{"id":4483,"date":"2020-10-08T10:00:06","date_gmt":"2020-10-08T01:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vhbloglive.wpengine.com\/?p=4483"},"modified":"2020-10-01T17:53:49","modified_gmt":"2020-10-01T08:53:49","slug":"city-guide-akihabara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/japanese-apartment-life\/city-guide-akihabara\/","title":{"rendered":"City Guide: Akihabara"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Japan is home to\nmany things that people enjoy such as anime and special hobbies. Check out our\narticle about Akihabara and the best places there for you to enjoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Japan is a\ndiverse country with many specialty groups. Hobbyists are an enthusiastic group\nwho are passionate about their pastime and are willing to go all-out for it.\nThis enthusiasm has created a need for them to have a place that will cater to\ntheir many hobby needs. Over time that place has been Akihabara in Tokyo.\nAkihabara is an interesting town in Tokyo that houses all the things a hobbyist\nwould need to be happy. There are other sights to visit in Akihabara that are a\nmust for visitors to experience the largest city in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Manga, Anime, and Games<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The opening to the\nelectric street is one that has been used in many movies and TV shows. It is\nlined with advertisements for games, anime, music, and upcoming events. They\nlead to the main street that shows off some of the main stores of Akihabara.\nThese stores offer popular products that otaku and other hobbyists enjoy\nbrowsing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 There are some of the largest stores of manga\nthat can satisfy the needs of any comic enthusiast. Visitors will find walls\ncovered in volumes of different manga titles. For the comic collector looking\nfor rare books, or original Japanese copies, stores near the station will be\nthe place to go. The books will be in Japanese. Rarely will you find the\nEnglish versions. You will find Japanese versions of American comics here as\nwell. There are book stores that will also have books for those looking to\nstudy Japanese or English. If your hobby is figure building or just about any\nother hobby, you will find the material you are looking for here. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the large media\nstore of the area, you will find all of the anime you could ever wish to buy. You\nwill find all of the latest shows and the classics as well. There are often\nspecial deals or presentations for the release of series DVDs as well. You\nshould be aware that DVD and blue-ray discs are coded for Japan and will only\nwork on machines made for Japan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you buy a full\nseries on blue-ray in Japan the discs will not work on your western-based video\nplayer. However, they still make nice gifts for collectors and some come with\nextra prizes and gifts attached to the sets. You will be able to find western\nshows like The Walking Dead, 24, and Prison Break, as they have gained in\npopularity and are in high demand in Japan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Games have their\nspecialty shops that cater to novice as well as experienced players. A few stores\ntry to cover everything a retro gamer could want. These stores sell older\ncartridges, systems, and even arcade cabinets. You can find some rare Japanese\ncopies of games that might be worth big bucks in other countries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The newer games\nand consoles have entire stores dedicated to giving you the best gaming\nexperience you can afford. Computer stores that house all of the parts and\naccessories you could ever need to build and maintain your gaming rig. Be ready\nto open your wallet for these items as electronics tend to be more expensive in\nJapan than in other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fabulous Food<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t see\nmany people talking about the food offerings in Akihabara, but there are a\nsurprising amount of options from which visitor can choose. You have the usual\nfast-food offerings of McDonald\u2019s and Burger King and the rare Carl\u2019s Jr., but\nAkihabara has some area-specific places that you can enjoy some great food as\nwell. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can find Thai\nnoodle shops, meat katsu, special ramen shops, and some family restaurants. The\nvarious pop-up shops serve good food, even though their prices tend to be a bit\nhigher. You will be surprised at the wide selection of food you will be able to\nfind there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hobby Haven<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you have a\ngroup of people who passionately enjoy a specific activity, game, or pop\nculture, you will find a shop that will cater to your hobby. There are shops\nfor gun enthusiasts scattered around the area that sell airsoft recreations of\nreal guns. Some shops cater specifically to figure groups. They have a wide\nvariety of statues and figures to their customers happy. There are card shops\nthat cater to the many card games that have come out in Japan. These shops will\nhave sections of English version cards in these shops too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The special\nthemed cafes are some of the more interesting shops in the area. Some are\nopened to celebrate a game or anime series. The more notable shops are the Gun\ndam Caf\u00e9 and the Monster Hunter Bar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another type caf\u00e9\nthat has gained a lot of popularity are the maid cafes. The girls who work the\nfloors in these restaurants where tight and small maid uniforms and pretend to\nserve their masters. The \u201cmaids\u201d speak in high pitch happy voices and try to\nget everyone to enjoy their experience in the caf\u00e9. You can be treated to a\nshow of karaoke and dance numbers. These cafes are expensive and mostly serve\nas fun stories for foreigners to bring home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Arcades<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The arcades in\nAkihabara are some of the best in the country. They are lined wall to wall with\ncabinets. Some game arcades cater to a variety of gamer tastes and are frequented\nby people daily. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is interesting\nto see the arcade culture still living in the area despite the recent decline\nof the traditional arcade shop in Japan. The arcades in Akihabara are slowly\nfading but some are still trying to hold on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is one of the\nmost popular places to visit while you travel to Japan, and they have tailored the\nexperience to entertain visitors and keep the locals happy. You can find your\nhobby in Akihabara if you look hard enough and often it isn\u2019t that hard to do. It\nis easy to spend an entire day in Akihabara and never get bored.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Japan is home to many things that people enjoy such as anime and special hobbies. Check out our article about Akihabara and the best places there for you to enjoy. Japan is a diverse country with many specialty groups. Hobbyists are an enthusiastic group who are passionate about their pastime and are willing to go […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4484,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-japanese-apartment-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}