Posts Tagged ikebukuro

Apr
10

Ikebukuro is the new Akihabara

Posted by on Monday, 10 April, 2006

Otome Road
…at least,that is, in otaku-terms. The latest mecca for Manga/Anmie-geeks seem to be Ikebukuro. The special thing about it though, is that it has grown in popularity as sort of an opposite to Akihabara, in that it tailors mostly to girl fans. There’s especially one street, labelled “Otome Road” (乙女ロード) which means something like “Virgin Street” (on the west side of the station, close to the Sunshine Bldg area) which is the main place to go in Ikebukuro with lots of manga-shops and costume stores.

See map below (Otome Road is marked in pink):
otome street ikebukuro

Further, it seems that the latest “hot” thing in this area of town is women-only gay-themed restaurant/bars. Some of these places have only women staff, dressed up as men and they only allow women as guests. Then they talk dirty to the guests to cater to any inner lesbian fantasies they might harbor. Yes, I found it sort of strange when I saw a show about such places on TV, but it is the latest rage within the female otaku community.