Photos: My seven wonders of the tech world

The seven wonders of the ancient world honoured the most remarkable constructions of antiquity, from the Great Pyramid of Giza to the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. So where are the tech world's marvels?

silicon.com's Natasha Lomas selects her seven modern wonders - from the city where sci-fi comes alive to the workplace that wilfully confuses work and play.

Tokyo: The city of electric dreams

High-tech enthusiasts will feel right at home in Tokyo - residents are renowned for their passionate love affair with technology, be it arcades and videogames or mobile phones. It rated number four in silicon.com's Tech Hotspots list last year and it's easy to understand why.

Then there's Tokyo's electronic district, Akihabara, shown here - an Aladdin's cave of high-tech eye candy where all manner of PC parts, electronics tools and new and used tech kit can be ogled, sifted through and acquired.

While gaming has created its own subculture spin-offs where gamers dress up as their favourite characters or hang out at the annual Tokyo Game Show, the popularity of mobile phone technology has spawned a cultural movement too: Keitai culture. This is much in evidence in Tokyo where use of mobiles as video players, email devices and wallets has been the norm for years - long before such ideas caught on in the West. 2D barcodes called QR codes can also be found peppered around the city and mobile users snap them to get info or download content.

Photo credit: heiwa4126, via Flickr under the following Creative Commons licence