Another Day, Another Hard Off

It's been a while since I've mentioned my favourite recycle shop chain, Hard Off. Even after all these years, that name still puts a smile on my face.

For some reason I decided to grace them with my presence in Nagayama. I REALLY wish they had these shops in convenient places (like Central Tokyo perhaps?), and less than thirty minutes walk from a close train station.

Maybe it's a blessing in disguise though. If they were more accessible to get to, I'd probably have a hard time (pun intended) finding any bargains at all.

Although it's not the worst of the Hard Offs, there weren't as many bargains as I'd liked to have found. Still, it was interesting to see an old Yamaha V50 synth that I used to have, and old relics like effects units that all the 80s FOH guys had in their live rigs back in the day. Even saw an old Portasound keyboard that we had as kids. Oh, nostalgia!

I saw a very old Wacom Artpad that was only 525 yen, but I don't think it was even USB. Not that I needed it now anyhow. After all the slogging to get there I only got some bridge pins for my acoustic. For 189 yen, it was cheaper than in Shinjuku.

I had 188 yen in loose change, but the checkout guy insisted I use the 500 yen coin instead of being the good guy, and waiving the measly 1 yen [insert frustrated Japanese confrontation moment] *sigh* I pity the next Japanese checkout person when I give them the correct change in a whole lot of 1 yen coins.

After work in Shinjuku I found myself in Taito Station. A "reformed" UFO catcher addict had no good sense to be in a place like this, and as such I relapsed once again and played for a cute motorised dog.

It took 700 yen. I'm happy to get it, but I was a little perturbed when the guys after me got theirs in just two tries.

"Shoganei"

It had been raining a lot today. All my shoes (except the docs) have turned leaky. Yes, even those f**** ones I bought not THAT long ago from Fareg (Never again).

I bit the bullet, and bought some Rockport Onboard shoes that cost considerably more than my "cheapies". Hopefully they will last a whole lot longer than the others.I got my new best friend, "One One" ('wan wan', geddit?) to model them for you.

Aww..

Tokyo Sky Tree

Saturdays have been my night for hitting the Long Is Iced Teas for quite some time now, and for the most part it's been great to be out socialising and letting my hair down after a week's hard work.

On this occasion the guys piked on me, so I was left to my own devices tonight.

On the way to Funabashi I'm always keen to look out the train window to check the progress of the Tokyo Sky Tree.

For Tokyo, I think it's the most exciting development for quite some time, and by the look of all the people taking photos already even at this stage, I think a lot of Japanese think so too!

Ishibashi are having a 10% used sale this weekend, so finally I'm getting a kick drum pedal in Shibuya tonight as well. Seeing that it's "on the way", I decided to get off at Kinshicho.

This is what it looks like from the station platform. It took about fifteen minutes for the easy beeline walk to the tower.

As you can see from this photo, they've hit the 398m mark. To give some comparison, Tokyo Tower is 332.5m high, so it's already surpassed that height by quite a bit already.

From a distance and up close this tower looks impressive on first sight, but after a short while I was there, the proportions looked a little strange as it moves up from a triangulated shape to a circular one.

Even though Tokyo Tower clearly ripped off the Eiffel Tower, I think it's presence is more commanding that this one is. Time will tell of course. Once it reaches it's final 634m height I'm sure I'll eat my words. I just hope I'm still here to get the chance to see it's completion sometime in 2012.

I spent quite a bit of time taking WAY too many photos and getting lost trying to find the entrance to Oshiage station which is a lot closer (Narihirabashi station is a very close station too), than walking back to Kinshicho, and conveniently able to get me to Shibuya.

I didn't want to miss happy hour, so I quickly picked up my Tama Cobra kick pedal for a nice 5,382 yen, and went straight to get my two drinks before it was over. The pedal was heavier than I expected, and a bit of a burden to carry around but not as annoying as the bar staff not giving me the 5% discount using my membership card. I was preoccupied with my bags to notice and they hadn't given me the usual receipt to fight my case. I shrugged my shoulders and thought at least I saved a few bucks with happy hour anyway.

I got a seat. It had the potential to be a good night until I heard that night-crushing line.

"Are you American?"

Oh no.

