Well, truth be told, I'm rather more ambivalent about Akihabara, or 'Akiba' as it is called for short. It is Tokyo's electronics district. I suppose if I were in the market for a new phone or perhaps cool dingleberries to hang thereon, this would be the place to go. And I'm informed that gearheads the world over come just to window shop and catch up on the latest greatest technology. I was less excited about it all. I did enjoy the 5 story building of arcade games and video games (they distinguish between the two). The video games were all of the seated variety, with a joystick and several buttons and seemed to be variations (very high-resolution variations) of street fighter/mortal kombat. The arcade games included shooting and driving games and anything you did standing up or holding props. For a dollar each, Ryan and I hacked at vampires and skeletons with a lightsaber-like tool behind a half curtain. The graphics were pretty sweet. We died at the first big boss. By far the most impressive of the bunch were the rock band-style games. Below, from left to right, is someone kicking ass on a guitar, another on the drums, then a guy on a mock dj-ing game that we had never seen before, and some gaijin trying out dance revolution (none of these to the same song mind you, the noise in this place was deafening).
Another noteworthy feature of Akiba is the ubiquity of gals in french maid outfits. Also in attendance are a few nurses and a Little Bow Peep thrown in for good measure. I suspect that the presence of such provocative figures on every corner might be the true source of folks' affinity for Akiba.
Not to be outdone....
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