Akihabara – the most “Tokyo” experience we had in Japan. I was foolish to have put it off as one of the last stops on our trip itinerary, when in fact this should’ve been one of our first stops in Tokyo! It was the most intense version of Tokyo we saw, the kind you see on TV and in movies and if that’s a side of Tokyo you’re seeking to experience, this is the place to be.

From anime stores through maid cafes, cat cafes, vintage video game stores, arcades, customized everything to every single electronic item under the sun, Akihabara had it all!

Everything here felt like We even got handmade “Hanko” stamps with our names, which although we could have gotten for half the price in a vending machine at DonK, we found a handmade version to be a lot more memorable and personal.

Let’s take a walk through Akihabara now, shall we?

First things first, the best way to get there is via the JR line.

You’ll see hordes of electronic stores….

….Anime stores….

The quirkiest vending machines….

…cat cafes, where you can pay a small fee to go pet some cats for a while…

…and, of course, the famous maid cafes. You’ll see lots of girls dressed up as anime characters, passing out menus for said maid cafes.

They do not like having their pictures taken, so I had to be very quick and stealthy. We didn’t go into one so we have no idea what really happens in there, but friends who have been tell us that they’re regular cafes (well, as “regular” as you can expect anything in Japan to be), in which you’re being served by maids and being called “master”. Some say they’ll even play board games with you.

I’m sure every cafe has a slightly different theme.

Here’s what the menu/leaflet looks like. I can’t read Japanese.

Some of the craziest things we saw in Japan were in Akihabara, including (but not limited to) these old men dressed as anime schoolgirls/maids.

There’s plenty to eat here (I mean, you’re still in Japan, so of course there is). We had some takoyaki (because M wouldn’t pass on a single chance, and interestingly enough, we liked the takoyaki we had in Tokyo more than the ones we had in Osaka, even though it originates from Osaka.

We also tried a “sushi shawarma” because where else would you find something crazy like that? It was HORRIBLE. IT was big enough to be a burrito and tasted so underwhelming. This was probably the only thing we regretted eating in Japan.

We went on a Sunday, and the roads are closed off to traffic on Sundays. It was a most interesting sight.

The visitors took their photography very seriously, locals and tourists alike.

There was also some model (?) that a crowd was getting very excited over.

Even the cars there were spectacularly pimped up!

We stuck hung around for so long that we got to witness the sunset too, but then we headed back to our hotel in Ginza because Ginza.

Akihabara was definitely the most extreme and intense version of Tokyo we saw, straight out of a video game.