Happiness is visiting a site like Re: Tokyo and realizing you've seen all this stuff before. The new year has arrived in Japan, and with it brings a new hope, a possible realization of dreams, even - what is in store for me? I dunno, but to help answer these penultimate questions I made a pilgramage to the ultimate in electronics shopping meccas, Akihabara in Tokyo. It's a cruel world, of course, and Famicom games are no longer being sold in most of the giant department stores and tiny hole-in-the-wall cable shops that make up the particularly homey atmosphere of this area. However, the collector's spirit grows everywhere - and with it have come stores that specialize in meeting the needs of the most insane of Famicom fans. Although you shouldn't spend all of your money at this place - games can be gotten for cheaper the same way they can in the US, via flea markets, toy shops and hard work - the scale of Akihabara is so amazing that it's worth at least a passing glance no matter how uninterested or cheap you are. Are you ready? Let's get off the train (a little crowded, but oh well) and find our way out of the station...
 Note: $1 = approx. 110-115 yen at time of writing. |
