I have a friend going to Tokyo soon, and I know that there are consumer electronics in Japan that are way cooler than stuff here, and I want to find some info about what is available 'only in Japan'. Any ideas on resources?

Just tell him to walk through Akihabara and pick up the first thing he sees

He'll probably end up with a giant neon sign though if he did that!
Cool place to wander about. Lots of neat gadgets and toys but it does help to have somebody that knows Japanese along. At least that's what I found when I went a few years back.

- Trevor

I check out this website a couple times a week. It is mainly focused on computer hardware, but you will occasionally see a cool cell phone, game system, or new electronics store.

http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/akiba/

i guess i am really looking for a site that is in english, that maybe i could understand... but thanks though!

I don't know japanese either, but I still like the site. I like looking at the pretty pictures.

I like looking at the pretty pictures.

Well, I read the Web for the articles.

I used to. Took 5 years of it. It's suprising how little of that language you can learn in 5 years

what I got out of visiting the district is that there were a hell of a lot of things all crammed into one place (but it's Tokyo, and the same applies to humans all over the city). At the time, Sony was still pushing MD. You have no idea. There were MD devices in litterally every store front, almost all over them. Everywhere you looked there were MD devices and discs. If I had had more money at the time, I might have even bought some of that! (I had/have an MD player/recorder).

Anyway, it's a cool place to go, but it's hard to find something when you're there, let alone by remote.

ps-I have to say, I didn't like Tokyo one bit. I felt claustrophobic 24 hours a day. It was a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there (and I was there for about 3 weeks!). So Tokyo wasn't my favorite city in the world, or even Japan. I hope your friend is getting out into the country or any of the smaller cities.

i saw a real cool thing while i was there a combined cd/md player the cool thing was both things went through the same slot.

But the cars they have they are so cool even some of the tiny ones are real cool