Short answers, pulled from the story.
Akihabara takes its name from a fire-controlling deity. After a fire destroyed the area in 1869, residents built a firefighting shrine called Chinkasha, whose deity was nicknamed Akiba. The land around the shrine became Akibagahara, which shortened over time to Akihabara.
Akihabara earned the nickname Electric Town in the 1950s when the district specialized in electronic household appliances including washing machines, refrigerators, television sets, and stereos. The nickname took hold shortly after World War II, when Akihabara was already a major black-market shopping center for electronic goods.
The shift began in the 1980s, when Akihabara's shops turned from household electronics to home computers, attracting hobbyists who also had interests in anime, manga, and video games. Doujinshi, amateur fan-made manga, had been growing in Akihabara since the 1970s, giving the otaku identity an even longer history in the district.
Akihabara Station was built in 1888 and opened in 1890. It became a major freight transit point that enabled a vegetable and fruit market to develop nearby, and by the 1920s it had opened for regular passenger transport. Today the station is served by multiple lines including the Yamanote Line, Keihin-Tohoku Line, Chuo-Sobu Line, Hibiya Line, and Tsukuba Express.
Maid cafes are a type of themed cafe found throughout Akihabara, part of the district's otaku culture. Cosplayers on the sidewalks regularly hand out advertisements for them as part of the neighborhood's promotional activity.
Akihabara is a neighborhood in the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo, surrounding Akihabara Station. There is also an administrative district called Akihabara located to the north, in the Taitō ward, surrounding Akihabara Neribei Park. The main shopping area sits on a street just west of Akihabara Station.