Blackout at Melonbooks Akihabara & Game Center Hey (AkibaBlog)

After 4pm on the 2nd (Sunday), there was a blackout at the Hirose Musen Main Branch building, which Melonbooks Akihabara and Game Center Hey are in. Because of that, inside the Melonbooks and Game Center Hey became dark; as a result, at Melonbooks, casher stopped and at Game Center Hey, customers could not play games including Street Fighter IV (Location Test). According to a staff at Melonbooks, this was the first time since the store has opened.

During Blackout @ Game Center Hey

Entrance of Melonbooks Akihabara During Blackout
Taking Pictures Using a Flash

After 4pm on the 2nd (Sunday), there was a blackout at the Hirose Musen Main Branch building, which Melonbooks Akihabara and Game Center Hey are in. The whole building went out of electricity.

Because of that, inside the Melonbooks and Game Center Hey became dark; as a result, at Melonbooks, cashers stopped and at Game Center Hey, customers could not play games including Street Fighter IV (Location Test). An emergency light was on, by the way. According to a staff at Melonbooks, this was the first time since the store has opened, and there were many curious bystanders outside the building.

When there was a blackout at Hirose Musen Main Branch building, some people happened to be there and wrote what was going on inside the building: Half-Moon-Diary-san says "I was surprised! I was going to check some doujinshi, so I went to the store. Then suddenly, the store became dark (there was a emergency light so I wasn't scared that much though)." Tsukasa Suzukaze-san says "there was blackout but there was no confusion among customers- they were actually calm. I'm impressed that customers here are at a high level of culture! It's totally different from a certain country.

At about 5:30pm, Melonbooks Akihabara got electricity back, and about 6pm, the store started its business again.

The Hirose Musen Main Branch building was built in 1954, and rebuilt the building in 1973. The reason why the blackout occurred was not sure yet, but probably one of the breakers went down first and later, the master breaker went down, according to one of the staffs.