This article is from the official account:Game Research Club (ID: yysaag), original titles such as “Sega in Akihabara Hall 2 closed shop scene, witness after the epidemic of depression ACG holy Land”, author: HJPotter, title figure from: vision China
Five months after Tokyo announced an emergency due to the new crown epidemic, one of the landmarks of Akihabara, the arcade hall that has been in operation for 17 years, the Sega Hall 2 GiGO, officially closed at 10 pm.
This store is located next to the “Manse Bridge” at the entrance of Akihabara Electric Town. It is famous for the huge ship girl advertisement on the outer wall. It is also called a paradise for crane machines by experts. Many tourists can’t help but tempted to buy them when they pass by. Pass the Taiyaki downstairs.
The store information on Google Maps has been changed to “Closed”
A hundred years ago, Akihabara was an agricultural product market with convenient transportation. After the Second World War, as the Japanese economy took off, it became a base camp for assembling radios, and on this basis, it formed an electrical street with many hypermarkets.
There are still many radio shops in the alley
With the broadcast of “Neon Genesis Evangelion” animation in 1995, otaku culture began to enter the public eye, and animation-related surroundings brought a total of more than 30 billion yen in economic benefits. Akihabara has also introduced many hand-run chain stores such as Kaiyutang, which has become a holy place for the second dimension. Games, animations, comics, model peripherals, Internet cafes, maid coffee… For more than 20 years, various two-dimensional shops have flourished here.
The five Sega arcade halls in Akihabara are all converted from electrical appliances stores.
The Handa Building where Sega Hall 2 is located is the original site of the “First Home Appliance Akihabara Original Store”. It was converted into an arcade hall “Sega Akihabara GiGO” in 2002 and positioned as Sega’s flagship store in Akihabara. (Sega’s flagship store in Ikebukuro is also called GiGO). In 2017, in order to reorganize and manage the four stores in Akihabara, Sega renamed GiGO to Hall 2, but old players still call this store GiGO.
The shops here are mostly modified from electrical appliances stores
On the day of closing, the author visited Hall 2. There are a lot more customers in the store than usual, and it has almost recovered to the level before the epidemic. Everyone needs to twist their bodies through the cramped claw machine like a water snake. It is a pity that there are no discounts in the store, but the source of the claw machine is not so sufficient.
The “professional players” squeezed through the crowd with big plastic bags, and took the trophies they caught back to the recycling shop for money
I couldn’t help but took out my wallet when I saw it. For only 100 yen, I caught a “Star Wars” figure with no outer packaging. Looking back, maybe it’s not how good my skills are. It’s just that the clerk puts unpopular figures in a particularly good position to clear the stock for the convenience of moving.
It costs 600 yen to grab the “Five-Equal Flower Marriage” phone case. It seems a small loss?
Climb up the narrow escalator, from the 4th floor is the arcade area.
The machines in the “Fleet Collection” that usually line up outside on the stairs are still empty during off-peak periods. The “Star and Wing Paradox” area held a player appreciation event on the last day. Players who came here were sitting on the bench between the machines and lined up in a regular manner-although from the perspective of epidemic prevention, this is quite “Three secrets.”
Akihabara in August, people are accustomed to the epidemic
Although the epidemic is difficult to control, it is impossible to implement a state of emergency again-the government cannot pay a second subsidy, and the number of closed companies and unemployed people is increasing. So we can only boil the frogs in warm water and maintain them half-dead in the name of “democracy not sealing the city”-no matter how much money the government sends to the people (in fact, it’s sent down Money is also a tax paid by everyone), as long as the epidemic prevention is not done well, short-term happiness will be wiped out with the economic collapse.
Fortunately, people’s spirits are not so tight, and they are not as scared as they were in April. Wearing masks should eat and drink. Schools resumed one after another, and the highly-infectious gym and pachinko house also resumed operations.
There even appeared in the society Masako Hiratsuka saying “the new crown is a cold”For the political program, a politician who held a malicious infection activity around the Yamanote Line without a mask for a week
Most Japanese media wear colored glasses to selectively report news every day (Obviously there is a National Bank version. What are the reasons for the Chinese people to buy the Japanese version of switch? )
The small ramen shop was unable to hold idol events, so the number of diners drastically reduced and decided to close the shop. Large electrical appliances stores and arcade halls closed down one after another… Japanese TV station made a special program on “Akihabara Epidemic Successive Closures”, lamenting that this is the most difficult summer
Akihabara is experiencing its worst period since the Murder incident 12 years ago. The number of tourists on the pedestrian street on Sunday was less than one-third of the original number. Stores and shops were closed one after another. Iron rolling shutters were everywhere. The hardware experience store was equipped with alcohol and not many people dared to touch the peripherals. The books were put away, and the homeless people who lost their homes because of the closure of the Internet cafes could only live on the streets.
Although the xenophobic Japanese didn’t like foreign tourists very much, the “buy, buy, and buy” of tourists after all brought real economic income to the “tourism-based Japan”. Now the shop is racking their brains to make ends meet, and even repairing a mouse has increased the price to 5,000 yen-plus the consumption tax to 5,500 yen, which is almost five times the domestic price.