Opening of giant electronics store in Akihabara draws thousands
Thousands of people lined up in Tokyo's Akihabara district on Friday as major electronics retailer Yodobashi Camera opened the doors of its giant "Multimedia Akiba" store to the public for the first time.
"Multimedia Akiba" is the biggest electronics store in Japan, having six floors below ground and nine above. The retail sections on floors one to six cover 23,800 square meters of floor space.
A feature of the store is that products are divided into sections by manufacturer. Restaurants, a bookstore and other establishments operated by tenants are located on the seventh, eighth and ninth floors.
On Friday morning about 5,000 people lined up for the opening sale from early in the morning, prompting the store to bring forward its opening time by 30 minutes to 9 a.m.
The store is located in front of JR Akihabara Station on Showa Dori, on the opposite side of the Akihabara electronics district. Recently Akihabara has come to be known as a district for otaku, but the new store may help bring back the reputation of the area as an appliance district. (Mainichi)
