Akihabara Shops Hold 'We Love Akiba Festival' Next Week

About 50 otaku shops will hold the "Akiba Daisuki! Matsuri 2012" (We Love Akiba! Festival 2012) event in Tokyo's Akihabara shopping district next Sunday and Monday (Japan's Coming of Age holiday). The Belle Salle Akihabara event hall will host the event.

The theme of the event is the intermingling of Akihabara's "Electric Town" past with its current status as the "holy land of pop culture." The Asahi news source notes that visitors often say, "I don't know what kinds of stores are in Akihabara and where they are," and this festival will allow people to see the breadth of what the area has to offer in the fields of otaku interests.

Participating exhibitors range from anime goods stores and maid cafés to game and model train shops. Names familiar to overseas fans such as Kotobukiya and Good Smile Company will be there, as well as local mainstays such as the secondhand store chain K-Books and Star Kebab restaurants. The festival will feature idol goods, remote-controlled miniature helicopters, anti-theft items, swords, and model weapons. Various performers will appear on stage at the event, and the organizers plan to stream the performances.