Taking Candy From Strange

When I was young I remember being told never to accept candy from strangers.

Seems like Japanese kids are much more generous, and actually give me the candy!

Sweet.

It was snowing today quite a bit. Probably the most that we've had all winter actually. But in my opinion it's half-assed snow. By the time it hits the ground, it instantly evaporates to a cold patch of water. If it lands on me, it looks like a 7-eleven slushie without the raspberry cordial. Right now it's about 3 degrees.

I woke up early today at 1030am. HA.

I thought it'd be a good idea to go to Ochanomizu and Akihabara for a quick perusal before Kawasaki "kamikaze".

I'm still on a guitar kick, but less so since I bought my latest trick.

What was beckoning me to come here today was news of this secondhand Jem 77B RMR in Akiba. It's the same model as the one from America. I HAD to see what I missed out on.

A quick babelfish translation of the internet post states "A little there is a crack in the contour part, but it is the beauty item".

From what I saw in the pictures and in person there was more than a little cracking in this mirror. If it translates to bad luck there's at least 28 years of misfortune in years to come. More so if someone actually pays their asking price of 198,000 yen.

In the shop it didn't look as bad as I thought it would. It adds a touch of character, and you wouldn't be so afraid to scratch it. It's already a pre-scratched relic!

I had a try of this Burny Les Paul copy while I was there.

My favourite guitar of all time is my 1990 Les Paul. I heard that Burny's (made by Fernandes) had a good reputation for LPs.

I saw that this had the sustainer AND a Floyd Rose whammy, so I wanted to see if this was as good as it sounds. The tone was quite nice, but I'm starting to get over the novelty of the sustainer. Still, it's a cool party trick. The whammy bar wasn't tight or recessed, so it didn't feel as good as I hoped in that regard.

The gf wanted to go to Uniqlo for a sale, so she tagged along with me to Kawasaki. Looks like the shopping spree lasted 6 hours for her solely in Lazona.

Nuts!

We went to Shi-an Gyoza, a Chinese Restaurant in Lazona after work. It was pretty tasty, although not quite as good as the one in Yurakucho. If you go to just one in Tokyo, make it that one.

On the way out I saw these classic signs and couldn't resist taking these photos. A security guard looked puzzled about what I was doing. I'm a very dangerous man in Tokyo!!

Double Whammy

Today I ventured alone into not only Akihabara, but also Ochanomizu once more.

I'm still going through my seemingly never-ending guitar phase. I am itching to buy another guitar. I certainly don't NEED another one and being in Japan isn't going to make it so easy to cart it back to Australia.

I guess I have a real bad case of G.A.S.! (Gear Acquisition Syndrome)

The mirrored Ibanez Jem that I thought I'd lost out on, may still be possible. I made an offer to the American music store and he is considering it. I thought he wouldn't accept it, so I'm again debating whether I should get it or not.

Unusually for a Sunday I was awake by 830am, and I thought of checking out more guitar stores.

I "discovered" a new store in Akihabara called Revolve which is a part of the Ikebe Gakki.

I had a LOT of difficulty finding this place. Usually I check Google Earth street view to find an address, but when I checked, I couldn't see the store in the photo so I relied on their map for directions. It's not the clearest thing to understand.

Basically from the station, you have to go across the busy road with the river on your right-hand side. Oh, and DON'T go out the Electric Town exit (It's on the east side you need to go out).

I'm pretty happy I found it. They have a GREAT selection of guitars. Just about every guitar I wanted to try was there.

First I had a go of a secondhand Ibanez RG20051.

The reason being was the finish. I kinda like the swirl that they did on the JEMs, so I wanted to see how this looked and played.
It looked in good condition and played fairly well, but I didn't feel like I HAD to have it. It looked a little cheap, but it was 73,290 yen.

I wasn't convinced.

Next I tried a recently released John 5 Triple Telecaster Deluxe. This had a more impressive feeling of quality and I really liked the mirror scratchplate on this. It looks the business for sure.

The pickup selector felt like it had a loose connection and was cutting out a little. The bridge pickup was very nice though. A very useable chunky sound. For 94,290 yen this one felt pretty good. Only thing here (apart from the dodgy pickup switch), was the weight. This is one weighty guitar, like an old Les Paul heavy.

I was getting the feeling the staff didn't want me to try any more guitars so I left pretty soon after that one.

