On April 23, linguistic publication company Go-ken (Chiyoda Ward) released a language study story book and guide for Tokyo and Akihabara entitled Guiding Your Friends Around Akihabara in English. 

Using the concept of “I want I express what I like in English,” the story features a slightly otaku parent-child team of tourists from America being led around by a rather normal parent-child pair of Japanese, and presents the conversations they have in side by side Japanese - English. It starts off meeting the foreigners at the airport, and includes episodes of buying figures and appliances in Akihabara and visiting a maid cafe. Columns introducing the finer points of Akihabara history and other information relevant to Japan are also presented in the same side by side format. 

Concerning the selection of Akihabara as the book's theme, a promotional representative from Go-ken comments, “It's not just because foreigners in Akihabara are on the rise. There's also a big discrepancy between the image of Akiba in Japan, as a place most people don't know much about, and the image of Akiba to foreigners, that of Akihabara = Cool. We wanted to teach people some interesting points about this gap in perception.” He also states, “With the refreshing twist of presenting foreigners' viewpoints to those unfamiliar with Akiba, it's also possible to rediscover Japanese popular culture.” 

The book will go on sale for 1,680¥. Go-ken's second installation in the series will be a collaboration with Pot Publications (Shibuya Ward) entitled Guiding Your Friends Around Shinjuku Ni-chome in English, scheduled for release in late May.

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Akiba Keizai Shimbun

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