{"id":411,"date":"2010-04-28T23:10:44","date_gmt":"2010-04-28T13:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/?p=411"},"modified":"2010-04-29T22:35:55","modified_gmt":"2010-04-29T12:35:55","slug":"tokyo-part-6-%e2%80%93-akihabara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/?p=411","title":{"rendered":"Tokyo part #6 \u2013 Akihabara"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Akihabara, Tokyo<\/p><\/div>\n

No trip to Japan would be complete without a (rather big) glimpse of what makes the country tick\u2026 and whirl, and buzz. Electronics! And there\u2019s no better place to get your geek on than Tokyo\u2019s CPU, Akihabara<\/strong> aka Akiba aka Electric town. Just picture Jaycar or Dick Smith times a million and you\u2019re getting close. Any kind of premade electronic product EVER from radios, to game consoles, to cameras and computers to the components used to make them, replacement parts, capacitors, inductors, circuitry, you name it, if its powered by electricity, you\u2019ll find it here\u2026 somewhere. <\/p>\n

The station is only about 1km from Ueno, so it\u2019s an easy walk or a couple minute train ride.<\/p>\n

The first obvious places are the larger stores as you walk out of the station\u2019s west exit (follow the signs to \u201cElectric town\u201d) being the multiple LAOX<\/strong> and Sofmap<\/strong> stores. These have an army of staff which are helpful and speak quite good English (some stores even have Caucasian staff) and also have duty free. They have similar style layouts, with a level dedicated to a certain type of product eg. Cameras, computers, watches, home goods etc. and a big index sign on the ground level will help you save precious shopping minutes \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

While you will more than likely find what you\u2019re looking for in these shops, nothing can prepare you for the onslaught from the mothership on Akiba station\u2019s north east, that being the Akihabara Yodobashi Center<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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Yodabashi camera store, Akihabara, Tokyo <\/p><\/div>\n

Eleven floors of every model of every colour of every electronic item release in the last 5years (or there abouts). They even have sporting goods, toys and a floor of restaurants. I\u2019d say its like Harvey Normal times 1000 but Yodobashi actually has good service and good prices (yea, I went there). Speaking of prices, while they are very competitive to the local AU market, they\u2019re very similar to online (overseas) prices so you may want to save yourself some import fees when coming back through customs by not going all out on big ticket items. In saying that, being able to handle and eyeball similar products for a hands on, real life comparison, is indispensable. <\/p>\n

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After we surfaced from a sea of electric razors and toothbrushes, we headed to Super Potato (I know, right!). They specialise in retro gaming. Forget about your wifi enabled, pizza ordering, \u201cI\u2019m in a rap video\u201d gaming consoles, its back to the roots with the 3 commandments. Shooting, driving, and jumping and maybe even all three! So basically anything prior to the Playstation 1, wall to floor to ceiling of games and consoles. Since very few cartridge games were reissued, they\u2019re mostly all originals but are all still in good to mint condition. <\/p>\n

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Super Potato, Akihabara,Tokyo<\/p><\/div>\n

Atari, Nintendo, Mega Drive, Master System<\/strong> to the ill fated Saturn<\/strong>, Dreamcast and Game Cube<\/strong> are all covered as well as plenty of domestic market releases that never saw the light on the world stage and a bunch of quirky little handheld games and mini consoles. Just remember when buying any mains powered devices from overseas, that it will work on your local voltage supply, if not you will need to purchase a separate power transformer. Anything powered by batteries is fine since DC current is universal.<\/p>\n

Back out on the main drag amongst the cosplay girls handing out flyers, you\u2019ll see more \u201cPichinko\u201d (or \u201cTaito\u201d), no not something Elliot from Scrubs would say, but gaming houses filled with slot machines. Half a block away you\u2019ll hear the deafening wave of bells and whistles as the automatic doors open and close. There are also plenty of gaming places dedicated to claw machines, but these are the same the world over. Only enough tension in the claw to give the prize the gentlest nudge of hope so you continue to funnel in your coins. You seriously have more hope getting a prize from a wishing well, so you\u2019re better off just buying one from a toy store.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s that? Toy store? You thought I forgot didn\u2019t you? Not at all! A couple blocks north of the station is another Mandarake<\/a> store. Multiple levels include buying on the ground floor for those with a bit of buyers\u2019 remorse, cosplay and 2 levels of figures and collectibles. They also have items for the die hard fans, like the actual helmets used in filming Power Rangers<\/strong> and uniforms from local productions.<\/p>\n

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Mandarake, Akihabara, Tokyo<\/p><\/div>\n

Over near Yodobashi there is another large toy store called Animate. Unfortunately during another \u201ccan\u2019t see the forest for the trees\u201d slash \u201cdamn you google maps\u201d moment we couldn\u2019t find it but later discovered it in the background of one of our photos! Anyway, what you need to do is get to this store on a Sunday, when they close off a lane and its filled with performers and cosplayers.<\/p>\n

Finally if you\u2019re having withdrawals from sneakers or music, there\u2019s still a few ABC Marts and a Music Vox to appease that hunger, otherwise its Gashapon<\/strong> time! <\/p>\n

About 2 blocks north of Mandarake off the main street in a small side lane is a dirty yellow signed store that houses a ground floor of Gashapon and 2 upper levels of toys, figures and collectibles. What is Gashapon<\/strong>? You\u2019ll know them as the gumball style machines at the exit of supermarkets that you nagged your mum for change so you could get a toy in a capsule when you were little. The difference here is the toys aren\u2019t a poorly moulded ring, necklace or keyring, they’re highly detailed and painted quality pvc items. Best thing of all, you no longer need to nag your mum, you can buy as many as you want! <\/p>\n

Choose anything from your favourite shows\/games like Mario, Star Wars and anime characters to the weird and wonderful of light up poo keyrings, telescopic cat paw pointing wands, tote bags, countless mobile phone trinkets and for the (not so) mature crowd, the X rated figures in various states of undress and positions that will have even Paris Hilton taking notes.<\/p>\n

The majority of Gashapon cost between 100-500Y, with dedicated stores like this one having a change machine and recycle bin for used capsules. Depending on how many you buy, it\u2019s a good idea to bin the capsules to save luggage space.<\/p>\n

FYI, \u201cGashapon\u201d refers to \u201cGasha\u201d as in the crank machine that holds the toys and \u201cpon\u201d the sound the capsule makes when it drops. A lot easier to say than click tic tic tac click tacka!<\/p>\n

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Gashapon<\/p><\/div>\n

Tokyo part #1 – Ueno for a day<\/a>
\nTokyo part #2 – Getting round Tokyo, Ueno Sakura at night<\/a>
\nTokyo part #3 – Harajuku<\/a>
\nTokyo part #4 – Shibuya<\/a>
\nTokyo part #5 – Kichijoji and Shinjuku<\/a>
\nTokyo part #7 – Odaiba and Leaving Tokyo<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo Gallery Here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No trip to Japan would be complete without a (rather big) glimpse of what makes the country tick\u2026 and whirl, and buzz. Electronics! And there\u2019s no better place to get your geek on than Tokyo\u2019s CPU, Akihabara aka Akiba aka Electric town. Just picture Jaycar or Dick Smith times a million and you\u2019re getting close. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[389,388],"tags":[472,471,169,478,184,481,473,474,438,484,486,483,485,482,400,475,436,170,50,480,476,479,2776,2774,391,477],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=411"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":440,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions\/440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soulbridgemedia.com\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}