Before I went to Revole though, I went to Laox Music Vox.

I'd forgotten all about this place. It's not a bad store, but not as good as the others. They have a few different levels of gear so it's fairly big.

Here I tried a Jem 77v bk.

This is the guitar most similar to the guitar I've been considering from America. It has the same pickups, so I imagine it will have the same sound.

I don't know what it is, but I'm not excited about this. It doesn't sound bad, but I prefer the hotter output of the white VWH model. With those discounted ones at Rock Inn I am tempted, but the gold on white isn't my preferred colour scheme.

Once I finally left these music stores I made my way around the usual Akiba places, then on to Ochanomizu.

By now it was already getting dark and colder, reinforced by a really cold wind. I should have went home but I couldn't stop this urge to look at guitars!

The Jem I tried last week was gone. It wasn't priced too bad, but like I said here, it just wasn't seducing me. Some guitars have some real mojo (like my Strat and Les Paul), and others just don't.

In one of the used guitar stores I tried a Hohner headless guitar.

I've never seen one of these before. The body was like a squashed strat (not the Jack), with three single coils and black scratchplate. It didn't play too badly either. This is more of a clean tone guitar (like a Fender), but it was in great condition for only 32,000 yen. Tempted on this one, just for it's rarity. If anyone knows what this is, let me know!

Finally before leaving I REALLY wanted to try the Fernandes Sustainer on a guitar again. In the same shop I saw one that looked a little old, but played great. The sustainer was easy to use and got me wanting one of these bad!

It sure beats fumbling with an eBow. I found an excellent youtube video here explaining how it works.

Lucky for me in Japan, Ikebe Gakki sell some Jems already fitted with a (white) sustainer in the neck position, so I could kill two big birds with this one stone.

We'll see what happens eh?

Retro Funkadelic Watch

It's been less than a week since I was in Akihabara last.

I went back so soon mostly because I wanted to exchange that headphone adapter for the other one (2079 yen) that not only converted the plug, but also had a volume control AND a hangup/call button as well.

They looked slightly hesistant but hey, they were getting more money from me. This is Japan though. I was waiting for them to say "It so difficult.. Solly", but no, not as uncomfortable as other times.

It works great.

It sounds as good as the other adapter, and the headphone hole is not too tight like the other one was. I took the headphone sleeve right off with that!

Not a good thing.

Also now I don't have to rip the adapter out when I get a call. Good stuff.

Another big reason coming here, was another watch that caught my eye last week I was thinking of buying. It's in the same electronics rabbit warren area near the station that I got my skeleton watch and belt.

The brand was KEDE, which again I think is from Hong Kong or China. I still wasn't convinced to buy it. Although the design was unusual, it looked (and was) kind of cheap.

It just so happens that in one of the other boxes was a Japanese-made Citizen 1481010 Independent watch in the same style for 2980 yen.

Although this one's secondhand, it only had a few very minor scratches, and still had the label on it. The leather band shows no signs of wear on the outside (slightly dulled on the inner side though).

This one looks much more expensive and has a funky, retro style that I really dig a lot. Much easier to read than the other one I was thinking of too. I might just change the band for a metal one.

Feeling still in the spending mood, I decided to get an 8gb sandisk micro sd card for 3299 yen. It's the cheapest price I could find. It's made in China. I'm hoping the quality will be ok.

Using one card for multiple gadgets, meant that I've been constantly running out of room taking photos and other stuff.

I was trying to hold off until the 16gb would come out but it's just taking too long and when they finally do, it's going to take a while for the price to come down.

All afternoon it looked like it was going to rain, but luckily it mostly held out with only a tiny bit of spitting rain.

Another good day in Akky! The only thing missing was a Nintendo Wii in my shopping spree. Uh oh..

Nazono Pyramid

Today I can finally forgive my brother. Why?

Because I have finally got that elusive game that he broke when he was a baby. Yes, Nazo No Pyramid (aka. "Invaders Of The Mummy's Tomb").

I was in that big toy shop other people call Akihabara.

The gf wanted to go to Shinjuku but something was calling me, and I really didn't feel it was a day to go to Shinjuku. A damn hot one though. I was sweating like crazy.

So doing my usual rounds, I almost lost a heartbeat when I saw it. The sales clerk confirmed it was in fact, the game I've searched for months to get.

