Akihabara Take Two

Volks Inc.

Kotobukiya

The Azone Building

Some random cuties along the way.

"Fort Camera" aka Yodobashi.

Chabuton Noodle Shop

Chabuton Noodle Shop

Ninth floor landing area.

Today was the pilgrimage to the Mecca of Otaku culture; Akihabara. Being a Saturday, it was, as the Chinese saying goes, "mountains of people, oceans of people." You can pretty well guess without my translation what that is all about.

The day was really hot and muggy. All I had to do to sweat was just breath. I drank soft drinks throughout the day to keep hydrated and to keep my energy levels up. Perhaps not the best thing to drink, but my guts were acting up a bit and fruit juices would have made that worse. Such as it is, I did what I had to do.

Anyways, the day was kind of a blur to me as I can't quite recall all the events of the day in the exact order in which they all occurred. The heat and dehydration did not help either. Getting lost a few times compounded the juxtaposed memories. The photos do not help as I didn't shoot at the start of the day, only when I backtracked later. This was an exploration day, not a photo day.

It was sensory overload. I do remember being in Volks first. Maybe! It's four floors, or was that five floors, of figures, dolls and other assorted goodies. There was too much to take in and process. Most of the Volks doll stock is the same as the Volks store in Korea as it is the same company. There was actually less of a selection of items in this particular Tokyo Volks store, there are many more Volks stores in Japan, than the one in Seoul. This, most likely, due to the higher traffic volume in Akiba.

Next stop, I think, was the Kotobukiya figure store. Again, many floors of goodies and just another sensory overload kind of place. A new store named Figure R followed after that. I forgot to take photos of that one, though. But, they had seven floors of dolls and assorted figures. I recall the exact number of floors of goodies here because I walked down all of them, including the top two floors consisting of a restaurant. Well, that makes about 9 floors altogether, or was that ten as there was something at the very top I did not go up to see. Like I said before many times already, sensory overload!

The "Azone Building" as I call it and its' nine, or ten, floors of goodies followed after that. I walked up and then down all of those floors. There is so much stuff there that it defies imagination. I'm using these names here as "markers" because they are the big names in the industry when it comes to Otaku culture. There are many, many, more big names, but these are the ones that stick out simply because their stores are so big.

After quickly looking through all the big name stores, it was now late in the afternoon and approaching early evening. By now I was starved. It was time to go and eat. I know there is a food court at "Fort Camera", Yodobashi Camera, and I headed there after all the figure stores. This building is nine floors of football field sized shopping! It's not just cameras, but practically every electronic gadget known to man is there; at least the good ones designed by Japanese companies anyways. On the eighth floor is the food court. I had, perhaps, the absolute BEST soup and noodles I have ever had at a place called Chabuton. They were not cheap, but well worth the price of admission. I will go back there again before I leave Tokyo.

After eating, I took a look at some of my other interests; cameras, watches and computers. This took a few hours. It's impossible to see everything here in those few hours. The place is just too big. You can literally look down an aisle and see it disappear into the distance. I kid you not!

And, so that was my day; over eight hours in Akihabara pursuing all my favorite things. I ended up not buying anything at all for myself other than food and drink! Quite amazing when you consider how much I love this stuff. But, I am broke, and I have to move back to Canada in a few weeks. Thus, my desire to buy anything is not there currently. Plus, I can get all electronics cheaper in the USA and/or in Canada. It's ironic because many moons ago, Asia was the cheapest place for this sort of thing. Now, it's the USA and, to a lesser extent because of the high taxation, Canada! Japan is the most expensive Asian city for electronic goods in the world now.

Note:

I do not know why some the photos have lines in them. I think the hotel connection is dropping bits here and there during the upload. Sorry about that. I have no control over it.