Akihabara

Perspectives from an American female cosplayer and an employee in an Akihabara Maid Cafe.

For all you sexy figurine nerds, a Yamato Nadesiko Version of the Ninja Shinobu-chan figurine is now available.

She is now transformed with black hair and a school uniform-ish armor, complemented with a pink scarf that trails along, as if there is wind. =)

Price: 7140 yen

Kotaku goes shopping at akihabara for the most expansive game they can find and the result is quite interesting.

With the amazing success of the oden-kan, other types of can food appeared in Akiba. Next to the oden-kan, you can find ramen-kan, porridge-pan and even spaghetti-kan. Later on, Pinafore cafe joined in the can wagon and created their own brand of rice in a can. Inside the can is omelette rice with a small packet of ketchup for you to draw on and others include hamburger and rice.

Sales of the consoles and games in Japan, PSP seems to be outselling the DS but Mario and Pokemon are still the best selling games.

Honey Egg, a company popular for organizing cosplay and photo shoot events in the past has opened a new bar this month where customers can enjoy hearty Tex-Mex food and 30 different brands of Tequila. The atmosphere is strictly kept to resemble southernn U.S.A lifestyle with scantly dressed cowgirls serving customers who might be looking for a change from the maid theme or simply prefer their staff dresses in southern style frocks, even though they probably can't get the accent right.

New Pokemon game sells almost 1 million copies in 2 days. Japan is still Pokemon mad it seems.

Commemorating the birth of the Japanese Maid Cafe ten years ago, R's Publishing released a book in which 4 freelance editors and writers named Kiyoshi Hayakawa, Naohiro Kimata, Yamasaki Ryu and Sato Kaede elaborate on various topics regarding Maid Cafes. Besides covering specific cafes, the book also provides details about proper manors customers should observe, as well well as standard rules.

As expected, officials are talking about reopening akihabara's 'pedestrian paradise'. We all remember what happened two months ago.

"Called "Hakuho Shrine", the make-shift shrine is a little booth of about 3 meters by 4 meters, with a little wooden alter decorated with a handful of nendroid-like bishojo characters. There is even a mini movable shrine next to it, and a read huge Torii (red gate before shrines). Apart from praying to the moe Goddesses, you can try picking a waterballoon or buy a cold drink. For the countryside otaku, there are Hakuho Shrine T-shirts, amulets, etc. to buy back home as souvenirs."

Introducting the Chibi Chibi (Tiny Tiny) cafe!! In chibichibiland, everything is small from the maids to the food. The smallest maid is 144cm tall!

Some innovative (but a little dumb) ways of staying cool in Akihabara, featuring a maid named Cherry. Watermelons and bananas go well together...!?!

Dragon Ice has opened the "First watermelon-milk stall to land in Japan". In addition to watermelon milk, store also sells other fresh juices such as mango, melon, and papaya.

The shop claims an American research group had found eating watermelons can produce the same effect as taking viagra.

Watermelon anyone?