There was actually two of them as well! They were both in much the same condition, except one had a bit of the lines and writing rubbed off, but was still in really clean condition.

Everything worked great so I just got that one. I was tempted to get the other one as well as a backup, but I decided to leave it there (for now). I was also lucky enough to use the two vouchers I had for a nice little discount.

So how is it to play? Fantastic!

In my opinion I think it's the best handheld Bandai has made. Definitely the best of the solar-powered series. Like most LCD games the gameplay is a touch repetitive, but this one's quite a bit of fun to play.

What makes these Bandai's stand out (other than being solar-powered), are the two screens of play.

On the first "level", you are out in the desert and you have to move left and right to stop the ascending snakes and scorpions from attacking the camel.

When you are next to the deadly creatures you automatically kill them with your knife.

If you get 500 points, you can move to the far left and.. enter the pyramid to the "second" level! In here your enemies are mummys (of course), and a spider.

The idea here is to move to the right to get as much treasure as you can avoiding the mummys that come down from the top and the spider than moves up and down stopping you from taking too much of the loot.

Sometimes your buddy will appear at the entrance where if you're quick enough to give him the booty, you get a whole lot of points.

If the bad guys get you in here you don't lose a life, you just get kicked back outside again.

I had my first proper play in Macca's while I was scoffing down a McPork. It's not a difficult game, and playing long enough it's pretty easy to get square eyes, but "I'm lovin' It".

So.. what else did I do in Akky?

Well at Friends, they had Bandai's Dr Dental and Rush Hour.

I'm warming a little towards Dr Dental, but I still didn't buy it.

For the life of me I couldn't work out how to play Rush Hour. It does have an amusing idea of trying to catch a Tokyo train in the peak time. I think it does that pretty well.

This is a pretty cool anime robot outside one of the many figure and robot toy shops along the main drag.

Inside this place they had some pretty cool stuff.

Along with a big selection of Transformers robots there was a G-Force Phoenix, Gundams, a Voltron (missing two lion heads though), and of course lots of hentai dolls.

I asked a sales assistant to let me see a car Transformer. I wanted him to show me how it opens up to become a robot. He just opened the car doors. Not what I meant. I just gave up.

Speaking of hentai dolls I had to take this picture in Mandarake.

(They have notices to say "prohibited to take photos", so slap my wrists).

It's the box packaging for a Transformers toy. Nice attention-getting marketing for kids!?

"More than meets the eye" indeed.

I like walking around this shop. For some reason today I happened to notice all the otaku in here. WHAT A BUNCH OF GEEKS. Oh, I hope I don't come across looking like them.

Maybe I do? Oh..

LK Colouring Skeleton Watch

If I see something I like, I should just buy it then and there. Instead, as soon as I get home I curse myself for not just getting the item I really wanted in the first place.

Exhibit A : Lk Colouring Skeleton Watch

Yesterday I checked out this Lk Colouring skeleton watch. It was a very reasonable 4,000 yen.

I like the Swatch "Body & Soul" one, but that costs about 16,000 yen around here. You can see a cool video of the Swatch in action here.

I went home without it.

Today I couldn't help myself, and forced myself to go back to Akihabara before work. I got it in the same place I picked up my cheap "Italian via China" belt.

I looked on the internet and couldn't find much information on this company at all. I think it's made in China and usually sold in online auctions. I have to get the metal band adjusted. The sales guy wasn't that helpful. He looked as disinterested as he was yesterday.

I'm pretty happy with it so far.

It's a mechanical watch so it doesn't need a battery. I just need to wind it up to keep it going. I'm not sure how many times I have to turn it. I only turned it a little today and it only lasted a few hours. I gave it a few more turns now so I hope it keeps the time longer than that.

This is a little video I made so you can see how the movement works. Nice..

Please Do Not The Stabbing

Sheete.. Here I find myself in Akky yet again.

Thankfully this week no stabbings.

It's been a while, so I've actually brought my camera with me.

A student brought in a cool enlargement of a flower (you had to be there), and it made me think to get off my lazy ass and take some daym pichaz!!

From memory, I think this is the first time I've actually taken pics with my Nikon in Akiba.

Unfortunately, I took a whole lot of photos of the Akihabara maids but as soon as they saw my camera they turned their shy selves around. The guy in this pic looks pretty pleased to meet them ("otaku!!!").

Where's the love, or should I say where's the moe?

