Akihabara Electric Town

Lonely Planet review

What the Tsukiji Central Fish Market is to the food trade, Akihabara is to Japan's legendary electronics industry: bustling, busy and fun to watch. Bonus: you don't have to get up early in the morning to catch the action (afternoon is prime time).

Big box retailers (Ishimaru Denki, Laox, Onoden, Satō Musen and Yamagiwa among them), wholesale shops and tiny stalls all compete to sell you everything from big appliances to microscopic components, robots, mouse pads and next year's computers, some at a steep discount from prices on the outside. Some items are intended for export (make sure the voltage and plugs match what you use at home), others are just coming on the market, so even if you have no intention of shopping now, it's worth a peek to see what you may be buying two years hence.

Akihabara can no longer claim exclusive rights to the title of the city's electronics centre (thanks to increased competition from denser hubs like Shinjuku and Ikebukuro), yet it is still quite the scene. As the electronics business has moved elsewhere (and competition has come in from - gasp! - Korea, China and Taiwan), Akihabara has turned to the boom market in cartoon manga (comics), often of the pornographic variety, to round out its fiscal activity. With that said, if you like your pornography of the PG-13 variety, don't miss the opportunity to have a cup of coffee and a pastry in any of Akihabara's wholly unique Maid Cafés .