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Comment by PaulHoule | Hacker News Reader

I've played so many video games based in Akihabara that I imagine I know how many steps it is up the staircase and across the pedestrian bridge from the JR station to the theater where AKB48 plays.

I want to go skiing in Japan and go to an onsen but I don't want to go to Akihabara at all because I'm sure it will be a disappointment.

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> I don't want to go to Akihabara at all because I'm sure it will be a disappointment

I am afraid it will be. It was for me: I remember it from 2000-2005, and having visited it a couple of years ago, it was nothing like what I remembered. Mostly dominated by creepy schoolgirl-uniformed girls inviting people into cafes.

That's true for near main street, it's now like a night life street. Some interesting shops are still exist on minor street.

If you want electric town feel these days you can go to Shenzhen. That's where it happens now. Of course, that's in China. But that's where hardware is being built and prototyped in the open and you can get any component for anything.

First time I have been there was in 2005, last in 2019, and in my opinion it has steadily declined over the years. These huge otaku and tourist stores are boring. And if you have set your hopes too high, then yes, you will be disappointed, but you didn't so you may not be.

All is not lost however. The "electric town" market is still there (or at least it was in 2019). Smaller than it once was, but you are still going to see a mess of electronic components, radios, etc... You will also find small computer hardware shops, including those selling keyboards, which is great since keyboards are something worth trying before you buy.

"Creepy" Akihabara (the 18+ stuff) is also worth seeing, just for the WTF aspect (or more, I won't judge). Go to the upper or underground floors for maximum effect. They usually don't show you this in mainstream video games, for obvious reasons. Maid cafes however are probably exactly like they they are depicted in video games and anime, and personally, I don't find them that exciting, not even that creepy.

Another thing that is lesser known is that there is a nice little shrine right next to the Akibahara we are all familiar with.

As to keyboards: Yusha Kobo in north Akihabara has only existed for a few years and is famous among DIY mechanical keyboard enthusiasts. There is no physical shop like that anywhere else, AFAIK.

When I lived in Japan, Akihabara was a regular destination, as I had friends who worked in the SoftBank Shop and often enjoyed waiting for them to start their break by wandering around the surrounding alleys, looking at the stuff.

I would love to have a time machine and go back to early 80's, "Nintendo Game and Watch" Akihabara. I somehow feel like the bandwidth has just gotten too overwhelming, it felt like I was going to snow crash with every step past the flyer girls ..

But Tokyo is full of other great things to see and do as well. I've had some amazing times in the second hand synthesizer shops of Shinjuku and Shibura, and escaped moral wounding in Gas Panic, Roppongi too many times to count.

Akihabara is a curiosity, but Ginza and Daiba-park and Koenji are all neighborhoods with exciting things to explore too. Nerds looking for satisfaction in Akihabara are going to find it in the nondescript places too ..

>the second hand synthesizer shops of Shinjuku and Shibura

Any others you can recommend besides Echigoya and Five G? I loved those, would like to see some more if I ever visit again.

Softbank Shop, on the 6th or 7th floor, if its still there .. was a veritable oasis of amazingly well-maintained and available super rare synthesizer gear. If I was a wealthy man, that floor would be half-empty .. ;)

Sure would be nice to experience Bubble-Era Tokyo. Or the peak of Ageha in the 2000s (though I did get to visit Gas Panic).

> Koenji are all neighborhoods with exciting things to explore too.

Even Koenji seems to have lost its punk-indie edge over the 2010s, sadly. Wonder where the pockets of interesting and counter-culture are now.

The first season of The Naked Director (Netflix) gives a good glimpse of 1980s Bubble-era Tokyo with some great location and set design. The second season is set in the 1990s, and I've not yet watched it.

Marunouchi Line, represent!

There is no pedestrian bridge that goes all the way to the AKB theater (Donki), if there was it would have to be one of the longest in the world.

The real Akihabara is great, so many random used electronics stores! I'll bet you can't go to the basement of one and play with random junked 2010s era flip phones in whatever games you've played!

I feel like it's a shadow of what it was 20 years ago. So many electronics stores replaced with creepy otaku stores.

The electronics market was kind of an alibaba cavern.

Well I guess it was bound to happen since now with Internet it's much easier to shop online for weird parts, but it's still sad.

The electronics stores are still around, but they are indeed a shadow of what they once were.

An interesting thing to mention is that the otaku culture is also starting to wane, Akiba is slowly relinquishing the title of the Japanese pop culture capital.

What will the next trend for the town be? The jury's still out.

When I went in 2018, I loved the 'creepy otaku stores', maybe because I am a bit of an otaku, hah. To each their own.

That sounds amazing, but also incredibly frustrating because there'd be so much stuff I'd want to take with but not really have a use for, lol.

I do wonder where all the used electronics in my country go to. I'm sure it's collected and just exported or broken up for recycling.

That glass looks half empty to me!? I do hope you get over to Japan and it is all you want it to be.

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