The second of our Tokyo Realtime audio tours covers Akihabara, Japan’s subculture hotspot for anime, manga, games – and maid cafes.
The cover shot of the CD & photobook of Tokyo Realtime: Akihabara features Arisa, one of Tokyo’s most celebrated maids, who can be found tending to customers at Café Mai:lish.
The theme at Café Mai:lish is one of relaxation – an oasis of calm in the heart of the city.
Within that oasis, Arisa is a princess who warms the hearts of clients and brings smiles to their faces – it’s said that flowers bloom wherever she walks.
Arisa’s Profile
-Birthday: July 20th
-blood type: A
-favorite: flowers, gentle music, and other soft things
Interview outtake where Patrick Macias discusses two types of Otaku commonly associated with Akihabara.
Patrick Macias is the author of Cruising the Anime City and editor of Otaku USA Magazine. Patrick blogs here and shares his insights and opinions on Otaku culture and the Akihabara neighborhood as a guest commentator in the TOKYO REALTIME: Akihabara audio tour by White Rabbit Press
The following article appeared on Akiba Today, in collaboration with the Akiba Keizai Shinbun.
The audio guide series Tokyo Realtime began distribution of its Akihabara edition in mid-October.
Tokyo Realtime is an audio guide published by Japan-based White Rabbit Press to help non-Japanese sightseers on walking tours. The company has also released guides for Shinjuku and Kabukicho.
And now White Rabbit Press is featuring Akihabara, with Patrick W. Galbraith as your navigator, who is the administrator of Otaku2 (an otaku information website for non-Japanese) and who conducts tours of Akihabara dressed in a cosplay costume of Goku from Dragon Ball. Galbraith’s code name when serving as a tour conductor: Gaigokujin, a play on words that mixes the Japanese word for “foreigner” (“gaikokujin”) and the character name “Goku.” The Akihabara guide has recordings for visiting locales such as Radio Kaikan, maid cafes and Mandarake, as well as explanations of Akihabara’s history and of otaku (nerd) culture, like itasha (a car that has anime or game characters decorating the body). In addition, also included is commentary by Otaku USA editor-in-chief Patrick Macias and Danny Choo, the administrator of dannychoo.com, a Japan pop culture website with over 20 million monthly page views by 2 million visitors.
The audio content is currently on sale for download at White Rabbit Press’ website for $12. There are also future plans to sell a packaged edition with a set containing the audio guide CD, an Akihabara map and a photo collection.
This article has been created in collaboration with
Akiba Keizai Shimbun
Are Japanese Crazy? 80,000 Questions Around the World
In October 2009 White Rabbit Press director and producer of Tokyo Realtime: Kabukicho Max Hodges was called upon by German TV channel NDR for a tour of the Tokyo neighbourhood.
The second of our Tokyo Realtime audio tours covers Akihabara, Japan’s subculture hotspot for anime, manga, games – and maid cafes.
