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Chiba is a rural/suburban prefecture neighboring Tokyo with a lot of rice farms, some beaches, and Tokyo Disneyland. I think you meant Akihabara, and yes it ch
by aikinai 5y ago
Chiba is a rural/suburban prefecture neighboring Tokyo with a lot of rice farms, some beaches, and Tokyo Disneyland.
I think you meant Akihabara, and yes it changed, but not into an office park. It went from hard electronics to video game shops and maid cafés.
- simonh 5y agoYep, I'm just pointing out that the imagined future of a technologically advanced and ascendant Japan portrayed in Cyberpunk literature, and epitomised by William Gibson's vision of Chiba City in Neuromancer never happened. As a Gibson fan seeing the reality of Chiba and pondering Japan's failing fortunes at the time was sobering. I did visit Akihabara and it was a lot of fun browsing he gadget shops, but most of the actual devices were under powered little toys like tiny laptops running Windows CE.
- aikinai 5y agoOh, I see what you’re saying now. Not that the real Chiba was ever an electronics Mecca, but that it was in the book and reality never matched up. I guess in another timeline Chiba could have become Shenzhen. That would have been cool.
- psychlops 5y agoHad to google wtf 'maid cafe'...just when I thought Japan couldn't be any more weird.