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A Video Guide To Akihabara
freaklabs writes "Tokyo Hackerspace just put up a video guide to Akihabara in Tokyo, an area that's densely populated with electronics components shops. We get a lot of questions about where to go over there and also requests for guided tours so we figured it's probably best just to put up videos, descriptions, and Google map markers. It was always difficult to tell people where to go, since the places are hard to find, so we're hoping this makes it easier for visitors to Tokyo that want to get their geek on."
I went; it is fucking awesome!
I've been to Akihabara before and it's extremely confusing, much like the rest of Tokyo, so I'm really happy about this guide. I watched a few clips from it and it's easy to follow and the google maps addition is great. My only request is if you can do it for the rest of Tokyo :)
I just made my fifth or six trip to Akihabara over the weekend.
Stay away from any store that says "PC game" (in Katakana). Chances are, by "game" they're referring to softcore-porn DVD roms... They're usually B1 level and full of otaku perverts. I went into a few looking for a specific PC title and it took me a bit to realize what was actually going on.
I highly recommend taking a couple thousand yen to a big arcade like Club Sega. Fun times.
I watched this when it was posted on HackADay earlier. It was largely a waste of time, because there's not that much to see. Most of what I saw looked remarkably similar to some ham-friendly electronics stores in Boston, like You Do It Electronics (there was another great hobbyist store chain that went out of business, I forget the name.)
The video is shot without any stabilization, handheld, by someone who had a little too much caffine, and who points the camera at Interesting Things for all of about, oh, a tenth of a second. This combined with Youtube's low bitrates = blurry, compression blocks of Fail. Seriously, you can tell the place is amazing visually, but because Cracky McCoffee The Cameraman can't hold the camera still or stop to pause on something, all you see is a blurry mess. And it's all out of focus, too, because it was shot with a dSLR, and this one apparently can't autofocus while shooting video (or Cracky McCoffee bumped the MF/AF switch), and CMcCTC didn't realize that indoors, he has such a large aperture that there's zero depth of field. At one point, the guy is standing in front of the camera talking for a good 30 seconds, completely blurred out, until he steps closer to the camera to get out of the aisle, and then poof! He's out of focus again.
Most of the "cool stuff" seems to consist of enclosures. The guy leading the tour has a borderline fetish for enclosures. Here, let me blast right past these meters and industrial automation gear. Now, check out this enclosure! Wow, it's hexagon shaped, see that? And it's metalic! This one has a stand. Now, pay no attention to those robotics...here's my other favorite enclosure store! This one can silkscreen graphics on the front. WOOOOOOOW. Oh that, those are nuclear-powered minisubs. Waaaaaaalking....
Please help metamoderate.
If you don't want things with a million buttons, then what are you doing in Akihabara...?
Try Nipponbashi in Osaka. It is sometimes pronounced in Tokyo by native speakers as Nihonbashi.
I love how people assume I only went to the duty-free shops, or that I don't speak Japanese. I was born in Japan and it is my native language. I've been to shops in both the back streets and forward streets. I wasn't impressed with any of it. If some people see the point to spending $200 on a plastic bikini doll, $400 on some draft sketches of an obscure anime series, or $800 on a camera because the lens can move forward and backward like some unfulfilled manhood fantasy, then I suppose they stay in business. Oh I forgot, I guess I'm talking to the slashdot crowd here. Haha.
I don't know what I wrote that gave you the impression that I am a Japanophile. That sort of name-calling seems to be used not just people who worship the place (which is undoubtedly weird), but for anybody who defends the place. In fact, you should have got the opposite impression due to the fact that I already wrote that I dislike going there (for the reasons I wrote above).
Your impression of the area smacks of "ex-foreigner who never really fit in" rather than "savvy Japanese dude who saw through the hype". I apologize if I assumed too much, but reread your comment and you can probably see where I'm coming from. Finally, the post I'm responding to here only enforces my opinion, considering the total "Japanese perverts!" tangent.
p.s. Uniqlo is the Salvation Army of Japan. It's supposed to be cheap crap. p.p.s. The new Akiba Yodobashi is pretty roomy, actually. full disclosure: My office is 15 minutes from the area, so I shop there sometimes at lunch. I avoid anywhere that has porn or anime, so maybe I just haven't been to the same places as you.
Just so people don't get the wrong impression. This video since it is basically done indoors doesn't begin to show the immense scale of this place. Closer to the main strip all buildings are 10~20 stories tall filled with stuff. The sides of buildings are TVs. 16wheelers come through but instead of towing a shipping container they have a bunch of 50" TVs playing anime. On certain days you may see >100 people cosplaying while just passing through. And this guy totally focused on things he likes, if you didn't see what you are looking for in his video it isn't because its not there. Its because he skipped it. The fact that they had parts to set up your own bio-lab was telling.
Wikipedia to the rescue! :-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nipponbashi
I've visited Den Den town a few times and bought a few items there, such as a copy card for my DS...:-)
Not as large as Akihabara, but adequate and interesting.
Kyoto has almost nothing. It used to have some interesting stuff on the south side of Shijo, on Teramachi, but I visited again this year, and many of the stores have relocated/closed.
Also try Yodobashi camera in Osaka near the Hankyu/JR railway stations (Umeda). Carries many, many electronics of all kinds, and I visit there whenever visiting Osaka.