Akihabara is not all about the state-of-the-art -- some technology from the analog era remains. Foremost among these relics is the vacuum tube, which dates back to around World War I. Thousands of music lovers believe that the sound produced by vacuum-tube amplifiers is superior to anything today's transistor amps can pump out.
Taiheiyo (Pacific Ocean), a 3-sq.-meter shop run by 73-year-old Tetsuichi Haryu, is one of many dealing in the elegant glass vials, from which the air has been evacuated to the highest possible degree and inside which electrons fly at almost the speed of light. For 50 years, Haryu has been catering mainly to do-it-yourself enthusiasts.
"Many major stores in Akihabara are an outgrowth of shops that started selling electron tubes or other electronic parts in the early 1950s," he says. "Most of the merchandise was sold wholesale to the shop owners by U.S. Occupation soldiers who had taken them from military storages for money to drink at bars and spend at cabarets."