I have a love hate relationship with Akiba. Akiba, that’s what all the cool kids call Akihabara these days. Akihabara used to have two faces. The public face was the bright lights of electronic stores so thin they could be elaborate neon cocktails in a single tube lining the main strip; the length, height and breadth of which puts it on par with New York’s Time Square or the Strip in Vegas. The other face was darker with a yellowish hue; the mini shops and hawker stalls that formed a labyrinth in, through and among the lower floors of the stores and back streets.
The first face calls out for you to come and lay down your money and walk away with a giant, state-of-the-art contraption that will be the envy of all. The second face calls out to that inner bargain hunter, looking for the diamond in the rough at a gigantic flea market.
Sadly, both faces with all their nuances and energy, are disappearing and being replaced by block-consuming replicator grey boxes that scream into the sky attempting to make up in height what they lack in style. Akiba…yes, she is cleaner and bigger; but I think I will always long for Akihabara.
I could of course morn the passing of Akihabara’s old ways, or, I could take advantage of Scott being in town and give the old girl one last run through.
We began our tour at Yodobashi Camera’s new (relatively speaking) store in Akihabara. The good folks at Yodobashi has the goodness to build their oblong nine-story monolith on the opposite side of the station from the slowly disappearing old style Electric Town…Akihabara’s old nickname. Walking over to Yodobashi is like walking to a professional sporting event. The energy level in the crowd becomes palatable as you get closer to the front door. From across the street you can see the giant signs and the large TV screen above the doors running ads and weather reports.
There is even a tail gate like atmosphere around the entrance with a handful of restaurants and the tented area off to the right featuring some new product or contest. On Sunday, Scott and I had to wade through young Japanese women dressed identically in Sony Vaio coats handing out balloons to kids and wooing dads over to check out their latest lap top.
There are certain things you can count on when shopping in Japan. The bottom floor of any department store will have an elaborate food court. The street level floor of an electronic store is going to sell “keties” – cell phones. Each team (company) has its own colors and uniforms: AU girls dress in orange and white leather dresses with white go go boots; DoCoMo girls wear blue and white mini skirts with big bulky leg warmers that evoke thoughts of Jennifer Beals in her “Flashdance” days; SoftBank girls in black and light grey who always look a little sad that their outfits aren’t as flashy. But this was Sunday morning, the place was packed and even the SoftBank girls were smiling. Ah the weekends at Yodobashi where each floor is like an Arabic souk. In addition to the cell phone cheerleading squads there are floor managers sitting 8,9, 10 rungs up on foldout ladders barking commands and directing traffic. We knew it would be a particularly good day, because we also spied two young ladies dressed in maid outfits trying to squeeze in a cellphone purchase before they ran off to care for the lunch crowds at a local maid cafe.
Yes, Akihabara has everything you can imagine and several things you can’t. If it has an electric cord or a battery pack, you can find it in Akihabara. If what you search for is related to or used in something that has a cord or battery pack, you can find it in Akihabara. If you are in search of something connected or associated with something that is related to or connected something that has a cord or a battery pack, you can find it in Akihabara. More on this and the maids later though…back to Yodobashi Camera.
So we had the crowd, we had the building that looks like a small sports arena, we had pseudo cheerleaders, side shows and freaks in costumes…what more can you ask your? A good band and a fight song is the only thing that is missing. No worries, that is where the Yodobashi jingle comes in. I swear to you it is better than any university’s fight song and always makes me want to yell, “GO! FIND! BUY!” when it ends.
We made our way though the masses to the escalators which are enclosed in large bright, primary colored ads. Oh my but the impulse to buy is great! We made a B line for the sixth floor which has an excellent toy store, although it has not fully recovered from its Christmas stripping. Also on this floor are all of the major home and portable game consoles with aisles of games. But this is Japan, so simply having the games and paper ads isn’t enough. Along the walls are game stalls with large screen TVs flashing scenes from game trailers with the sound of one game fading and being out blasted by the next. It is a full out offensive attack on your visual and auditory senses…and wait, is that the Yodobashi jingle I hear again….”GO! FIND! BUY!” You can also find twenty inch tall mint condition Star Wars bobble head dolls that will only set you back a C-note, or a 12-inch tall Charlie Brown bobble head that will only set you back for a little more than half. Need the complete Star Trek series on DVD dubbed in Japanese..got it. Or you can have Scott do his impression of what Spock would say and sound like in Japanese…that was free, but you had to be there.
Remarkably, we pulled ourselves away and headed to the camera floor. Here you can buy lens as long as your arm, walk through a forest of tripods, and find anything a professional photographer would ever need. I continually find it amazing that they can keep the floors dry with all the drooling customers.
We needed some fun so headed to the computer floors. Scott was frustrated when he wasn’t able to get the Microsoft web page to load on the Apple computers; but then again the Apple website wouldn’t load on the PC’s.
We had already been in the store for over two hours but had one last floor that needed our immediate attention: the TV floor. Its fascinating how looking at a bank of 60 and 65 inch television screens can distort your perception of color and reality at large. Oh Sweet Georgia Brown is that a sight to behold. Please don’t play the jingle now, or I will totally lose all control and sense of restraint. Of course, if you really want to throw off your sense of perspective, you can stroll over and stand in front of the 103 inch TV screen. This puppy comes up to my shoulders and is longer than I am tall. It is, in a word, humongous. They had a recording of a live concert and it looked like the dude, some J-pop start that neither Scott nor I recognized, could, if he were so inclined, just walk right out of the TV and introduce himself to us. And since I know you are curious (switching to deep sexy salesman voice), “This (this this this this) lovely screen can be YOURS (yours yours yours yours) for the LOW LOW LOW price of ¥56,000,000. Yep that’s right, count up those zeros! Fifty-six million yen. Yes boys and girls, this little TV will only set you back about $635,000.00 at today’s exchange rate. Not to worry, bring your passport and you can get 10% off as it can be purchased as a duty free item. We turned and slowly walked through the 20-something inch screens which now looked like something Dick Tracy could fit on his watch.
Two and a half hours after proudly marching in, we stumbled out, eyes slightly glazed over. We needed food. We needed some sustenance to get through the rest of the young day.