Tokyo Tour: Akihabara

Yesterday, we went to Akihabara, the geek capital of Tokyo. Akihabara is divided into two sections -- the new corporate UDX side and the old eclectic "Electric Town" side. The new UDX side is tall skyscraper buildings --superstore electronics stores, while the older Electric Town is smaller specialty shops, and smaller, narrower buildings. It's a dangerous place, as every hobby one has is likely serviced by this section of Tokyo. Into computers? There's a whole section of town filled with bins and shelves of computer parts. Camera shops, as well as toy stores are abundant here, and there is no lack of shops selling video game stuff. For Ken and I, Akihabara is our greatest expenditure of cash on this trip so far. I was enslaved by the gachapon capsule toy machines (I completed a set of the Evangelion toys) and bought a Ice Climber peg toy (it's really cool -- photos when I get back to the U.S.). Akihabara is also a haven for American anime and video game fans -- there was no lack of Westerners perusing the shops and stores in the area.
The Nintendo DS is huge here -- they have advertisements for it on the subway lines, as well as many unique software packages that I hope will see conversion to the U.S. market. The DS Lite is sold out everywhere and the normal DS is rare to find.