Lost in Akihabara
Later that day (previous post), I went out again. I was on my way to Akihabara. The mecca for anime/manga lovers, I didn’t know what I was looking for, or what to expect, but I just had a feeling that I owed it to my younger self to go there.
I got out of the subterranean metro station, and entered the chaos. Everywhere I looked were groups of people, loud traffic and gigantic billboards with cute anime/manga girls painted on them. Just following the crowd flow I decided to walk down the street. I passed plenty of young looking Japanese girls, dressed in maid costumes. Smiling, waving flyers at everyone passing by. I read about this before, they are trying to get people into the maid cafes. I didn’t want any tourist trap, so I just ignored them and kept walking. I felt a little bad about ignoring, but at the same time I knew. It’s not for me, better to ignore and not bring up their hopes for another commission.
There were hundreds of stores I passed by, most of them I could identify in seconds being tourist traps so I already realized how things were going to be. But then I saw some hidden away market place. Kind of shrouded in darkness and chaos, low ceilings. I thought this is it, this is where I’m supposed to go and I went inside. There they were, genuine local sellers with second-hand figurines in all sizes with reasonable prices. More locals too, taking photos and comparing prices of certain ones. I saw plenty of popular characters I recognized, a lot of them I didn’t recognize as well but just passed my eyes over all of it while slowly making my way through the maze. Every corner had vitrines filled with merchandise. There was no clear path, and that was okay. Just guided by whatever felt like the right turn. I even ended up walking in circles a few times, but it was okay, the second time I passed the same shop I still saw something new. Something I realized too that I learned long ago. Stay long enough in one place, you’ll start to see beyond the surface. The details, things you didn’t even notice at first that were there. The real place.
I emerged from that small chaotic world, onto a relatively empty side alley. Following it out, I ended up on a bigger street again, so many people were flowing into this one building which wasn’t clearly marked with any name or something. At least nothing I could recognize, so I decided to check it out. Nothing but time.
The ground floor had a few small stores, and there was a single line escalator going up, where all the people were going and I went up. I arrived on the first floor, and there was the beginning. 4-7 stores packed on op of each other, thousands of figures. Lot’s of people, organized chaos. I went by every showcase, and took it in. There were figurines of Dragonball, Naruto and a bunch of other populair series. They touched me in some way, but I didn’t feel the need to have it. At some point I realized, I would like a small figurine, something of long ago. Lucky Star, Konata would be the one if I could find it. I kept going, showcase by showcase. Mind you, the paths between were enough for a one and a half person to pass, so it was every time waiting for people that were looking at something or trying to squeeze behind them.
Eventually there she was, at the bottom. Surrounded by a few of her friends. It was a relatively smal figurine and the only one of her but the looks were slightly off and the worst thing, she was in her normal school girl outfit. I passed plenty of other showcases where there were similar figurines, with exposed panties, or other provocative poses and sexually edgy stuff. It just didn’t feel right to get something like that and put it on my desk. I figured there must be other versions of her, capturing her energy/character without being too pervy. So instead I went on to the next store, and the next.. took the escalator up to the next floor and there was even more. A few hours later I kept going up the escalators while scouring floor by floor every store and aisles until I reached the end. The building had a whopping 10 floors filled with these stores, it was insane. But still, I walked out empty handed.
I felt my disappointment growing. I was trying to find something that maybe didn’t even exist. A few other figurines sparked memories of shows I had forgotten about, but nothing really clicked. Some things might be better left in memory.