#otakucentral

Akihabara, the otaku central of the world.  Akiba, short for Akihabara, is a district in the city of Tokyo.  Out of all the districts in Japan, Akiba is one of the most unique and contains a lot of the anime culture from Japan. 

Akiba is a huge shopping district, and before it became the otaku shopping center it is now, it used to be a post-war black market and the shops there sold household electronic goods.  However, as household electronics became out of fashion, the sellers needed to sell products that would appeal to their customers, and the customers at the time were otakus.  Thus Akiba became otaku central. 

Now what exactly is in Akiba that would make it otaku central?  Well as I said before, a lot of the anime culture is in that district.  Many of the restaurants there all have some sort of anime culture in them.  There’s a restaurant there that is based off the anime Gundam.  There are a lot of Gundam animes, but basically, Gundam is a robot that is piloted by a human and used to fight other Gundams.  In the Gundam-themed restaurant, the servers dress up as Gundams.  Then there’s the maid cafes.  It’s one of the most popular attractions in Akiba.  It’s so popular that it has begun to spread to other countries like the United States, Taiwan, and South Korea.  A maid cafe is considered a cosplay restaurant, like the Gundam-themed restaurant, where the waitresses dress up as maids and act as servants to please their masters, the customers.  The treatment these maids give is completely different then just your usual cafe and makes the experience very unique.  I think I can say the cosplay restaurants in Akiba are one of a kind because restaurants outside of Japan don’t have costumes, but uniforms for their workers to wear.