Tokyo Explorer

With everything from specialist PC and radio parts to automatic toilets and cool gadgetry, if it is electronics you want, look no further than Akihabara.

Akihabara’s association with electronics began with the black market trading of radios and radio components that rose out of the ashes of World War Two. The small stalls that then gathered around Akihabara station and initially catered to students at the nearby electrical college (present-day Tokyo Denki University) formed the heart of what is now known as “Electric Town” － Japan’s preeminent area for things electrical.

By the 1960s and the advent of electrical consumer goods, Akihabara’s wireless stalls competed for space with stores selling TVs, washing machines and other household luxuries of the time. By the 1980s, Electric Town was riding the wave of home computing as a place to buy both hardware and the latest games, while in the past decade or so Akihabara has also added PCs and manga and anime-related products to its repertoire. If you want something electrical and can’t find it in Akihabara, chances are it hasn’t been invented yet.

Duty free electronics and backstreet bargains
A stroll around Akihabara on a Sunday afternoon will probably bring you together with more nationalities than any other part of Tokyo, and the reason is simple － the duty free shops.

After fighting your way passed the crowds of cosplayers and maid café staff handing out flyers by the Electric Town exit (not to mention the amateur photographers taking “glamour” shots of the maids), the duty free shopping begins with the block of buildings directly opposite the station that house the multi-floored Ishimaru, LAOX, Daiso Takarada Akihabara, and Akky III duty free stores.

Head right from these and onto Chuo Dori and more duty free stores loom into sight, with another couple of branches of Akky, another LAOX, and the giant Onoden.

Inside the stores the feeling is definitely international. All have staff on hand to serve customers in English, Korean and Chinese, and some stores, such as Akky, also provide Bengali, Russian and Spanish speaking staff. When it comes to stock, they are equally diverse with line-ups taking in automatic bidet toilets, high-end audio systems, hundreds of air-conditioning options, refrigerators that can record audio messages, and a whole lot more.

Price-wise the large duty free stores are certainly cheaper than airport duty free, but for real bargains you need to head away from their imposing neon facades and explore the side streets shooting off of Chuo Dori. This is where you will find smaller stores that are happy to undercut the big boys, and who are among the rare minority of places in Japan where you can actually try to barter down the price. If you can’t speak Japanese, don’t worry. Despite Japan’s reputation as the dunce of Asia when it comes to learning foreign languages, even the smaller shops tend to have some staff who can speak enough English to help you shop.

Where the locals and geeks shop
The cramped alleys by Akihabara Station in Soto-Kanda 1-chome teem with small shops and stalls specializing in items ranging from light bulbs and diodes to walkie-talkies and security cameras. Admittedly there is not much in 1-chome that will have most tourists reaching for their credit cards (good thing, too, as many of the stalls run on cash only), but the two floors of stalls are certainly worth a wander around as a bit of a throwback to how Akihabara was when electronics first came to the area.

The narrow backstreets on the other side of Chuo Dori from 1-chome (Soto-Kanda 3-chome) are where PC enthusiasts go to pick up parts and accessories, so perhaps it is no surprise this is also where most of the computer game shops are to be found. The particular specialty that has proved popular here in recent years, besides the animation tie-ins, are the dating simulation games designed for the stereotypically lank-haired and socially-inept anime and manga fanatics who in the past decade have added a new dimension to Akihabara in making it the Mecca for all things geeky.

To experience a little of that otaku culture for yourself, take a wander through the comic stores and costume shops on and around Chuo Dori. While some of the shops are oriented at adult entertainment and probably not the best place to take your mother, most, like the large Donkihote, are open to all.

Although quite a few of the adult items do come with batteries at Donkihote (as in Don Quixote spelled badly), the place isn’t just about electronics and electrical items.

Adult floor aside, this is the place to pick up something seriously silly to take home. Something like a samurai wig or sumo outfit, or even an adult-sized school uniform or lamp stand disguised as a French maid’s stocking-clad legs. Classy it is not, entertaining it certainly is, and like the rest of the stores in Akihabara Donkihote does have some good deals.