A Video Guide To Akihabara 121
freaklabs writes "Tokyo Hackerspace just put up a video guide to Akihabara in Tokyo, an area that's densely populated with electronics components shops. We get a lot of questions about where to go over there and also requests for guided tours so we figured it's probably best just to put up videos, descriptions, and Google map markers. It was always difficult to tell people where to go, since the places are hard to find, so we're hoping this makes it easier for visitors to Tokyo that want to get their geek on."
akihabara is awesome! (Score:2, Informative)
I went; it is fucking awesome!
Great Guide (Score:5, Informative)
I've been to Akihabara before and it's extremely confusing, much like the rest of Tokyo, so I'm really happy about this guide. I watched a few clips from it and it's easy to follow and the google maps addition is great. My only request is if you can do it for the rest of Tokyo :)
Stay away from... (Score:2, Informative)
Stay away from any store that says "PC game" (in Katakana). Chances are, by "game" they're referring to softcore-porn DVD roms... They're usually B1 level and full of otaku perverts. I went into a few looking for a specific PC title and it took me a bit to realize what was actually going on.
I highly recommend taking a couple thousand yen to a big arcade like Club Sega. Fun times.
mostly pointless (Score:3, Informative)
I watched this when it was posted on HackADay earlier. It was largely a waste of time, because there's not that much to see. Most of what I saw looked remarkably similar to some ham-friendly electronics stores in Boston, like You Do It Electronics (there was another great hobbyist store chain that went out of business, I forget the name.)
The video is shot without any stabilization, handheld, by someone who had a little too much caffine, and who points the camera at Interesting Things for all of about, oh, a tenth of a second. This combined with Youtube's low bitrates = blurry, compression blocks of Fail. Seriously, you can tell the place is amazing visually, but because Cracky McCoffee The Cameraman can't hold the camera still or stop to pause on something, all you see is a blurry mess. And it's all out of focus, too, because it was shot with a dSLR, and this one apparently can't autofocus while shooting video (or Cracky McCoffee bumped the MF/AF switch), and CMcCTC didn't realize that indoors, he has such a large aperture that there's zero depth of field. At one point, the guy is standing in front of the camera talking for a good 30 seconds, completely blurred out, until he steps closer to the camera to get out of the aisle, and then poof! He's out of focus again.
Most of the "cool stuff" seems to consist of enclosures. The guy leading the tour has a borderline fetish for enclosures. Here, let me blast right past these meters and industrial automation gear. Now, check out this enclosure! Wow, it's hexagon shaped, see that? And it's metalic! This one has a stand. Now, pay no attention to those robotics...here's my other favorite enclosure store! This one can silkscreen graphics on the front. WOOOOOOOW. Oh that, those are nuclear-powered minisubs. Waaaaaaalking....
Re:Third Rate Shopping (Score:1, Informative)
If you don't want things with a million buttons, then what are you doing in Akihabara...?
Re:Osaka or Kyoto (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Third Rate Shopping (Score:3, Informative)
I love how people assume I only went to the duty-free shops, or that I don't speak Japanese. I was born in Japan and it is my native language. I've been to shops in both the back streets and forward streets. I wasn't impressed with any of it. If some people see the point to spending $200 on a plastic bikini doll, $400 on some draft sketches of an obscure anime series, or $800 on a camera because the lens can move forward and backward like some unfulfilled manhood fantasy, then I suppose they stay in business. Oh I forgot, I guess I'm talking to the slashdot crowd here. Haha.
Re:Great Guide (Score:1, Informative)
If you can find a phone in Japan that can access Google map that is. Japan does not want to sell you one, they can rent you one, but it may not be a smartphone that can access Google map. Besides, Japanese roads has no name and no number, their addressing scheme is a suburb-partition-sector-building number scheme: so several shops can share a single address and building number. Worst still, the building number on the same block of buildings are totally random. Whichever building was constructed first get the lowest number, so no.2 is NOT next to no.1 and no.3 is NOT next to no.2 and so on, it's total chaos. Fireman and paramedics got used to it by simply running around the entire block like crazy. In other words, even if you have a map, or some Japanese friend that would vow for you to buy you a phone in Japan to access Google map, the addressing scheme is a bit hard to figure out, especially if you don't read Japaneses.
No, you cannot buy a phonecard either, you are a gaijin, remember? There are some 3G phone that may work in Japan, however you will be paying full overseas charge anyway. Even if you can find their shops, you may be greeted with "NO FOREIGNER ALLOWED" thing, lovely huh?
Re:Great Guide (Score:5, Informative)
Even if you can find their shops, you may be greeted with "NO FOREIGNER ALLOWED" thing, lovely huh?
In Akihabara? No. In a district famous worldwide for selling electronics, with extremely expensive rent, you are not likely to find a place unwilling to sell to foreigners. That would be a bit like a bar with a sign "No drunk people allowed." In Tokyo, the only place I ran into a "no gaijin" policy was a love hotel in Shibuya.
Re:Third Rate Shopping (Score:2, Informative)
Your impression of the area smacks of "ex-foreigner who never really fit in" rather than "savvy Japanese dude who saw through the hype". I apologize if I assumed too much, but reread your comment and you can probably see where I'm coming from. Finally, the post I'm responding to here only enforces my opinion, considering the total "Japanese perverts!" tangent.
p.s. Uniqlo is the Salvation Army of Japan. It's supposed to be cheap crap. p.p.s. The new Akiba Yodobashi is pretty roomy, actually. full disclosure: My office is 15 minutes from the area, so I shop there sometimes at lunch. I avoid anywhere that has porn or anime, so maybe I just haven't been to the same places as you.
Scale (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Osaka or Kyoto (Score:1, Informative)
Wikipedia to the rescue! :-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nipponbashi
I've visited Den Den town a few times and bought a few items there, such as a copy card for my DS...:-)
Not as large as Akihabara, but adequate and interesting.
Kyoto has almost nothing. It used to have some interesting stuff on the south side of Shijo, on Teramachi, but I visited again this year, and many of the stores have relocated/closed.
Also try Yodobashi camera in Osaka near the Hankyu/JR railway stations (Umeda). Carries many, many electronics of all kinds, and I visit there whenever visiting Osaka.