chapotraphouse

I haven't been to Akihabara (or Tokyo at all) in my one trip to Japan, but I have been to Osaka's smaller equivalent Nipponbashi Den Den Town.

It's very much a town of contrasts and alongside the mostly fine but usually expensive hobbyist shops and the completely unproblematic electronics stores, there's the horny sections of weebery.

An uncomfortable experience ngl, which also extends to a lot of women on the streets advertising for at least partially sexualized establishments like maid cafes etc.. Some of it aimed at tourists, but by necessities of language barriers, mostly for local weebs.

A minor interesting thing was how it was basically impossible to find any merch etc. for anything older than a year or so except for the huge shows and surprisingly, old mecha. Everything moving extremely fast, jumping from cash cow with waifus to the next.

Indeed, as much as it would fit the bit, the only Azumanga related stuff I saw was the comic itself. 😔 Pretty good music stores though.