It's Red, It's Fast Baby

I need a hobby.

I didn't mean to, but I got ANOTHER watch today. Watch number five, come on down!

Today's "contestant" is a Casio G-Shock G-300L-4AVDR.

I noticed this one many months ago online, but at the shops around Tokyo this particular model was nowhere to be found. I think it's some kind of limited edition.

I was in Kawasaki a little earlier than usual. I was thinking of hitting up the UFJ bank to exchange some pieces of yen into quickly depreciating Aussie dollars. I had about 30 minutes and four kids classes ahead of me.

I knew that it wouldn't be a simple case of "telegraphic transfer", "money", "Osturaria?", so I saved myself a potential headache I really didn't want to have today, and had a bit of a look around Kawasaki instead.

One place that I really like is the B-Select store, which is yet another knock-off of the "offs", which isn't really an "off", if you know what I mean. (??)

It's mostly a clothing recycle store, but it has sports gear, glasses and watches as well for some pretty good prices.

In the past I missed out on a nice and cheap pair of Oakleys, and a watch that I kind of liked, to find they were gone the following week. This was not going to happen today.

By the time I spotted it, I didn't have much time to decide. The sticker price said 4,500 yen, but I was pleasantly surprised to be told all the watches were 10% off so, it was actually 4,050 yen, just for me!

Trying it there in the shop with my suit on, it wasn't much of a match, but coming home and trying it with a casual tee, it's bright red leather band looks pretty good to me. Like I said in the past, red goes faster. Ne!

Unfortunately, it didn't come with an instruction manual, not that it would've been any help in Japanese anyway. I managed to find it on the Casio site here.

On the site it unhelpfully asks for the module number (3750), instead of the model. This is the same for the whole G-300 series. I hope this helps other people too.

So now THIS will now go onto the "pile"...

Let's Do The Xhake Shake

One thing that I really wanted to bring here to Japan was my Bop It Extreme II.

It's not exactly small, and would've taken up quite a bit of space in my suitcase. It would have been particularly useful on one of many cheap alcohol-fueled chu-hi nights. It makes a good party game, that's for sure.

Today I'm happy to say I have a found a great alternative for my iPhone. Ladies and gentleman we have the "Xhake Shake"!

It shamelessly rips off the same concept, but having it in the one compact package makes me VERY happy. With this game, you have to tap it, rub it, shake it, flip it and freeze (do nothing).

It mostly works well, save for the tricky flip maneuver which got me speaking French more that a few times.


Here's a video showing how it's done in "extreme" mode. I can see myself wasting lots of time with this.

Most notably when I should be learning some Japanese.

La Cucharacha

Ok, so when something good happens, it should be repeated, right?

This is take two of another cool night of mexican food and alcohol. I still think it takes too damn long to get out there, but one thing I have to say is, "It doesn't matter where you are, as long as you have good people around you, you'll always have fun".

And so it was.

 I was first to arrive. For quite a while I got paranoid and thought, "Is it the right night?", "Where the f*&k is everyone?!"

Thankfully the others were just a little late to arrive, and soon we were digging in to some real tasty mexican, beer and tequila.

It's wasn't all fun and laughter. We had some serious taco "spillage" going on.

Unfortunately all good things come to an end, so after missed train stops and light-headedness I walk into Hanamasa for some bread and milk.

Thank you BBD for the souvenir ;)

Idle Hands And Play Dough

I can't remember the last time I made play dough. Actually I think I've NEVER made it. The last time I even touched play dough was probably around Grade 3 or something.

So like my other "firsts" in Japan, I did just that today. It turned out as bad as you could imagine. We were supposed to make fruit and vegetables, but instead it was more like sticky ice-cream, which incidentally was one of the things you could make.

One of the proud ones was happy to show me his blue strawberry. It did look pretty good. Much better than my mush of nothing.

Here in sunny Kawasaki (yes it was), I got to see how popular the new Krispy Kreme is here.

Just like everywhere else in Tokyo, it looks like the Japanese can't get enough of it. I couldn't be bothered waiting the one hour and forty minutes after work.

Just a simple pasta and popcorn for me tonight, thanks.

The Unlock

It was a really beautiful day today. That's very unusual for my typical days off, so I thought it'd be a good opportunity to go and get my red 707SCII unlocked from the clutches of Softbank.

I probably said this before, but they will not unlock a phone even if you fulfil a contract. To get the cell phone connection, I felt I was under duress to take their "free" phone, which I didn't need.

