Huge crowds and serenity now.

Today (Sunday) I decided to head to Akihabara (Electric Town). If it is electronic, manga or gaming related, and exists then it is most likely available in Akihabara. When I first stepped into the Yodobashi Camera store I was amazed at all the stuff available for sale and all the people. Yodobashi is nothing compared to Akihabara on a Sunday. The streets were closed to traffic giving the huge crowds a place to go. Every store was open and most of them had someone out front yelling at the crowds through a microphone or a bullhorn. It seemed though that most of what Akihabara is about on a Sunday is not the shopping but everything that is going on in the middle of the street. Every few feet there would be a crowd, of mostly men, with cameras out and gathered around something or someone. I guess in Akihabara everyone gets to be a star!


Here are some pictures from the crowds and the streets. I have no comments on a lot of them because I could not easily tell what the big deal was other than most times it seemed to be that a pretty girl was the object of all the attention.


















Sorry kids, no Christmas this year. Rudolph's shrunken head is being sold in Akihabara.






Each of these boxes is a different store. The person selling the items rents one of the boxes and when you purchase something you pay a central cashier that handles the sale on behalf of the individual stores.





Is she famous? I don't know but judging from the crowd of men around her I'm sure if she is not famous she will be.





Rubber chicken man. After doing a "dance" (and I use the term loosely) he proceeded to do push ups, bouncing his head off of the rubber chicken on the ground. In Akihabara anyone can be a star!






After the madness that was Akihabara, I decided to head over to Tokyo station. I remembered reading something about part of the grounds of the Imperial Palace being open to the public on Sundays. It was quite a strange feeling leaving the huge crowds of Akihabara for the relative peace and quiet of the palace grounds. Compared to Akihabara the Imperial Palace was practically deserted.































The modern home of the Imperial family on the palace grounds.