My son's friend is also into the Cosplay thing - she has some kind of manga character outfit that she wears to anime conventions. We had to convince her to leave all that stuff at home; she wanted to bring it along to wear in Tokyo! My son, on the other hand, can't stand this scene but was good natured about going to Harajuku as well as the maid cafe in Akihabara.

We were in Akihabara last Friday starting around lunchtime and at the maid cafe we visited there were some easy to spot otakus having lunch and interacting with the maids. While my son and his friend thought it was amusing, I found myself thinking that the whole thing was not that far removed from a Vegas strip club. I don't mean in an erotic sense, but more along the lines of attractive girls paying attention to guys they have no interest in other than to extract money from them. Again, if you do go to one, be prepared to spend lots of yen for very little in the way of food/drink. It's all about the experience.

Sunday afternoon and evening are the best time to visit Harajuku to get a sense of the Japanese teen scene and Cosplay, at least that's what the Hilton concierge told me. We got there kind of late in the evening last Sunday but still saw a few kids dressed up, mostly in Goth outfits. Try looking around Yoyogi Park and Takeshita-dori shopping street.

There are many stores selling anime related items throughout Akihabara. If your daughter collects this sort of stuff, also have her look at the many "gumball" machines throughout the district where for 200 yen you can get a collectable figure. My son's friend had fun picking these up as souvenirs for her friends back home. There are also Cosplay shops (also found some in Shinjuku East) where you can get costumes, wigs, accessories, etc.

She also bought some Japanese manga (there is some English available but not nearly as much as back home), posters and a few DVDs. I did warn her that the DVDs wouldn't play on machines back home because of DVD region locks, but we figured since her dad is a PC guru he could find software to unlock the DVDs after she got back home.