your family ;). I recommend you to go to Akihabara on the very ﬁrst day of your trip to Tokyo as if you need a tripod, lenses, extra battery pack or a new camera for the rest of your trip, you cannot go wrong there. Finally if you want to buy some clothes with a reasonable price then you may try UniQlo shop which is close to the Akihabara metro station. Keep in mind that Akihabara can get very crowded during the weekend, you may then need to go during the weekdays if you want to avoid the crowds.

In the next posts, I will talk about Asakusa Senso-ji Temple, Sumida River Cruise, Zojoji temple and the Tokyo Tower.