Visiting Tokyo (Part 4)

One of the major attractions in Tokyo is Akihabara.  It is known to be the electric town traditionally.  Recently, it has become a must-visit attraction for people who are interested in toys, manga and anime alike. We went there using the JR Yamanote line.  One thing about the trains in Tokyo is that they all have Japanese and English voice announcements.  It is quite friendly to visitors like us who don’t speak Japanese.

Even the train station has cute anime style advertisement.

At the ground level of the Akihabara station, there was some free demonstration of Acer laptops featuring battery life of up to 8 hours.  Guess MacBook Pros aren’t the only laptops in this category anymore.

This is probably the most popular corner for photo taking in Akihabara.  I have seen this exact photo taken by thousands of photographers in different media.  But yet I also have to take one :)

And two.  I was here!!!

Radio Kaikan is my favorite place for looking for toys.

There is a Volks store in Radio Kaikan, puppy52 spent money there :P

We see a lot of K-On! girls around.  Like in this elevator.

So even in a store on the street level….

They are helping to promote products.

But K-On! girls are not the only ones.  Actually, I don’t know who these girls are….

There are big ones on the top of the builds as well.

On the entire side of buildings.

Or on the side of a truck.

In comparison, the buildings in Akihabara that don’t have anime characters on the outside looks a bit boring.  It is kind of like going to Disney and you don’t see Disney characters in some buildings and they might be less attractive to some.

While walking out towards Yodobashi Camera, we pass through this exit that has a Mochicream shop.

Can’t stop taking a picture of it.  Wonder what the shopkeeper was thinking about.  It looks like she wanted to say something.

Yodobashi Camera is a store that has a lot of different departments like cell phone, camera, computer, appliance, toys, photo processing, books. Yodobashi Camera has a theme song. You often hear it being played inside the store. The above is a music video of it :)

Other people have compared it to Frys or Bestbuy in USA.  I find that it offers more than what typical North American chain electronic stores offer.

For example, on the top floor, they have restaurants.  An entire floor of restaurants!

I think it is totally appropriate.  When you have floors and floors of goodies for customers to shop and browse, it is natural that your customers will need refreshments, or even nice meals, to keep them in your building for hours.  I remember I was at Futureshop in Vancouver looking at computers and stuff, when I felt hungry, I have to say goodbye to Futureshop.  Too bad for them because I might not come back after leaving.

The display “fake” food is so beautiful.  And it makes sense to make them as attractive as possible to entice customers.  Of course, it helps us to order food as we could just point to them to tell the attendant what we want.

Noodles (Ramen) is popular in Tokyo.  I love ramen.  I want to have it every day.

Of course, there are other kinds of restaurants.  Katsu is also one of my favorites.

And Sushi.

Food is typically not expensive here.

5 replies
  1. FatB
    FatB says:

    Should have got a shot of the goodies inside, but I suppose you’re technically not allowed. I went there at dusk when the flashing lights turn on. Still tonnes of people at that time of day.

    In the enlargement, that person at moshi cream looks funny. ^^;

    Reply
  2. lastra
    lastra says:

    Gosh, going to Akihabara looks so fun. >_< I want to visit Tokyo at least once in my life.

    Reply

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