As I walked around the biggest electronics store I’ve ever seen in my life in the “Electric City” district of Tokyo (also called Akihabara), the strains of a familiar song kept jumping into my brain.
It had happy Japanese words and was repeated over and over. What was that tune?
OMG: It’s the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” with new peppy words that sounded like they were saying this is a happy place to shop. It’s the theme song of Akihabara, which is a huge Times Square-like district devoted to electric necessities and toys ,and it has me wondering: is the Battle Hymn based on some ancient samurai tune, or did they rip this once solemn song from the public domain?
On weekends costumed anime characters wander around. The rest of the time, people with bullhorns shout out the latest sales.
Imagine the biggest Fry’s you’ve seen. Add seven stories to it and high end products with testing rooms and then multiply it by 30 buildings and you have Akihabara. Don’t forget to throw in a handful of goofy restaurants where Japanese women in Merry Maids costumes will bat their eyes at you and talk to you, if you buy a $20 cup of coffee (no pictures allowed, the signs say).
Basically, I wanted EVERYTHING there except the maids. The new tube amplifiers for iPods are genius. An iPod never sounded this good. I went back three times to listen, just waiting for the day I can afford one (a great system would be $3,200). They make the music sound “anarogue,” as one of the jazz cafes I visited, that played only vinyl records boasted.
And, oh yeah, the toilet seats.
They may not be a big conversation piece in the States, but 70 percent of the homes in Japan have heated toilet seats with built in nozzles that shoot warm water at your private parts.
It seems that every foreigner who tries them thinks about buying one, and there are big toilet seat sections in the Akihabra stores with directions and advice in English for foreigners. There was a steady stream of them in Akihabra, including a Russian cardiac surgeon I talked to, asking about toilet seat voltage.
For a minute, I thought that this could be my fortune, bringing the greatest toilet seats the world has known back to the U.S.
Then, I found out San Francisco entrepreneur Scott Pinnozzotto has done even better, building his own Swash seats for Brondell, and selling them at Bed, Bath and Beyond.
There goes my shot at the anarogue system.
Brad Kava was a print news reporter and syndicated media critic for the Mercury News for many years and has also had numerous works published in the New York Times, Kansas City Star and Rolling Stone magazine.
Brad has had front page stories about everything ranging from satellite radio, digital music rights and terrorist bombings to features on well known authors and profiles on technology luminaries and CEOs. He was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for covering the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and has done writing projects for the Los Angeles blues and rock record label, Delta Groove.
He has been a guest on “Nightline”, NPR’s “Morning Edition” and Howard Stern’s radio show, and is a regular media commentator for KCBS Radio, KGO radio and Fox TV affiliate KTVU in Oakland. His published interviews translated around the world have included musicians such as Keith Richards, James Cotton, Paul McCartney, Snoop Dogg, and U2.
Brad has won several awards for his writing, including second place for the Best Bay Area Columnist and Best Feature Story, and honorable mention for the Best Serious Feature Story. He was also part of the team that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Loma Preita earthquake.
