Tokyo/Akihabara
Akihabara (秋葉原; [1]) is Tokyo's "Electric Town", located on the eastern side of the central Chiyoda ward. The area houses thousands of shops selling every technological gadget you can imagine, from computers to PlayStations and vacuums to DVDs, at reasonable prices. This area is also known as the "Gamer's Mecca."
Get in
Akihabara is centralized around Akihabara station (located on the JR Yamanote, Keihin-Tohoku, and Chuo lines), just take the conveniently labeled "Akihabara Electric Town" exit to be dropped in the middle of the action. Getting to Akihabara by subway is also quite easy; travel to either the Akihabara subway station on the Hibiya line, or the Suehirocho subway station on the Ginza line.
Akihabara is also the terminal of the Tsukuba Express Line, which runs to Tsukuba and other stations in Ibaraki and northern Chiba prefectures. (45 minutes to/from Tsukuba via kaisoku)
See & Do
Akihabara is mostly shopping, but there are a few sights.
- Transportation Museum (交通博物館 Kōtsū-hakubutsukan), [2]. For fans of trains, planes, and automobiles, here's your chance to see a shinkansen bullet train up close (without paying Y10,000 to ride it). Open 9:30 AM to 5 PM daily except Monday, admission ¥310.
The Transportation Museum will close in May of 2006. A new transit museum, dedicated solely to trains, will open in Saitama in October of 2007.
Buy
Sprawled in every direction off the main street Chūō-dōri (中央通り) are more smaller streets with even more electronics stores. Note that the further from the main street you get the better the prices - but the more you stray, the less foreigner-friendly the shops are. On Sunday afternoons, the main street is blocked to vehicle traffic and the area becomes a bit of a flea market - you can walk freely along the main avenue and many small vendors set up tables on the side streets. You can't miss the street performers; everything from maid-fetish karaoke to incan music can be heard on a good Sunday.
Though battery-powered electronics are basically the same world-wide, AC-powered electronics designed for the Japanese market use 100 volts, so "native" Japanese electronics may require a step-down transformer outside Japan. Even the US standard 110V voltage is too high for many devices. Also, these products have no international warranty, and (the kicker) are labeled and documented only in Japanese. Head for the many duty-free shops to find export models, which are priced at a premium though.
- LaOX Duty Free 1-15-3 Soto-Kanda (on Chuo-dori, close to JR Akihabara station), 03-5207-5027, [3]. LaOX Duty Free specializes in export products and has multilingual staff on hand.
- Radio Center (right outside JR's Akihabara station). Radio Center is an unbelievable two-floor warren of tiny shops, each specializing in (for example) LEDs, voltage meters, ceramic capacitors or miniature cameras. Heaven for the do-it-yourself electronics aficionado.
Larger shops can arrange sales tax exemptions for purchases of over ¥10000, saving you 5%. Unlike most countries, in Japan the tax is waived immediately, so there is no need to run through complicated reclaiming hoops. However, you will have to show your passport and (in theory) you should clear your purchase through customs at the airport on the way out. Some shops take credit cards, but it's not recommended to use them since a small percentage is added to the transaction (usually 2%).
Eat
There are a large number of fast-food places in Akihabara, but not much in the way of haute cuisine. One concentration of eating places can be found under the train tracks to the north of JR Akihabara.
- Tenya (てんや), (located a few blocks down Chuo-dori towards Metro Suehirocho) Tenya is a chain specializing in cheap tempura: basic tendon bowl costs less than ¥500, a steal by any standard.