So anyway I found a place in Sakura Shinmachi that freed the phone in less than 10 minutes. Because of some uncertain legalities regarding phone unlocking, I think it's a good idea to keep this shop secret.

So now I can take this phone back to Australia for my father to use. Great! Over a free wifi connection I Skype-called him the good news.

I had plenty of time to kill wandering Shibuya.

When I got hungry I bought a McPork which has mysteriously increased in price, but not girth to 20 yen extra. I didn't really feel like it, but I also got a Krispy Kreme donut. Why?

The line was surprisingly short, and because they were giving away complimentary ones, I got two for the price of one!

Getting back to Yotsuya, I hung out at Atre again to listen to Internet radio back home.

I was tired, but I'm pretty happy with how the day turned out.

Radio Blah Blah

I always seem to get registered post delivered on a Saturday morning, when I'm not home to sign for it.

Although I had a little headache from last night, I thought it was a good enough excuse to get my lazy ass out of bed into the cold and rainy 12 degree air, and go into Shinjuku to pick up my "package".

My father sent back the Softbank phone I gave him because he couldn't find anyone that could unlock the phone to use on his network. Recently I found a place that may be able to do it here. When I go back home I can give it back to him.

I did the usual wanderings of the catchers, the "Camera"s, both Yodobashi and Bic, and Don Quijote. I had a look at Rock Inn too where I bought my guitar. There were some very nice looking guitars on display.

When I finally got back to Yotsuya I went to the Atre building to play around in it's free wireless hotspot area with my iPhone.

Lately I found some really cool radio apps that work nicely on it.

Ever heard a song in a shopping mall, and wanted to know what it's name was, or who sung it? Yes, me too!

Last time I was here they had some really melodic songs playing, so I wanted to test out two song recognition apps, Shazam and Midomi.

Although the volume was at the typically quiet background level of a shopping centre, both programs did a great job of identifying every song. I have to say Shazam looks nicer, but Midomi seems to have a few extra features such as singing or humming the tune. I've had varying success with that part, but I guess better to have than not to have it. You can try it out for yourself online here.

I tried to use the Pandora app from iTunes, but unfortunately due to "licensing restrictions" I'm unable to use outside of the US. It works on a simple premise of putting in a band you like, and it'll make a radio station stream of bands with the same "genetic" sound.

Seeing that that didn't work I tried out Last FM. It works on the same principle as Pandora and from the brief test I found it to give good results.

Being in Japan I feel a bit left out of the loop when it comes to the music scene back home. Apart from American hip-hop, the airwaves are mostly filled with J-pop.

So armed with trusty iPhone I've stumbled upon a radio streaming app
With this app I added all the web address URL's for streams of the radio stations back in Brisbane! Radio stations can be found here.

Finally I thought I'd give Fring a try.

With this one it's possible to use MSN (and other clients), as well as make Skype calls. With calling I had a lot of dropouts, but I think that is more due to the weak wi-fi signal I was getting. Unlike on windows mobile, the conversation is like a normal phone call, not speaker phone, which is much more uncomfortable to use in public areas.

ALL the apps I've mentioned in this post are free and work over wi-fi and/or 3G. So what are you waiting for? Go get them!

Body Chalk Outline

What do you do when they don't want to lie down to be traced on paper?

You just volunteer to do it yourself, that's what.

The things we do for money in this world. My "chalk outline" in crayon came out pretty good I think.

I hoped none of the kids would mark my clothes because I decided before leaving for work today, that I wouldn't bother to go home and change for the goodbye party later on.

There wasn't a bad turnout, but I have to say the izakaya left a lot to be desired. It was an "all you can drink" with finger food for one and a half hours. The cost was 3,500 yen each, and I'm sure I didn't get my fill. The food wasn't very tasty either.

On arrival back in to Shibuya I was bursting to go to the bathroom, so I made my way to the closest one in Tsutaya. Even though I didn't think I had as much alcohol as I wanted, I was actually pretty drunk by that stage, and making it to the 3rd floor toliets was quite a task.

Before going home I wanted to check out Tasu-Ichi.

I didn't miss anything. There were more guys than girls and it didn't give me any incentive to stay, let alone buy another beer.

I guess it all depends how you sell yourself :


"Hi! I like walks on the beach and sunsets. I'm into water sports and photography. I'm a Sagittarius. What's your blood type? Let's talk!"

Hmm.. Next time.