Around Tokyo

Akihabara-Electric Avenue

日本語

Nowadays, the words like"Densha Otoko" and "Moe" made Akihabara get remarkable attention. And from this year through 2006, Akihabara is changing more. First, the former site of the Kanda fruit and vegetable market in front of Akihabara Station has been redeveloped and is almost complete. The area is named "AKIHABARA CROSS FIELD". One of the buildings called "Akihabara DAIBIRU", which has 31 stories above the ground and 2 underground stories, opened by the station this March. The building holds offices and convention halls. And you can find stylish cafes at 1st floor and 2nd floor.

In addition, The TSUKUBA EXPRESS, which will link Tsukuba in Ibaraki with Akihabara in Tokyo in 45 minutes (Maximum Speed is 130 kph) and Wi-Fi facilities are supposed to be installed in cars and stations. This improvement will encourage you to access cities easily and also will bring ripple effects in various ways. We can expect great impact in terms of activation of the northeast metropolitan area.

Another remarkable building in "AKIHABARA CROSS FIELD", "Akihabara UDX," which opened this past spring. The building has 22 stories above and 3 underground stories, is regarded as a center of Akihabara, has offices (from 6th floor to 22nd floor), show rooms (1st floor), some event spaces (2nd and 4th floor) and cafes & restaurants (from 1st floor to 3rd floor) The size of a floor is about 4628-square-meters and this is the largest in Japan.

Akihabara is well known not only as the electric avenue of Tokyo, but also as "Otaku" or electric town. However, now it has changed dramatically to the IT town of the future. It will be sad if its unique and chaotic atmosphere and big attractions of this town fade away. Will Akihabara keep these images or turn into a stylish and cyberpunk town?

Translated by, Chie Takeguchi

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