Akihabara guide: Donkihote a.k.a. the happiest place on earth

Disneyland should really drop that trademark, because this truly is the happiest place on earth. Hyperbole aside, Donkihote really should be one of the first places you visit in Akihabara. For those who have been to one of the many chain stores around Japan, don’t be fooled into thinking you have seen it all before. Akihabara Donkihote really is unique and well worth a visit. There are very few other places where so much pop culture is crammed into such a small place. In what other store can you buy a maid costume on almost every floor (there are 7 floors), visit a maid café, play the latest arcade games, buy an R2D2 wastepaper basket, buy ‘black man’s pants (seriously that’s the name), get import food, take puri kura, play pachinko, see a museum dedicated to Japan’s most popular school girl group, get clothing with otaku slogans on them, by bicycles, condoms, TVs, beds, get cosplay clothing, see a live idol performance, pilot a Gundam, get gacha gacha toys, try UFO catchers, see some people who have played way too much DDR, buy expensive brand goods like Rolex watches… and many more things too?



Not many other places I’m guessing. Oh, and besides the maid café, all of the staff who tend to the UFO catchers are dressed in maid costumes. Just in case that makes a difference to you. Look out for upcoming features on many of the things I have mentioned already (the AKB48 museum being one of them) as they really deserve their own entry. If you do go, which you should, it is definitely best to go on the weekend. Whilst it will be more crowded you will definitely be able to watch a live performance, and on the weekends is usually when the best rhythm action otaku strut their stuff. If you are keen to visit the maid café (it’s a @home café, another branch of which I have already reviewed on this site) or if you want to see the AKB48 concert movie in the cinema its better on go on a weekday when it will be a little quieter. On a personal note one of the most memorable things I have seen in Japan was in this store. As I was going up an escalator I turned around to see five high school girls dressed in Pikachu costumes. Oh, and you can buy cans of Hello Kitty noodles in the vending machines.

Akihabara Guide: pop life department m's (adult store)

So far my Akihabara shopping guide has been focused on video game and anime goods, but I would be remiss in my duty if I failed to mention the seedier side of Akihabara. Well most of Akihabara is the ‘seedier side’ but never mind. So with that in mind let me introduce “pop life department m’s”, a massive eight story tribute to eroticism. Yep it’s an adult store, and an impressively large one at that, crammed full of…potential. I’m not really going to go into detail (for obvious reasons) but you can buy pretty much anything you could possibly imagine in this store, and probably quite a few things you never really knew existed. The impressive thing about the shop is that despite its contents, it doesn’t feel at all seedy, grubby, or horrible a place to go into. It is open, simply designed, and surprisingly brightly lit, so those who are ashamed may want to stay away from this store, and it gives the impression of being a very clean and modern department store. It’s a place where men and women can go alone, with friends, or couples can go together, which is good as there are quite a few stores of this kind which don’t meet these criteria. Something that I have never seen before is that there are many televisions throughout the store screening adult videos. This was certainly a little surprising and disconcerting initially, but sooner rather than later you tune out the grunts and groans. Also worthy of note for ladies who are interested in visiting the shop is that you get a 30% discount off lingerie and costumes if you pose for a Polaroid picture wearing said purchase.
Being the shy type I find it very difficult to go into these kind of stores but for the sake of journalism I did so, and on leaving I didn’t feel the need to have a shower immediately, so I guess that’s a recommendation. If you are interested in this kind of merchandise, or just the curious, then pop life department m’s is pretty much as good as it gets.
To get there go out the Electric Town exit, turn left and walk down the street. It’s under a minute from the station on the right hand side. It's a big green-tinted building with costumes displayed on every floor. You can’t really miss it.

