Page 58 - (DK Eyewitness) Top 10 Travel Guide - Tokyo

56 ❯❯ The Top 10 of Everything

Pop Culture Venues

Performers dressed as robots entertain customers in Robot Restaurant
Robot Restaurant
1 merchandise. Expect to find no end
of themed clothes, figures, toys, and
MAP B3 • 1-7-1 Kabukicho,
Shinjuku-ku • 3200-5500 • Open 6pm– snacks as well as Pokémon statues.
11pm • www.shinjuku-robot.com
Tokyo Anime Center
The lively crowd don’t come here 5
for the food, but for the over-the- Akiba Info
top performance by robots and MAP F3 • 4th floor, UDX Buidling
out rageously dressed girls and guys 4-14-1 Soto-Kanda, Chiyoda-ku
bathed in a sea of flashing lights. • Open 11am–7pm Tue–Sun • 5298-
1188 • www.animecenter.jp
Takeshita-dori
2 All things anime, manga, and
electronic converge in the streets
MAP B5 • Takeshita-dori,
Shibuya-ku around Akihabara, a gathering place
Packed with garish boutiques, for otaku (geeks) and lovers of
sub culture junk, cutesy accessories, Japanese pop culture. For an English
lurid kitsch, and fetish costumery, map of the area drop by this center.
this loud, abrasive but fun street is
Tokyo Big Sight
frequented by Japan’s extreme youth. 6
MAP D2 • Tokyo International
Design Festa Gallery
3 Exhibition Center, 3-11-1 Ariake,
MAP R4 • 3-20-18 Jingumae,
Koto-ku • 5530-1111
Shibuya-ku • 3479-1442 Arguably Asia’s largest art festival,
• www.designfesta.com/en the biannual, two-day Design Festa
The Design Festa event encourages (see p70) is held at the Tokyo Big
freedom of expression through art Sight, and attracts over 50,000 visitors.
and design, and has been held twice a
year since 1994. This gallery, run by
the organizers of the event, is open for
temporary exhibitions all year round.
Pokémon Center
4
Mega Tokyo
MAP C1 • Sunshine City Alpha 2F,
3-1-2 Higashi-Ikebukuro, Toshima-ku
• 5927-9290 • Open 10am–8pm
• www.pokemon.co.jp
This is the biggest of several stores
in Tokyo selling Pokémon-related Tokyo Big Sight, home to Design Festa

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