A Different Pill

Not long ago I tried graphics tablets in Bic Camera, and although I don't consider myself an artist per se, I had thought in the past to get a graphics tablet.

Yahoo Auctions had a few Wacom tablets, and even some screens that you can draw directly on, that would definitely be cool to have. On train beers night I even placed a bid on one that I thought wasn't too badly priced.

Seems like they're quite in demand and the price rose quickly towards the end of the auction so no surprises, I lucked out. That night I found a secondhand A4 Wacom tablet online for 12,800 yen which was about as much as the bottom-of-the-line, small size one goes for new, so I made it my mission to go there first thing, assuming I wouldn't drink too much the previous night.

If you're hunting for used computer gear, Sofmap and Janpara are places in Akihabara that are definitely worth checking out.

In this case, Janpara were the guys that had what I was looking for, so I arrived there not too long after they opened shop and after a bit of interesting communication, I managed to find it in quite good condition, still in the box, only missing the mouse. I managed to knock off 800 yen, so I think I got a good deal.

Tablets take a bit of getting used to. My first efforts were pretty lame, but after a bit of practice I'm getting better at it, I think. I bought it for a bit of fun, and to help with editing photos and for that, I think it will serve it's purpose well.

iPhone 4 and iOS4

I saw the new iPhone 4 today.

I had updated my iPhone 3G to iOS4 over the weekend, but I found it to be seriously lacking. Apple in their usual wisdom blocked the features of background wallpapers and multitasking when it has already been proven to work sufficiently on an iPhone 3G.

Just like the omission of video, it just smacks of a push to upgrade to the newer phone. The deal breaker was that my Mobilepoint wifi was seriously screwed up, frustratingly not allowing me to log in to use the service.

I rolled it back to 3.1.3 and it's working as it should.

After work I saw the new iPhone in Bic Camera. It looks nice and makes the old phone look a bit dated. I'll give it that. The squared off and thin design has a nice, minimalistic German look to it. I had a good play of some of the new features.

I like the dual cameras, and the video it takes looks good. "Skype"-style video calling could be fun on this. Web pages too like they've said, look very clear and sharp. They say the mail app has been improved, but to me that's a non-issue on the old phone.

One MAJOR issue that has come up is that of dropped calls for left-handed people (yes, that's me).

That, and Softbank's great idea of locking their phones (yes, even after the contract expires), leaves me hesitating. I'm happy with my 3G for now. If it's not broke, well, not yet, no need for a fix, is there?

Tokyo Guitar Show 2010

I went to a fun party the previous night, so I didn't know how I'd be feeling to go to the Tokyo Guitar Show today. It was held in TFT Hall in Odaiba, a stone's throw from Big Sight. I missed out last year, so for something new I thought it'd be interesting to have a look.

As usual when I go to Odaiba I took the opportunity to walk across the Rainbow Bridge again. The weather has been horribly hot and humid. Today was no different but being overcast, it was (slightly) cooler than usual.

It cost 1,000 yen to get in. It was no where near as big as Yokohama's Music Fair, that I went to last, so I wasn't as impressed as that show. This was pretty much a buyer's market. They had quite a few interesting guitars on sale, and VERY expensive ones too. Lucky for me, my Greco arrived the same day, so I didn't have the insatiable desire to buy a guitar here.

In another room they had Fender, Boss and Roland music gear that you could discreetly try out with headphones. It was a bit of fun.

After looking at a few outlet shops once we left the show, we made our way back across the bridge. You can see Tokyo Tower lit up with blue lights in support of Japan's soccer team playing in the World Cup.

Go Japan!

Greco Mirage

I've been good for a long while, trying REALLY hard not to buy another guitar.

It doesn't help when I live close to Ochanomizu, which is a guitar junkie's paradise. I was THIS close to buying (another) Gibson, the Buckethead signature no less. It looks and sounds great. I love a nice ebony fingerboard. The arcade kill switches are fun, but just one button would have been better I think.

I was a little saddened when I saw a Greco Mirage I tried a week earlier had already been bought. The Mirage has the same shape as the Ibanez Iceman. Not a copy, but from what I've read Greco shared the design with Ibanez. Ibanez had worldwide rights, while the Greco version was only sold in Japan.