Akihabara Guide: Kotobukiya

Kotobukiya is a toy store right next to the electric town exit of Akihabara station, and might be the only one you need to visit. Kotobukiya is a manufacturer of many high quality anime and game character figurines and their Akihabara branch store just opened recently. So as you might expect, they have a pretty good collection available. If you aren’t looking for something specific (like life sized Gundams or pornographic figures) this place has a lot of great stuff, and whilst a lot of their stock is related to the most popular anime and manga series which can be bought in most of the big toy stores, they also have some merchandise which few other places seem to have in stock. They have a wide variety of Ghibli goods (including the very expensive, very cute Totoro backpacks), along with Hello Kitty and Disney merchandise at the front of the store. In the back it’s more a hotchpotch of whatever has been released recently but there is an ever-present Final Fantasy section. The point is that whilst it may be difficult to get enthusiastic about a mainstream store in a town that is crammed full of more bizarre and intriguing stores, it is one of the best. There are always things to tempt you and the prices aren’t too bad. The eclectic nature of the contents help too, as it is very interesting to people who just want to dip their feet into the world of Akiba. And as I mentioned there are the occasional gems that show up, such as the Rockman anniversary clothing line and even a replica of the jacket of a character from the (fairly obscure) PS2 RPG Persona 4. So there is always a chance that something you have been looking for will show up there, and even if it isn’t you are unlikely to leave the shop empty handed as the quality of the figurines will impress even those who have no idea what they are related to. It has impulse buy written all over it. For those who do want something a little more… authentic, just head upstairs in the same building. There are several floors of interesting shops mainly dealing in second hand anime goods. Here you will find more of the eye popping goods that Akiba is famous for, as well as shops catering to the more specific needs of their clientele. It’s highly recommended you take a peek up there at least once; the shop selling 80s idol photos is sure to at least make you smile. So, you don’t really need to go far from the station to get much of the shopping experience; downstairs is the more acceptable face of anime fandom, upstairs it gets a little more…serious.


A figure from Kotobukiya's DOA Extreme 2 line

Hello Nakano

For the diehard Akiharans (yes I made that word up) the concept that there could be a place that equals or even surpasses its hallowed streets is nothing short of sacrilegious. And I’m not about to change my opinion, but I have to say that Nakano provides a worthy alternative. Having been recommended to give it a try by numerous people, I finally made the effort and I was suitably impressed. Within the Nakano Broadway shopping mall spanning the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors are an impressive number of Manga shops, Gacha Gacha machines, cosplay clothing stores, toy shops, original animation cell shops, nostalgia shops, auction stores, and, for some reason, a knife store. And I really do mean an impressive number; the stores spill out into the cluttered hallways and over into each other. And for someone who has no idea what they want it’s the perfect place to go and burn some cash on things which are entirely unnecessary. Central to this mini manga mecca is Mandrake which is comparably smaller than its Akihabara and Shibuya counter parts, yet seems more charming and interesting due to the haphazard way in which the various sections of the store are positioned, sprawling across levels and other shops. The cosplay shops are more professionally laid out than in many other places and have more variety and, whilst a little pricy, there are more conventional clothing stores with an otaku twist. If you really need a Darth Vader hoodie designed by Mark Ecko then this place is your best bet. For video game fans though, there is little to impress apart from a few second hand game stores. This place is geared towards animation. Part of the curious appeal of the place is that many stores have similar stock but with vast differences in the price, so bargain hunters should be prepared to spend hours jotting down prices in their notebooks. Whilst it may appeal more to those looking for something specific, Nakano has such a fascinating collection of cluttered stores within such a small space that many are sure to find it fascinating, if only in trying to figure out how all the stores are able to stay in business.

Goodbye Akihabara

Akihabara has been changing piece by piece. Whilst before it was a curious combination of futuristic technology and near derelict buildings, recently the old is being replaced by the new. There isn’t really any more space to build on, as is true in most parts of Tokyo, so the landscape has been changing as buildings are knocked down to be replaced by newer, safer, and cleaner buildings. It is hard to be remorseful about this. Akihabara has opened itself up from the enclosed and intimidating environment into a more welcoming one, and yet inevitably with the new buildings comes a sense of sterility. The dank, the dingy and even the smell are tangibly fading away. This has definitely been a slow transitional period in that much of the flavor of the place remains, but the speed at which some buildings have appeared and then become an integral part of the environment is still somewhat surprising. I have only been here for three years and yet Yodobashi Camera, the UDX building and the new Sofmap store have risen up and dominated the scene. Even the new Mandrake building, whilst housing perhaps the geekiest of contents, has altered the landscape. Does it make a difference? If Super Potato was in a modern context would it be better than as it is, accessed only by entering a tiny elevator, tucked away in a back alley that smells distinctly questionable? And therein lays the potential danger. Whilst larger chain stores, even those like Mandrake, can relocate with upsetting the ecosystem, inevitably the smaller ones will start to disappear. Sold off. Knocked down. Rebuilt. That’s progress. Will it still be Akihabara? Of course. No matter what kind of shops are built they will eventually change in some way. You can’t really change Akihabara. Akihabara changes you.