Our last stop on day #2 in Tokyo was Akihabara, also known as Electric Town. If Harijuku is Tokyo’s center of Japanese youth culture and fashion, Akihabara is its hub for electronics, video games, anime and manga. This interested my teenage boys much more than kawaii fashion and culture.
We took the train from Asakusa to Akihabara and headed out to explore Electric Town. Our first stop was Super Potato, a retro video game store. We had a little trouble finding it, as the entrance was not well marked. Google Maps kept telling us we were there and we kept turning around in circles until we finally noticed a cartoon potato on a sign in front of a nondescript, slightly sketchy entryway.
The store is on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors of the building. The 3rd and 4th floors were filled with retro video games, with Nintendo dominating the selection. I grew up playing an original Nintendo in the 80s and 90s and loved all the throwbacks. Note that the games on sale are all the Japanese versions and many are not compatible with their US gaming system counterparts. Still, it was fun to take a trip down memory lane and see all the classic Nintendo games and characters. The 5th floor was a vintage arcade with lots of games you could play on the coin operated machines.
We enjoyed browsing in Super Potato but didn’t buy anything. (Compatibility issues aside, they have a reputation for being very overpriced.) When we left the store, one of the boys spotted the Warhammer Store and Cafe around the corner. I will admit to not knowing what Warhammer is but it was a really interesting store to walk around. The game has a Dungeons and Dragons vibe and the store was filled with miniatures, accessories, artwork, and books. There were tables setup at the back of the store where a few games were underway and a cafe available to purchase coffee drinks.
My sons were admiring the figures when the manager came up and asked if they wanted to paint one. The store offers “paint trials” where you get a free miniature and guidance in painting its shield. They really enjoyed this hands-on experience and I appreciated the customer service. While my sons knew enough about Warhammer to be interested in browsing the store, it was obvious that we weren’t serious buyers, but the store manager was so welcoming and friendly and went out of his way to give them a great experience. It is definitely worth a stop if anyone in your group is familiar with the game.
After that we continued to wander around the main street, looking in windows and popping into stores. But the boys were soon drawn to the Taito Station. This giant, 6 story arcade beckoned them from down the street. And once we got closer, Big Clappy, a red robot that claps and shouts phrases to passersby pulled them in. Thankfully we were able to get them past the dozens of impossible-to-win claw games on the first floor and on to an upper floor to actually play some games.
There were so many options of games to play but the favorite for my boys was the drum game. Like Guitar Hero for drums, they loved playing Taiko no Tatsujin. And we thought they were doing pretty well too until a man came up to the machine next to them, pulled out his own drumsticks and started playing at a speed I could not even comprehend. It was insane and completely mesmerizing to watch. We soon learned that there were quite a few gamers in there who clearly spend A LOT of time on their game of choice. We watched another man playing Dance Dance Revolution like a professional (speed) dancer. He came ready for a full workout – he wore gym clothes, brought a big water bottle and a towel to mop up his sweat, and had a fan pointing directly on him. It feels a little lame that I spent most of my time in a Japanese arcade as a spectator but I just couldn’t look away from the skill and speed that these guys displayed.
We spent close to an hour in Taito Station and I know my boys would have happily stayed longer. But it was the end of a long day and we were running out of coins so we successfully pulled them away to head back to the hotel. For video-game loving teenage boys, Akihabara was a great neighborhood to explore.
