Akihabara in Colour

Is this what Tokyo looks like?

When you get to Akihabara – a daydream subject regularly namedropped by gamers talking Japan – you exit the station into a street scene painted in the colours of Sega.

It’s a playground purpose-built from your hopes in the 90s and preserved in case you wanted to visit sometime in the future when your Super NES had yellowed and your Mega CD was skipping.

There are four multistorey Sega arcades within minutes of one another – plus two or three Taitos, an Adores and several more. One Sega has a seven-storey billboard showing whatever is the latest arcade cash-cow. There’s shopping, maid cafes, manga cafes, ramen…

It’s a nerd-fantasy version of Tokyo. My Japanese friends tend not to go there.