Between the coronavirus outbreak and the postponement of the Olympics, a lot of trips to Tokyo have been cancelled. But hey, if you can’t get yourself to Tokyo, you can at least take heart knowing there’s a way to bring Tokyo’s Akihabara neighborhood to you.
Granted, there’s some assembly required, as this scale model of the otaku culture mecca is an extremely thorough papercraft kit from local company Niku no Mansei, whose presence in Akihabara predates modern anime or video games. Niku no Mansei is actually a butcher shop/restaurant complex, but the company also has a wide variety of papercrafts kits available for free, on its Mansei Club hobby and activities website.
Many of the kits are for simpler things like trucks or trains, but you can also recreate several blocks worth of the Akihabara cityscape. Many major landmarks are included, though with slightly modified names (for example, the Radio Kaikan otaku specialty complex becomes “Television Kaikan,” electronics store Labi turns into “Tabi,” and Sega’s two Akihabara arcades are now owned by “Saga”).
Between the coronavirus outbreak and the postponement of the Olympics, a lot of trips to Tokyo have been cancelled. We know, it stinks, especially if traveling to Japan has been a lifelong dream of yours, and we really were looking forward to seeing you all. In a health climate where a trip to the movie theater is too risky, though, a trip overseas is pretty much out of the question.
But hey, if you can’t get yourself to Tokyo, you can at least take heart knowing there’s a way to bring Tokyo’s Akihabara neighborhood to you.
Granted, there’s some assembly required, as this scale model of the otaku culture mecca is an extremely thorough papercraft kit from local company Niku no Mansei, whose presence in Akihabara predates modern anime or video games. Niku no Mansei is actually a butcher shop/restaurant complex, but the company also has a wide variety of papercrafts kits available for free, on its Mansei Club hobby and activities website.
Many of the kits are for simpler things like trucks or trains, but you can also recreate several blocks worth of the Akihabara cityscape. Many major landmarks are included, though with slightly modified names (for example, the Radio Kaikan otaku specialty complex becomes “Television Kaikan,” electronics store Labi turns into “Tabi,” and Sega’s two Akihabara arcades are now owned by “Saga”).
The Akihabara papercraft set can be found online here, with a special page just for the model of the Niku no Mansei building here, extra streets here, and assembly diagrams here. Honestly, a butcher shop is the last place we’d have expected to find these, but just like with its hidden cutlet sandwich vending machines, Niku no Mansei is full of surprises.