Don Quijote Akihabara

This guide to Don Quijote Akihabara in Tokyo traces the store's origin back to 1978, when a struggling young businessman named Takao Yasuda opened a tiny sixty-square-meter shop with no retail experience, staying open past midnight and piling goods however they fit. It follows the chain's spread nationwide by 1989 and a tragedy that struck it in December 2004. Above the crowded aisles, an eighth-floor theater carries its own famous history, one this guide picks up on the way.