Although I travel to Tokyo every day for work, I rarely step off at any station other than the one nearest my hospital. Tokyo Station, Shinjuku, and occasionally Shibuya — that is about it.
Recently, however, I found myself returning to Akihabara with my wife, and what I saw felt like stepping into a different era.
When heavy snow fell earlier this winter, I attended a conference near Ochanomizu. That neighborhood seemed comfortingly unchanged.
But Akihabara was another story.
The last time I truly walked its streets was several years ago, when I attended a pathology workshop. Since then, I had only briefly passed through to transfer to the Tsukuba Express. In other words, I had not properly visited since before the pandemic.
The transformation was striking.
From the Chuo Line train I had already noticed that the iconic Meat Mansei building was gone. What I did not realize was that Yamagiwa — once a landmark electronics store — had actually closed fifteen years ago. My wife and I felt like characters from an old Japanese folktale, like Urashima Taro returning to find the world transformed.
While searching for that “phantom” Yamagiwa, I encountered another surprise: rows of young women dressed as maids, calling out to passersby to promote maid cafés.
The sight was impressive in scale, yet also strangely unsettling. Akihabara, once known primarily as “Electric Town,” has clearly evolved into something else — a global center of anime, gaming, and pop subculture.
Still, tucked between the colorful storefronts, a few small electronic parts shops remain. Stepping inside them felt like discovering fragments of an earlier Akihabara, preserved in quiet corners.
As expected, there were many international visitors. What caught my attention, though, was a group of foreigners gathered around a coin-operated parking lot, displaying customized cars.
Perhaps it was a meeting of enthusiasts, a celebration of Japanese car culture.
Standing there, I wondered what exactly they were sharing — and how this district, once devoted to circuits and solder, had become a stage for so many different worlds.
