A small, brightly lit shop a short walk from the bustling center of Akihabara offers mechanical keyboard enthusiasts a chance to take their obsession to the next level. For the uninitiated, it offers a chance to see what all the excitement is about.

At Yusha Kobo, customers pick switches, keycaps and all the other components needed to fashion one-of-a-kind mechanical keyboards that meet their exacting needs in terms of footprint, actuation, clickiness and, yes, key concavity.

A loud 30% keyboard with a lot of travel and cat-shaped keycaps? No problem. A big rig that runs silent with mushy keys? So be it.