This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Asia from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

In the heart of Tokyo lies Akihabara – a district whose name means “field of fall leaves,” though the actual scenery runs more to neon and silicon. This former postwar black market is now the holy land for fans of anime and manga. Akihabara features dozens of electronics shops and internet cafes catering to Japan’s otaku – or nerd –set who are easily identified by their lack of personal fashion sense, their obsessive interest in manga, and their general clumsiness with members of the opposite sex. In 2005, the runaway TV hit and feature film Densha Otoko, or “Train Man,” set off a nationwide fad for the nerd style personified by the hero of show – a so-called “Akihabara type making it, so to speak, downright chic to be a “geek.”

With thanks to Mindy Varner for this text, from the KU Center for East Asian Studies, I’m Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.