A Gaijin in the Akihabara?

cayle clark asks: "In April I will be on a tour that spends 5 days in Tokyo, and on one of these days I hope to break away from the planned cultural events for a visit to the Akihabara, the world-famous electronics market district, partly just to gawk, partly in hope of finding a deal on a really whizzy mini-notebook or handheld pc. But... can a gaijin ^? who doesn't speak or read Japanese get around in this place? Would anyone who's been there comment on prices, selection, or experience with the many duty-free shops?"

Find a Japanese handler

[ghostis]

My strategy was to spend the first day picking out stuff. Then next day my experienced Japanese friend graciously went around and haggled for what I wanted while wandered around being a tourist. My reasoning was that given the flexiblity of prices in Akihabra a native speaker with clear understanding of Japanese tones of voice and facial expressions could get better deals. All in all it worked pretty well!

-ghostis