Help: Akihabara Guide - Study-Project

Hi,
for my Director MX class I have to turn in a presentation/project with geographical relevance (studying Geomatics).
First & best thought: An interactive Akihabara-guide.
Intro -> Map of Akihabara with points of interest, linked to shops etc. with Pictures & info on them.
Filters: you click on keywords like Consoles, Games, Hardware, Anime blah.. and shops will be highlighted...
Route-planner: you click on your point of arrival and plan a route...

Problem: I need more material & info.
(private) photos (outdoors, with a lil explanation in name or meta-info), scans of existing city-guides, ressources on the web etc. everything is welcome!

atm stuff can be send by mail at primergy[at]arcor.de
EDIT: heres the FTP

Thanks in advance for everything sent & posted Jan

 

A couple of sources I would recommend (all can be obtained from amazon.jp - probably)

Akiba Deep - actually collections from the geek@akibablog but it has loads of info, lots of maps and places you might not find on a gaming/anime map, like otaku bars, maid cafes, doll hotels and of course lots of shops.

moerurubu - guide produced by the JTB, a moe guide to tokyo with loads on akiba, probably the best starting point. It is written for Japanese tourists exploring japan. (with lots of pictures)

Then for more academic intros to akiba, try otaku persona - space - city. A short collection of academic essays on akihabara. (especially concepts of city design and ritual)

If you want more info on these books, like their names in Japanese do ask.

 

Primergy: I'm pretty sure Gaijinpunch has produced something that looks exactly like what you describe. Oh it's here: http://japan.classicgaming.gamespy.com/akimap.php

 

Warakia, if you wouldn't mind, could you supply me with the Japanese names for those books you mentioned? Particulary 'Akiba Deep'. Thanks!

 

You can find all the info I posted (Dreamcast related in the thread http://assemblergames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6332&page=1&pp=20)

You can get an ariel map by installing Google Earth and opening up this coordinate file which will fly you to Akihabara, right above the station...

http://www.dreamcastgallery.com/dc/akihabara.kmz

You should definitely check out Gaijin Punch's flash app - he was looking to update his so he may have some overlap with you...

 

Sent you 16MB of pics.....

 

Thanks for the pics and all extra Info so far!
Of course I want the outcome of the project to be a vast, all informing and professional..
but this is just a beginners course for a few credit-points.
Instead of a final test, everyone has to turn in his/her own project.
I want to meet the goal, thats the first priority!
Depending on your opinion that version I sure will put more effort&time into it.

But I just cant read or translate whole japanese books & articles so I have to rely on whatever is available in English.

 

Sorry Primergy, I don't know many sources in English, however most of the sources I listed have a ton of pictures! Also otaku, city - space - persona has a translation into english available. Anyhoo here are the names in Japanese of some very good akiba guides (btw phinn, I'm studying japanese at oxford at the moment, nice to see someone in the same boat!)

最強萌系メイド喫茶ガイド - great maid cafe guide! (it comes with a dvd...oh and it is great for finding stuff outside tokyo.)

もえるるぶ東京案内 ~史上最濃！ やくにたつ萌え系ガイドブック - JTB travel guide, moe moe moe moe

アキバのディープな歩き方　アキバBlog 2005 - truly great book about akiba, things you probably haven't noticed even if you have to akiba and hundred times. (And quite well written.)

裏々!おたくSTREET―マニアのための東京ショップガイド - the king of maps.

萌え萌えジャパン 2兆円市場の萌える構造 - very popular

I could go on.... But these are the best starting points for a study of akiba - there is plenty of more academic stuff for those interested.

 

Primergy -- is what you're wanting something like that map I made? (Link posted by Antipasta). There is indeed a lot more out there than what I've put in my map...especially if you're including DVD/CD shops.

If you've not been, then yes -- translating the info that's out there will be hard. What I did, was traced a map, colored it in, then added the shops by memory. Google Earth stuff is, for the most part, up to date, but I've found them very difficult to trace. This is the one I used. Click on each square to enlarge. Trace, then piece them together.

 

Thanks for those :thumbsup:

 

Similar to that map, yea... just with more info&photos, some small animations etc.
all together in a small DirectorMX-presentation

 

Here's some links.
Akihabara on Google-J
More hits here probably

The map I gave you has quite a bit of info on Akihabara stores...just in Japanese.

 

Thanks for the japanese search entry