Kobe Anime Street, a New Otaku Town Opened!

Now there’s a new town in Kobe that otakus may want to check out! A street featuring 8 shops promoting “otaku culture” named Kobe Anime Street has opened on March 29th, in Asta Kunizuka shopping buildings near Shinnagata station in Kobe, Hyogo prefecture. Kobe Anime Street is part of the project to revitalize the local areas by the people of Kobe city and universities in the neighborhood.

With the aim of creating a new otaku culture, the shops in Kobe Anime Street include a plastic model shop, a cosplay shop, and a special shop for anime decorated cars called “ita-sha”. Other interesting facilities that promote otaku culture are an “Anison Cafe” where DJs play anime music, a studio where you can create videos and also have live video streams to Niconico Live, YouTube, and Ustream, and a workshop where plastic models fans can gather, rent necessary tools and build the models. There’s also a shop with over 250 rental showcases where people can rent a case (space) for 2500 yen a month and exhibit and sell their figures and models that they created.

Kobe is one of the largest cities in Japan. It is also known as a port city, which was one of the first to be opened for foreign trade in the 19th century. If you have a chance to visit the city, why not consider putting Kobe Anime Street in your itinerary?!

Website

Kobe Anime Street

Train

Shinnagata station (JR Kobe line, Seishin-Yamate line, and Kaigan line)