Akihabara: chasing arcade light

The big game centers in Akihabara stack five, sometimes seven floors, and each one has its own weather. Ground floor: claw machines and tourists. Climb, and the air thickens with cigarette ghosts, energy drinks and the specific whine of rhythm games played by people who are very, very good.

We came for the light. Every surface up here is a screen or a mirror, and after dark the whole building becomes a single reflection engine — neon bouncing off glass off chrome off the sweat on a top-scorer's forehead.

Bring 1000 yen in coins and no plan. The floors sort you by nerve: you'll know when you've climbed as high as you belong.