quirble in akiba

how the depraved バカがいじん quirble traveled 5000+ miles to spend money and look at nerd stuff

in june 2024, instead of... ya know, getting a job... i decided to travel to japan. i spent 2 weeks there, but most of that is unimportant since we're focusing on the akihabara section here (≧◡≦)

i was super excited for everything but the walking. all the sights, sounds, smells, all the nerds walking around... so cool..!!! here's a collection of pictures i took which sum up my akiba experience.

this is of course the main animate Akihabara, the Taito Station, the Donki...!! i didn't go into these due to time constraints though.

still, seeing this street irl after all the cool shows i've seen (like 16Bit Sensation: Another Layer - pictured here) was so cool..

entering into a store called BEEP Akihabara (which was like... this underground basement??) was really neat, with loud chiptune music playing to invite me in. people call BEEP a "mecca" for japanese gaming enthusiasts, which is exactly my thought as well. it was so so cool. (☆ω☆)

i'd never seen an X68k or FM TOWNS before this, despite having gone to VCF events stateside before. absolute museum pieces just sitting here for me to lay my eyes on!!!

speaking of 16Bit Sensation: Another Layer, look at this wall of rare bishojo PC-98 games i've never heard of! in another universe, Quirb Soft would have titles here...

unfortunately, at that time, they didn't actually have an NEC PC-9800 system that i wanted. i was specifically looking for either a PC-9801VX OR a pre-1995 PC-9821 with a built in PC-9801-86 sound card (such as the 9821Cs2). unfortunately they didn't have either. my questioning went like this:

(Q: "すみません... PC-9821Cs2はありますか...?" cashier: "No... It's out of stock, sorry" Q: "Aa, it's OK.. ありがとう...")

the cashier replying to me in english asking him in japanese was brutal as well (⁄ ⁄>⁄ ▽ ⁄<⁄ ⁄)

this was the only PC-98 they had for sale at the moment. right here is a 9821Xe10, one of the late MATE-X models with an i586 Pentium if i recall correctly. these generation of 9821s were built specifically to run Windows 95, where they were known in japanese as "Windows 95s" (the term "PC" was just used for PC-9800s) - this meant they lacked some compatibility with older software i wanted to run, and this specific model didn't even have a built in PC-9801-86 sound card.

cards like the 9801-86 are expensive!! so i wanted a machine that had one built in. and i also kind of wanted a 9801VX that i can throw a 26k in. oh well, auctions.yahoo time.

after leaving BEEP with some really cool but unrelated-to-PC9800 nerd stuff, i went over to the AKIBA-HOBBY 6F location to get Touhou stuff. The hike up to 6F was arduous but I made it. that's the thing about japanese department stores; i'm so used to american malls that rarely exceed 2 floors because they're horizontally sprawling, and here is insanely dense development both up and down!

the hallway was so beautiful with so many little artworks people drew on the walls, and all the touhou/GFL/etc otaku posters empowered me to keep hiking to the top of the "mountain".

ZUN-san's handiwork in this museum case for all to see, how spectacular!! (❤ω❤)

and this was the famous LISTEN UP area where i could play music (or hum along to what was already playing). they didn't have any fumos, but i bought a reimu HowaHowa Furyu plushy which is super cute and soft (and i got a marisa from an animate later on, hehe).

not pictured: me going to Radio Kaikan AmiAmi and a bunch of other stores near it to get more touhou goodies!! unfortunately i didn't get good images of the Kaikan building, but it was certainly one of the buildings of all time.

i'd say i was pleasantly surprised by the amount of touhou merchandise at akihabara! there was a healthy selection in every store, and a lot of cool doujin media too. i ended up buying a huge bucket load of touhou merchandise from both akiba AND ikebukuro, my stupid baka ass could never be financially wise enough to be trusted with large amounts of money. i highly enjoyed the trip and even weeks/months later, i still look back at the images (or watch anime featuring akiba) and feel nice and warm and joyful inside (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) "i was there!!!! i was in the spot [x character] is standing!!!!"

the only thing i'd have changed is that i think i would have been helped by actually knowing much more japanese. i can barely speak a sentence without translation apps assisting me .｡･ﾟﾟ･(＞ω＜)･ﾟﾟ･｡.