Akihabara

Post date: Oct 05, 2018 5:22:8 PM

Akihabara

By: Nelka Gonzales

  Are you a fan of anime? If so, this area located in Japan’s capital, Tokyo, will be on your bucket list of places to visit. Akihabara also can be known as ¨Electric Town¨ (Akihabara can also be called ¨Akiba¨) since after WW2, there were shops in this area that sold electronics, such as TVs & washing machines. There are still electronic shops that sell old and non-old electronics to this day, such as gameboys & used game cartridges that usually have a lower price than new ones. (Pre-owned items are usually almost mint condition) Akiba has colorful ads containing certain anime on it´s many buildings to appeal to tourists & otaku, containing characters from the franchise. There are many shops and buildings in Akiba that are arcades which sell pre-owned & new anime figures. There are even a couple of maid cafes in the area.  

     Some stores consist of only small toy machines called ¨gachapon¨, the toys are in small capsules, so you don’t know if you got the toy you wanted. These stores also sell individual gacha toys incase you didn’t get what you wanted, the downside is, it might be more costly than the amount of yen you used for the gacha. There are also many stores that sell alot of anime merch (such as anime figures & rubber keychains of certain characters) example: Kotobukiya, Kotobukiya sells authentic anime merch although some can be expensive (Such as anime figures,although make sure to keep them away from smoke, direct sunlight, and make sure to at least dust them once a week, don’t leave them in the boxes) Mandarake, a company known for selling pre-owned anime-related products, (Manga, anime figures, etc.) has a huge 8 floor store of such items in Akihabara. Collecting Pokemon cards? You might find them in one of the many sections of the store. Prices  of the used products are usually lower than much newer products (Some items might have scratches, paint chipping, missing parts, etc.) Arcades have claw machines filled with prize anime figures & plushies, Although they might be non-poseable and lower in quality than ones around 50$, they’re still worth getting to decorate your home or just for collecting. (Good luck with not spending too much yen!)