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Ian takes you on a tour of Tokyo’s Akihabara Electric Town. Via DangerousProto:
Akihabara is a giant neighborhood of electronics stores in Tokyo, Japan. This weekend we exported the markets with Tokyo Hacker Space on the first leg of our Global Geek Tour.
The SEG Electronics Market in Shenzhen is definitely bigger, but Akihabara is a lot easier to get to. Americans can visit Japan with just a passport, you need a $200 visa to visit SEG in China.
If you want to visit Akihabara on your own, this Akihabara Google Map layer will help you find everything. Add it to Google Maps on your phone before you go.
In the words of the great Liz Lemon: “I want to go to there.”
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As soon as I saw this on YouTube, I immediately said to myself, “you lucky SOB!”
I’ve watched all of these amazing videos before… so I recognized what Akihabara is!
http://www.tokyohackerspace.org/akihabara/
Living there would be a freaking DREAM COME TRUE.
Comment by Brett W. (FightCube.com) — February 23, 2012 @ 11:04 am
Seeing that video sends me back in time to the late 1960′s and early 1970′s when I frequented NYC’s Radio Rows along Canal Street, West Broadway and Chambers Street. I really miss that!
What is a bit freaky is seeing many of the locals wearing dust masks. Is Toyoko air so polluted that people need to wear these things, or is it a “tin foil hat” type thing with people thinking it will protect them from radioactive fallout from the nuke power plant that melted down last year? (Though I thought that Toyoko was far enough away not to be affected).
Comment by K Scharf — February 23, 2012 @ 11:08 am
@k – in japan, when someone is sick they wear a mask.
http://www.quora.com/Why-do-Japanese-people-wear-masks
Comment by adafruit — February 23, 2012 @ 11:11 am
@kscharf: also, he explains that in the video towards the end.
Comment by johngineer — February 23, 2012 @ 11:12 am
Hmm, I never knew that about the masks. Very smart! I can’t see Americans doing that because we are too concerned with self-image, unfortunately.
Comment by Brett W. (FightCube.com) — February 23, 2012 @ 12:15 pm
I missed the very end of the video so thanks for the explanation.
I guess that also reflects on the work-aholic nature of the culture, Americans, we often just stay home if we are sick.
Comment by K Scharf — February 23, 2012 @ 1:33 pm
Super junk … of, the memories of cheap 10uF ceramic caps.
Kevin
Comment by Kevin — February 23, 2012 @ 2:24 pm
Hahaha!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DHX2FruBog#t=259s
Akiba from Freaklabs says: [Like when we brought Ladyada here, she's like... testing all the buttons, like "uhh that's gunna break, that's gunna break so easily"]
Comment by Brett W. (FightCube.com) — February 23, 2012 @ 5:06 pm
Those SMD perfboard stick-on adapters are genius! Does anyone know if any US suppliers carry them? I checked the website of the manufacturer, Sunhayato, but they want 3000 yen (~ $37 US) for overseas shipping.
Comment by n1kt0 — February 23, 2012 @ 5:49 pm
My FAVORITE line of the whole video:
“I’m not sure what I’d do with it, but it’s kinda nice..”
Enter, my office. (and garage, and truck, and attic, and other space I can find…)
Comment by Jeremy Saglimbeni — February 23, 2012 @ 8:03 pm
@BrettW:
Ha ha ha. LadyAda is very strict about components. I like that in an engineer
Comment by Akiba — February 24, 2012 @ 10:46 am
Didn’t akiba from freaklabs do a huge video tour of akihabara?
Comment by zuul — February 24, 2012 @ 11:36 am