Japan Times article about (おたく) Otaku and (秋葉原) Akihabara

Here's a link to an article I came across on Digg.com about the Geek culture that made the Akihabara (秋葉原) district of Tokyo so popular and how it's popularity is forcing real Geeks or Otaku (おたく) to find somewhere new to go.

What do you think? It seems that Otaku culture is getting bigger and bigger in Japan over time. That is a story in itself. But the marginalizing of the people who created a community-of-sorts from a sense of being alienated, that's interesting, too, isn't it? I'm not sure how well I can relate to the Japanese Otaku culture, but I do have an appreciation for Geeks. I'm a Geek when it comes to music and books and film and such things. I don't relate to being obsessed with Anime/Manga and hostess bars that cater to pleasing Geeks.

But, I do hate to see a good thing fall apart because the mainstream masses became turned on to something again. It's a kind of gentrification. The same thing happens when people with enough money find out about a lively/trendy/artsy/'alternative' residential neighbourhood. They move there en masse and, just by being there, destroy the whole spirit of the place, sucking the interesting right out of it and making it lame and 'normal' like everything else the status quo enjoys. The mainstream always wants a piece of what others are enjoying, even if they know they will destroy those very things by getting in on it.

Just wanted to post it and see if it interests anyone else. Check it out.

I'm out...
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Played while I posted: Yo La Tengo - 11 I heard you looking
via FoxyTunes