Akihabara

Akihabara in 2007
Akihabara at night

Akihabara (秋葉原?) ("Field of Autumn Leaves"), also known as Akihabara Electric Town (秋葉原電気街 Akihabara Denki Gai?), is an area of Tokyo, Japan. It is located less than five minutes by rail from Tokyo Station. Its name is frequently shortened to Akiba (アキバ?) in Japan. While there is an official locality named Akihabara nearby, part of Taitō-ku, the area known to most people as Akihabara (including the railway station of the same name) is actually Soto-Kanda, a part of Chiyoda-ku.

Akihabara is a major shopping area for electronic, computer, anime, and otaku goods, including new and used items. New items are mostly to be found on the main street, Chūōdōri, with many kinds of used items found in the back streets of Soto Kanda 3-chōme. First-hand parts for PC-building are readily available from a variety of stores. Tools, electrical parts, wires, microsized cameras and similar items are found in the cramped passageways of Soto Kanda 1-chōme (near the station). Foreign tourists tend to visit the big name shops like Laox or other speciality shops near the station, though there is more variety and lower prices at locales a little further away. Akihabara gained some fame through being home to one of the first stores devoted to personal robots and robotics.

Contents

Timeline

Buildings in Akihabara
Between stores in Akihabara

But many downtown Tokyo residents misunderstood the shrine. They thought that the deity Akiba or Akiha (秋葉) which was the most popular fire-controlling deity in central and eastern Japan must have been enshrined in it. They also called the cleared land "Akiba ga hara" or "Akibappara" which means "the deity Akiba's square".

Police station

Manseibashi Police Station (万世橋警察署 Manseibashi Keisatsusho?)[4] is a station of Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. The station takes its name from the nearby bridge, Manseibashi. The area north of the bridge is Akihabara Electric Town".

The station is located slightly east of the Mansei bridge (), on the Akihabara side of the Kanda River.[5] In addition to the police station, the building houses other government offices.

The station began as a substation of Kanda Police Station in April 1905. It was disbanded a year later, but re-established in various forms until June 1927, when it was established as the Kanda Manseibashi Police Station. It moved back in with the Kanda station after the station was destroyed in the World War II fire-bombing of Tokyo. In November 1948 the station was re-established under its present name, Manseibashi Police Station.

See also

References

  1. At least 6 dead in Tokyo stabbing spree Retrieved June 8, 2008
  2. Man stabs shoppers in Tokyo street Retrieved June 8, 2008
  3. NHKニュース 秋葉原通り魔事件 死者6人に "NHK News Akihabara Passerby Incident Death Toll to Six" Retrieved June 8, 2008
  4. 万世橋警察署 :警視庁
  5. "Summary of Manseibashi Police Station" (in Japanese). Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. http://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/1/manseibashi/gaiyo/gaiyo.htm. Retrieved 2007-01-23. 

Further reading

External links