While the latter day Icemans, both Ibanez and Greco were made in Korea, the late 70's models were made in Japan. With that being the case, those models in great condition are pretty hard to come by.

Two words.. Yahoo Auctions.

Ok, I was a little drunk on my cans of Chu-hi but after work on Wednesday, I put my winning bid on my very own 70's Greco Mirage. I was feeling extremely guilty, but pretty elated as well.

The guy was only in Saitama, but as usual too scared to allow me to pickup (and save a bit of money) on the 1,470 yen delivery, and 420 yen bank transfer.

I was surprised that the courier delivered on a Sunday, so at about 10:00 I got the knock on the door. The case was only covered in bubble-wrap. With the unusual shape, I'm glad that the guitar came with the original form-fitting hard case too.

Opening the case for the first time I knew straight away that I made the right (albeit, drunk) decision to make that bid. The guitar looked immaculate. No belt buckle rash, and very few other imperfections to speak of. The serial number began with "D78", "D" is the alphabetical month, April, and "78", is made in 1978. Very, very sweet.

The vintage look of the guitar reminded me strongly of my old Gibson L6-S. Acoustically the guitar was very resonant and plugging her in, she sounds very nice too. The fingerboard feels comfortable to move around on. Unlike that Gibson this feel great.

Speaking of the Gibson, on Yahoo Auctions I saw this..

This is a very old Ibanez OD-850 Overdrive stompbox that was thrown into the sale when I bought my very first electric guitar, that Gibson L6-S over 25 years ago. Through my crappy Roland amp back then it sounded horribly woolly and fuzzy. Through the high school PA system playing a cover of Cheap Trick's cover of "Don't Be Cruel" it was rockin'.

When I got rid of that Roland amp, I threw in that pedal as well. The guy on this auction wants 55,000 yen! I wish I knew back then, like my long gone L6-S of what worth it would be now.

Here Come The Drums!

Ikebe Gakki is one of the biggest musical instrument chains in Tokyo.

This Sunday in Akihabara they had a HUGE sale with some very enticing discounts on a lot of music gear. I don't need any more guitars, but it doesn't hurt to look, does it?

In their advertising material I noticed they were selling an older model Yamaha electric kit for 98,000 yen. I don't consider myself a drummer, but for that price I think that's as cheap as they'd ever get.

We left later that I expected and arrived there about 10:45. The crowd was quite large, but they had a workable ticket system to stop a mad rush. For the Drum Station we were number 50, but the more popular Revole guitar store we were a much further 270.

By the time of the 11:00 opening, you could see quite a sizeable crowd forming. I waited in the drum line while she waited a LONG way around the corner and across the bridge in the guitar line.

It didn't seem to take that long to make it into the drum store. I asked one of the staff about the kit, and he said it was already sold. I was a little disappointed, but he soon came back to me to say that it was actually still available.

The drums were an instore demo so I could easily see a little bit of wear on the pads, but it didn't look too bad at all. My main concern was how big and heavy it was, and I had to consider the logistics of A) being able to set it up in the apartment and B) shipping it back to Australia.

I had to make an after hours withdrawal at the bank, but in no time it was mine. Luckily they offered free delivery to the apartment.

The guitar line took about 3 hours to get in. Since we had a number to get back in line, we decided to go to Maccas for some free coffee to escape the heat, and relax for a long while.

Not surprisingly by the time we got inside all the good stuff had been snapped up. There was a 9,800 yen Squier "Hello Kitty" guitar still up for grabs, and more interestingly a Fender Am Deluxe Strat for 69,800 yen, but neither made me want them. I think I secretly didn't want to find myself buying yet another guitar.

The drums arrived on the Thursday, about the usual 11am. Lucky for me it was my day off, so I had all day to be at home to sign for it.

I almost died when I saw the boxes. Not one, not two, but three of them. The largest was SO big. They were all quite heavy too. All together they were about 50kg. "Holy Shipping expense Batman!"

I found a tight corner where I managed to set up just the kick, snare and hi-hat to test some sounds out. Unfortunately chopsticks were my only drumsticks at that time, but they did the job.

I dread the time when I have to pack and cart this to the Post Office. For the time being I'm going to have a bit of rhythm fun.