Akihabara - Electric Town

Akihabara (Akiba) is located in Tokyo, Japan. It is also known as "Electric Town" because of its vast array of electronic goods sold there. 

So I figured today, I would take you on a little tour of Akihabara via pictures. I have not been there myself but it's one of the places that my fiance and I would love to go to. So while I'm gathering information on it, I thought I would take the time to share it with you all as well.

I hope for this to be very informational and hopefully interest you in visiting there as well.

Okay first, lets take a look at part of the Otaku culture there. We'll start off first with the Maid Cafe's.

A Maid Cafe is where anyone can go to feel like their a Master (Goshujin) or Mistress of his/her own domain. The waitresses act as servants answering to every beck and call you make.

The first Maid Cafe was established in Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan in March of 2001, but maid cafes are becoming increasingly popular and have also expanded overseas to countries like China, Taiwan, Mexico, Canada and the United States.

The maid costume varies from cafe to cafe, but most are based upon the costume of French maids, often comprised of a dress, a petticoat, a pinafore, a matching hair accessory (such as a frill or a bow), and stockings.

Waitresses in maid cafes are often chosen on the basis of their appearance; most are young, attractive and innocent-looking women. For example, Royal Milk Cafe, a popular maid cafe, reports that the average age of its waitresses is 20.

(Image is of Royal Milk Cafe)

Maid cafes were originally designed primarily to cater to the fantasies of male otaku, obsessive fans of anime, manga and video games. The image of the maid is one that has been popularized and fetishized in many manga and anime series, as well as in gal games. Important to the otaku attraction to maid cafes is the Japanese concept of moe, which generally describes a fetish or love for anime, manga or video game characters. More specifically, moe refers to adoration for young or innocent-looking female characters. People who have moe (especially a specific subcategory known as maid moe) are therefore attracted to an establishment in which they can interact with real-life manifestations (both physically and in demeanor) of the fictional maid characters that they have fetishized.

Today, the maid cafe phenomenon attracts more than just male otaku, but also couples, tourists, and women. Though the waitresses at maid cafes are sometimes interpreted as objects of romantic or sexual desire, they can also be viewed as simply aesthetically appealing figures. One female patron of maid cafes explains, “Sitting here and admiring how pretty the girls are is like admiring a flower”.

There is also speculation that maid cafes are receiving increasing patronage from young women looking for otaku as romantic partners after the release of a popular feature film and TV series about “Train Man” (電車男 Densha Otoko). “Train Man” recounts a purportedly true love story about a brave and endearingly awkward otaku who rescues a pretty woman from harassment on the train, and eventually begins a relationship with her.

Alright enough about Maid Cafe's, I'm pretty sure you all get the point by now lol.

Next we'll move onto the many types of stores located in Akihabara.

Lets start off with Gamers.

Gamer's is widely known among the Otaku culture as the "to go to" Place for all your anime goods and more.

To give you a little insight about the stores in Akihabara, they are usually located in very large corporate looking buildings. There are usually stores on every level specializing in certain things to sell. Like for example if you wanted to go buy kitchen goods for your home, you would go to a kitchen goods store, if you wanted to buy a futon to sleep on, you would go to a futon store, and if you wanted to get groceries you would go to a groceries store. Each store sells specific items, nothing more, nothing less. You would not be able to find something to drink in a kitchen gadget store like here in America where you could walk into a little shop and find a coke cooler by the registers so you could grab a drink. I'm unsure why that is but it's what makes Japan shopping unique.

There are other stores like gamer's in Akihabara that sell alot of anime goods, you can even find specialized stores for Eroge games as well.

 Okay, Moving along though.

Next we have the street cosplay!

I have included a little video for this, it's not that great but it can at least get the concept down for you all.