electric avenue

what would a trip to japan be if one didn't visit one of the famous electric avenues of tokyo. so, yesterday i decided that i would go down to hakihabara and check it out. it is supposed to be the biggest one in japan, so this had to be good!



it was weird though, because getting out of the station i noticed right away just how old the place looked. i mean, i have been to old places in japan. but this was tall buildings that were starting to show their age. even all of the stores had this old feel to it, it was bizarre. i had not experienced that before in japan.

when i thought of an electric town, i thought of computers, cameras and the likes. but in reality it means that, plus light bulbs, computer chips, wires, music, much more, and lots of japanese porn and anime. most stores are spread out over all of the floors of the building, while others form these corridors that go from one street to the other through buildings at street level. it can make shopping a little hard because there is just so much of everything, in all directions. and everyone offers different prices, so you have to shop around.



overall i was not too impressed with hakihabara, although i did enjoy the few design stores and household store they had. the river was also a nice contrast with the crazyness of the area.

maybe this place would have been better had i been shopping for something, because things are way cheaper here in japan. for example, the canon camera i was interested in was $800 in canada, but would cost $550 here. it's a big difference! so deals are to be had.