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Kanda-Akihabara - Tokyo Hotels .com

Kanda-Akihabara, Tokyo

The town of Kanda runs along the Yasukuni Dori Avenue and encompasses the Yasukuni Shrine. The layout of Kanda and Akihabara is reminiscent of seventeenth-century Edo -- the former incarnation of Tokyo -- when each district specialized in a specific trade. In Kanda you will find a plethora of bookstores and used book shops, some specializing in antique Japanese writings.

This district is also home to the Kanda Myojin Festival at the Kanda Myojin Shrine, an event filled with portable shrines, a tea ceremony, and beautiful geisha dances. Here you will also find the Tokyo Resurrection Cathedral, a Russian Catholic cathedral central to the Japanese Orthodox Church.

Akihabara, also known as "Electric Town," is known as the emperor's palace of cheap consumer electronics. Luckily, you don't have to worry about paying emperor prices -- most stores are ready to bargain. In this once-black market technology district, with tiny streets crowded by huge neon electronic megastores and small street suppliers, Japanese manufacturers now send their new products to gauge consumer response before sending the new models overseas.