Akihabara Gachapon Hall

Akihabara Gachapon Hall features floor-to-ceiling rows of capsule toy machines, stacked five or six high. In two thousand two, the owners packed this space with over four hundred machines to give collectors a dedicated spot to find rare figures and trinkets. They refill the plastic bubbles constantly with new releases from major anime and video game franchises. A businessman named Hiroshi Shintani started the trend of these dense, dedicated capsule shops to capture the rapid turnover of Japan's subculture merchandise.