Akihabara 秋葉原
In 1949 the electronics sellers of Kanda moved under the tracks of the Sōbu line.
The name comes from Akiba ga hara, the field of the fire god Akiba (秋葉権現), to whom the residents dedicated a shrine after a fire in 1869. The station opened in 1890 as a freight yard, and a fruit and vegetable market grew up around it. In 1949, under the American occupation authorities, the black-market sellers of Kanda moved with their electronic-component stalls under the tracks of the Sōbu line: the Electric Town was born. In the sixties the neighbourhood sold mainly household appliances (washing machines, fridges, televisions), in the eighties personal computers, and from 2005, with the opening of the Tsukuba Express line and the Yodobashi Akiba department store, it turned to the otaku culture of anime, manga and video games.
Tokyo
Akihabara
