is a common name for the area around Akihabara Station in the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo, Japan. Administratively, the area named Akihabara is actually found in and Kanda-Sakumachō districts in Chiyoda. There also exists an administrative district called Akihabara in the Taitō ward further north of Akihabara Station, but it is not the place people generally refer to as Akihabara. The name Akihabara is a shortening of , which ultimately comes from , named after a fire-controlling deity of a firefighting shrine built after the area was destroyed by a fire in 1869. Akihabara gained the nickname shortly after World War II for being a major shopping center for household electronic goods and the post-war black market. Akihabara is considered by many to be the epicentre of modern Japanese otaku culture, and is a major shopping district for video games, anime, manga, electronics and computer-related goods. Icons from popular anime and manga are displayed prominently on the shops in the area, and numerous maid cafés and some arcades are found throughout the district. Geography The main area of Akihabara is located on a street just west of Akihabara Station, where most of the major shops are situated. Most of the electronics shops are just west of the station, and the anime and manga shops and the cosplay cafés are north of them. As mentioned above, the area called Akihabara now ranges over some districts in Chiyoda ward: , , and . There exists an administrative district called Akihabara in the Taitō ward further north of the station, but it is not the place which people generally refer to as Akihabara. It borders on Sotokanda in between Akihabara and Okachimachi stations, but is half occupied by JR tracks. History The area that is now Akihabara was once near a city gate of Edo and served as a passage between the city and northwestern Japan. This made the region a home to many craftsmen and tradesmen, as well as some low-class samurai. One of Tokyo's frequent fires destroyed the area in 1869, and the people decided to replace the buildings of the area with a shrine called Chinkasha (now known as Akiba Shrine ), meaning fire extinguisher shrine, in an attempt to prevent the spread of future fires. The locals nicknamed the shrine Akiba after the deity that could control fire, and the area around it became known as Akibagahara and later