The Anime and Manga District

     Our first stop on Monday was the anime and manga district of Akihabara. Our guide, Charlie, took us from the station to our first stop, Yodobashi Camera. This is a large electronic store in the Akihabara district. From there we chose a meeting point and time, after which, we were allowed to explore the district for until around 1:15. My roommate and I decided to try a cat cafe to start with. While walking there, we saw many different types of anime and manga stores. Many had large towels or signs with the faces of popular anime characters as advertising. Even the cat cafe had some cute manga drawings around the outside of the cafe.

     We did a bit of window shopping during the free time because many of the shops were to crowded with people and products to go inside. I was surprised to see that there were a frequent amount of shops dedicated only to claw and crane machines. However, these machines did not have the usual cheap toys that we our used to seeing in America. Many of the machines had anime figures and cute plush toys that would usually cost a lot online or in any other store. I'm proud to say I was able to win one time at one of these shops.
     There was also a great deal of Maid cafes in this district. I have seen many references to maid cafes and cos-play cafes in different anime that i have seen, so it was quite interesting to see them in real life. We passed many girls dressed as maids on the street trying to get customers to come to their cafe. It was honestly quite unnerving considering these cafes are mainly frequented by men.

     One of the last places we stopped at while exploring was the store Radio Kaikan. This is an eight story building containing all types stores centered around anime and manga. Many of the stores were solely for manga and magazines about anime. Others looked similar to a blockbuster but only for anime films. A lot of the shops had things called cellphone charms. These are similar to key chains except they have a thin string that can be used to tie them to your cellphone. They had all types of these charms at the front of what seemed like every store we passed. I did buy two of these as souvenirs for friends of mine.

     One last thing I noticed while out was the number ball machines. These machines are similar to those you might see outside of a Kroger or a Walgreen's at home. They were stacked like walls along the street. You could put a coin in and get anything from a cheap piece of jewelry to a cute little anime figure or even a plush toy.
     I must say there was one thing I was a bit shocked by while we were walking around all the shops. Many advertisements and posters featured well endowed anime girls in some pretty questionable poses. Some of these advertisements were large and covered entire parts of some buildings. It made it very obvious who their target audience was supposed to be.

      In light of this, I feel the need to give a sort explanation of what I meant by target audience. The main streets of Akihabara were populated mainly by teenage boys and younger men with the scattered girls here and there. I would compare this more to a comic convention in America filled with comic fans and the like. However, there were some back allies along the street that advertised cos-play cafes and maid cafes. These areas were a bit hidden and mainly populated by older men. It was a bit unsettling to walk past these areas, and though they might be perfectly safe, it left a sketchy feeling that did not give a good vibe.
     Despite this little disturbance, the rest of the morning went smoothly and was very fun. It was nice to be able to go out in small groups as opposed to one large group because I caused less of a scene. This of course made sight seeing much easier. It was also pretty interesting to walk around the streets I had seen so many times in all the anime I have watched. This sounds cliche but it felt like I was living in an anime show! I really wish we could have spent more time there, but I'm glad we the amount of time we did since it was longer than some of our other days.

I'm very excited to see the rest of Japan! Especially to see how much of it is like my anime and what is just made up just for TV.

- Emily W., Class of 2016 -