Akihabara today is known for being the mecca of anime (アニメ) and manga (漫画) sub-culture, or otaku (オタク) culture, in Japan.
The area features a plethora of anime merchandise related shops, with shops selling figurines, soft toys, files, plastic models, books, and other merchandise. Different shops typically have different niches, some focus on licensing the latest anime merchandise, some focus on second-hand merchandise, and some focus on more specific series such as Gundam (ガンダム, Gandamu), Studio Ghibli (スタジオジブリ, Sutajio Giburi), or Pokemon. We recommend some of the popular shops to check out below, depending on your own interests.
For the general visitor, it is interesting to just take a walk through the area to experience the quirky culture and energy.
Other than merchandise shops, you will also notice many females wearing maid costumes and advertising services for maid cafes, restaurants where the server role-plays as a maid. There are also many arcades in the area, for those looking to try their hand at a claw game, music games, or good old fighting games, mostly for a ¥100. For first-timers, the Taiko no Tatsujin (太鼓の達人 lit. Japanese drum expert) is a good music game to try, where you try and tap the taiko (太鼓, Drum) to the notes on the screen, with red notes representing tapping the center of the drum and blue notes representing tapping the side of the drum.
Lastly, for fans of video games, there are many shops that specialize in selling retro video games and video consoles, including the original PlayStation, or the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES, also known as the Famicom in Japan). There are also many video game or anime-themed cafes around the area, many of which offer seasonal event-based collaborations with various games, and typically offer merchandise and themed-food in the shop.
