Akihabara: Electric Town

With beginnings as a marketplace for electronics after World War II, today Akihabara is known as a hotspot for anime and gaming culture around the world; here you’ll find five-story high Sega arcades, as well as gaming stores that still sell Super Nintendo consoles and comic book shops with every anime figure in existence for display. You wander through streets with shining towers and giant advertisements of virtual characters while girls dressed as Anime figures invite you to themed restaurants. For relaxation, you can also go to one of the cat cafes to drink your Matcha coffee and play with pets. Japanese people, though, prefer to go to Pachinko places where they gamble for physical prices. Officially, gambling is forbidden in Japan, so close to the Pachinko stores, there are always small vendors where you can sell your prices and transform them into cash. Yes, it is a weird place and very much corresponds with the picture of Japan’s weirdness. At the same time, it seems unreal, like something out of a Blade Runner movie. Though Akihabara certainly doesn’t represent the whole of Japan, it is a physical manifestation of its modern popular culture and thus should be planned for your Japan trip.