Tokyo / Akihabara & Kanda / District

Akihabara Electric Town

秋葉原電気街 あきはばらでんきがい

Radio parts, anime, seven-storey arcades, retro games and maid cafés — the capital of otaku culture, best after dark.

EssentialModern · Shopping · Late night · Rainy day · Photogenic

Akihabara began as a postwar market for radio parts under the tracks — the Radio Center arcade still sells resistors by the bag — and turned in the 1990s into the world capital of anime, manga, games and the culture around them. The west side of the station is the district: Mandarake for second-hand manga and figures, Super Potato for retro consoles, the towers of Animate and Radio Kaikan, arcades where the claw machines and rhythm games run seven floors deep, and the maids on the pavement handing out flyers for cafés where the service is the performance. Sunday afternoons the main street closes to cars.

Don't miss

Map of central Tokyo Tokyo Ueno Akihabara Shinjuku Shibuya Shinagawa Ikebukuro Shimbashi Kabukiza Theatre Chuo-dori and the Sunday promenade Ginza Six Ginza Itoya Hama-rikyu Gardens The Ginza gallery walk Tsukiji Hongwanji The Ginza bar streets Tokyo Station Marunouchi Building Imperial Palace East Gardens Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum Marunouchi Naka-dori KITTE and the rooftop garden Idemitsu Museum of Arts Nihonbashi Bridge Mitsukoshi Nihombashi Main Store The old shops of Nihonbashi Artizon Museum Fukutoku Shrine and the Coredo lanes Nihonbashi river cruise Sensoji Temple Kappabashi kitchen street Sumida river water bus The craft and coffee streets west of the temple A kimono day in Asakusa Tokyo Skytree Asakusa Shrine and Sanja Matsuri Tokyo National Museum National Museum of Western Art Ueno Park and Shinobazu Pond Yanaka Ginza and the Yanesen lanes Nezu Shrine Ameyoko market street Asakura Museum of Sculpture Akihabara Electric Town Jimbocho book town Kanda Myojin Shrine Holy Resurrection Cathedral (Nikolai-do) Kanda's old noodle houses Yushima Seido and the Confucian hall Mori Art Museum and Tokyo City View The National Art Center, Tokyo Tokyo Midtown and the Suntory Museum of Art Azabu-Juban shopping street Tokyo Tower and Zojoji Temple Roppongi after dark Nezu Museum The Omotesando architecture walk Aoyama Cemetery Meiji Jingu Gaien ginkgo avenue The Aoyama and Minami-Aoyama back streets Meiji Jingu Yoyogi Park Takeshita Street and Cat Street Ota Memorial Museum of Art Togo Shrine Shibuya scramble crossing and Hachiko Shibuya Sky Nonbei Yokocho and the Shibuya alleys Udagawacho record shops and Shibuya vintage Tomigaya and Kamiyamacho Live music in Shibuya Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building observatories Golden Gai Omoide Yokocho The Isetan food hall Hanazono Shrine Tsukiji Outer Market Toyosu Market and the tuna auction teamLab Planets The Tsukiji-to-Ginza walk The Meguro River cherry trees Daikanyama T-Site Daikanyama's low-rise streets Ebisu Garden Place and the Ebisu restaurant streets Nakameguro's back streets Kagurazaka's stone lanes Akagi Shrine Dining in Kagurazaka Zenkokuji Bishamonten Ryogoku Kokugikan and sumo Edo-Tokyo Museum Kiyosumi Garden Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) The Kiyosumi-Shirakawa roasters Akihabara Electric Town
A hand-drawn sketch for orientation — each place links to an exact map.
Tip
The tax-free electronics shops are for the big chains; the interesting shops are on the upper floors of the small buildings.
Best time
Evening; Sunday afternoon for the pedestrian street.
Allow
120 min
Station
Akihabara (JR, Electric Town exit; Hibiya line; Tsukuba Express)
Official site — hours, prices, closures
akiba.or.jp · Map

Appears in

In this area: Akihabara & Kanda

District Essential

Jimbocho book town神保町古書店街

A hundred and fifty second-hand bookshops on one street, the largest in the world — prints, maps, ukiyo-e, first editions, and curry.

120 min · Jimbocho (Hanzomon / Mita / Shinjuku lines), exit A7
Shrine Worth it

Kanda Myojin Shrine神田明神

Guardian of Edo's merchants since 730, now blessing laptops — vermilion halls above Akihabara and one of Tokyo's three great festivals.

40 min · Ochanomizu (JR / Marunouchi line), 5 minutes; Akihabara, 10 minutes uphill
Architecture For a second visit

Holy Resurrection Cathedral (Nikolai-do)ニコライ堂（東京復活大聖堂）

The green-domed Russian Orthodox cathedral of 1891 on the Ochanomizu ridge, with its bells still rung by hand.

30 min · Ochanomizu (JR / Marunouchi line) or Shin-Ochanomizu (Chiyoda line), 2 minutes

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