Heading to Japan soon... anyone been to Tachikawa?

[greg]

Last year I was checking out this page about Tokyo's 3 big otaku towns. I figured it would be Akihabara, Nakano, and Ikebukuro. Instead, it lists Tachikawa (further west from Nakano on the Chuou Line, even further past the Ghibli museum in Mitaka) instead of Ikebukuro. On last year's trip I thought I'd check out Tachikawa, but I was only in the Tokyo area for a day with the wife and baby, so it was a no-go.

For Tachikawa, the site lists the Daiichi Department Building and the From Chubu building. The website for the From Chubu building lists a Volks shop and an Animate. Okay, Animate is also in Ikebukuro, and I don't know how big the Volks store is. Perhaps those are the only two stores of interest, since everything seems to be ladies' wear and such. Doesn't sound like a rival to the Broadway Building to me.

What's special about the Daiichi Department building? Danny Choo has an article about Daiichi (his website is tokidoki nsfw, so be careful). There is a Kotobukiya store there that I'm sure is full of win, but what else? Is it shop after shop of otakuness like Akiba and Nakano (or even Ikebukuro, home of the Sakura Taisen shop)? I can't find much ofanything special on the Daiichi's homepage at a glance, other than a Book Off and a manga shop.

Danny wrote on his blog: "If you happen to be in the Tachikawa area, you may want to pop in but you may be dissapointed if you make the trip expecting to see a '3rd Akihabara.' I do think that over time, more otaku shops may move into the department store but for now its Kotobukiya, some shop that sells idol stuff and a large bookshop with loadsa manga." Well, if this is true, then I'd have to stick with Ikebukuro as one of the Big Three.

So does anybody have any useful insight on Tachikawa? I found this post by a forum member named Squirrel who says there are some good arcades there.

I'm flying to Japan in two weeks, and I'll be in the Tokyo area for four nights by myself. Without the wife and kid, I'll have plenty of time to be selfish that weekend and I think I will head out to Tachikawa for a half day and poke around.

[undamned]

Bring me back a Panic Shot Rockman machine, please.
-ud