Having moved back to Tokyo after a gap of two years, it is an interesting experience to revisit familiar places and to experience new locations. Tokyo provides an interesting mix of the new and the old and here I have written about Tokyo’s electronic town - Akihabara.
Is Japan a manufacturing based economy or a fully-blown (as in blue bottle) consumer society?
One area of Tokyo where the line between the two is sketched thinly is Akihabara (more commonly known as Akiba). Traditionally in Asian cities sellers of similar products grouped together so if you wanted a particular product you would go to that street. You can still find this in places like Hanoi where if you want a blackboard you jump on your Minsk and cruise off to the blackboard street! Compared to the contemporary way of shopping where everything one could want (and a lot of stuff one doesn’t) is all lumped together in a shopping mall, this system means one can compare between sellers and score some great bargains.
Japan is the same and Akihabara was (and still is) the home of electronic components, wires, switches, IC chips, lights and everything a budding Edison could dream of. Under the station you will find rows of little shops selling all sorts of electric goodies - here a shop specialising in lights, a stall with every kind of capacitor under the sun, there a shop selling microphones, surveillance equipment and tiny cameras perfect for spying on staff or worse.
So traditionally this is where the engineers and researchers who powered Japan’s electronic boom came to buy specialised parts, and if there is one thing that such people are also famous for, it is the twisted otaku side of Japanese sub-culture. Hence, shops and restaurants sprang up to cater to there desires for cute anime products and cos-play (costume play) gear. Which lead to cos-play cafes which have since become a global export from Japan - with such cafes springing up in a number of different countries around the globe.
As Akihabara became famous amongst travelers, there was something of a backlash amongst the local powers-that-be, who tried to clean up the areas’ tarnished image. So while the cos-play cafes still curtsy their way into the hearts of many an otaku, today they exist alongside more upmarket and mainstream establishments catering to more mainstream Japanese consumers.
Today the world’s leading “electric town” would have to be Shenzen, across the border from Hong Kong in Mainland China. This city has eclipsed Akihabara and indeed most large cities in China offer wider selections of electronic goods and components than Akihabara does - an indication perhaps of the wider shift in economic power towards Asia’s economic powerhouse.
This mix of electronics, twisted sexual fantasies and the urbane make Akihabara a fascinating place to visit, revealing as it does an intriguing mix of Japan’s past, present and future.
Last weekend we were going book shopping in Yaesu, near Tokyo Station when we stumbled upon the Pilot Pen Museum. There are so many little museums scattered around Tokyo that it can be fun to see what finds when out for a wander. The Pilot Pen Station is a Museum and Cafe with a neat display of writing implements - both produced by Pilot as well as outlining the development of writing instruments through out the ages.