Part Search in Tokyo - Akihabara

About 10 years ago, I remember a friend of mine showing me a MiniDisc player he bought in Akihabara Electric Town, the electronics hub of Tokyo. At the time, the player surpassed anything available in the United States. So on a recent trip to Tokyo, of course I checked out the area.

I emerged from the Akihabara station to an overwhelming view of futuristic looking buildings and colorful signs.

Poking around in some of the stores I found lots of consumer electronics - cell phones, digital cameras and laptop computers. It seemed like a flashier version of Circuit City.

As I exited one of the stores, I noticed a small, narrow alley off to the side and poked my head in.

I expected perhaps a loading dock, or maybe a dumpster filled with cardboard boxes. Instead, tiny booths filled the alley, each one displaying thousands of electronic components.

Transfixed, I entered the alley and checked out the wares of the first booth. Capacitors covered nearly the entire surface area of the booth with the exception of a tiny hole where the proprietor stood watch over his goods.

As I zig-zagged down the alley, bouncing from one booth to the next I saw the same scene repeated over and over though with a different family of components.

I witnessed an effective way to search for parts: the open market method. For some types of searches it may not be the fastest but is certainly the most fun!