Today, Tuesday Oct 11th, I took the train up into Tokyo to visit “Akiba” (Akihabara). It’s about $20 for one-way and takes roughly 2 hours.

It was a bit overwhelming with all the happenings going on there. Anything doujinshi/manga or anime that you want to find, you’ll definitely find it here. There were also arcades and game shops with tons of crane machines.

Of course I saw the expected “Maids” standing on the street corners pushing their shop’s fliers to passers by. I’m sure I could have gotten one or two of them to do a photo, but decided not to as it would be impolite. One “maid” in particular had a sign that clearly stated in English “No photos”, which probably makes sense as I’m sure there are tons of people taking photos without permission which is rude in Japanese culture.

I only took a few photos of the main street area and decided that instead of going crazy buying various things, I’d head home and think a bit about what, if anything, I wanted from there, and will head back at a later day, and spend more time wandering around.

In addition to the “otaku” culture that Akihabara is well-known for outside Japan these days, there’s also tons of electronics and computer shops, which is what it basically started as after WWII.