It looks like they love their job from the looks on their faces. Yep, if I said "Welcome home, master", I'd feel pretty good right now.

I haven't felt compelled to go to a maid cafe yet.

That, and Pachinko. Maybe if it was in English, I'd want to play the juvenile alligator game with them. Maybe not. Sexy uniforms though.
My reason for going to Akihabara was to get a belt.

The one I have is looking worse for wear. Last time I saw one for 680 yen which I thought was reasonable. The label says, "Rocco Italy". Inside, Made In China. What tha.. ?

What's funny is the bag the sales guy put it in says "Electronic Parts". Okay then.

I found a 100 yen shop that sold belts too. I should've known.

Still, this one may have at least been designed in Italy, right?

I had a McPork for lunch. My McDonalds boycott is on hiatus for this brief moment. 100 yen can't be beat. It served it's purpose for now.
I tried the skeleton watch that was 4000 yen. I didn't buy it, but going home I was kicking myself. Sometimes I WISH I was an impulse buyer. I hate regretting things after it's too late. I may have to go back there tomorrow. What a hassle.

On the way home I passed by Yasukuni shrine. They had some lanterns outside. I thought I should take some pictures before going home. Mouse over it for a close-up.

Take It From Behind

Another day, another Akihabara moment. I know this isn't really bad English. I just read innuendo into everything.

I know it wasn't all that long ago but coming here is like a pilgrimage to me.

There was a store I was determined to find that I missed last time. It's called "Friends", and wouldn't you know it, the name is written in Japanese, not English.

The easiest way to find it is from the station head towards the Club Sega (you can't miss it), cross to that side and walk right along the road to the next major intersection.

Cross the road and you'll see a red Segafreda cafe. To the left you'll see a blue sign with 260 yen clearly displayed. On the RIGHT of that there's a small door leading up a stairway.

Here you'll find a treasure trove of old Nintendo goodness. It's like a small version of Super Potato.

Strangely, an old woman was in charge here. One thing you'll notice in all these retro "Famicon" shops is the endless sounds of 8-bit bleeping game music (it's an easy way you'll know you're in the right place). How anyone could stay sane listening to that all day is beyond me.

From there I went to Retro Game Camp.

It's not a large shop, but they have plenty of Famicon (Nintendo/Super Nintendo) and other carts for Sega etc.

Notice Super Mario Bros from the NES on the TV screen?

It's running on a "Famulator", a small licensed NES clone.

There's also a "Famulator lite", to hook it up to a Nintendo DS, but according to reviews it ain't that good.Moving right along, I made my way to the king-size building of Mandarake.

Here's the view from the top, looking down towards Akihabara station.

Eight floors of manga, toys and video games. The "Game & Watch" offerings here are surprisingly light.

What they did have, like all the other Akihabara shops were overpriced examples of a few classic titles.

While I'd like this place to be my favourite in Akiba, it lacks the character of the other places.

Maybe it's the over abundance of comic books and not enough retro games for me, but the elevator has a particularly nice shade of yellow.
Finally I just want to mention it was SO hot today. For the first time I went out without any kind of jacket. This is the kind of weather I like. Time to bring out the T's.

Jerk Off Myself

Unusually for a day off, I was awake at 9am.

Why?

I decided it was time to try once more to go to the Immigration office near Shinagawa, and re-apply for my visa extension.

Only having two pieces of toast and coffee, and struggling to get ready, I was out of the apartment after an hour.

If you ever have to do this, I'd strongly advise doing visa applications in the morning. Unlike last time, the initial line was virtually non-existant and I only waited a little over half an hour to get my application looked at.

I filled out a postcard with my address so hopefully in a week or two I will get it, telling me my visa extension has been approved. I have been having a lot of trouble getting mail recently. For some reason my mail has been returned to sender on more than one occasion. Strangely, my mobile phone bill has come without any problems.

I'm still waiting on my following month's national health insurance bills to come through, and the next one is due the end of this month.
Damn you Japan Post!

From Shinagawa I made my way to Akihabara. The gf asked me to get a USB memory stick for her. It was also a good excuse for me to look for my retro 80's games.

Arriving at the station, "Together In Electric Dreams" played on my iPod. How appropriate.

Even though I've been here many times I still find new things here. I saw some nice watches in a hidden alleyway, where I had to go up stairs. One watch was see-through for 4000 yen, and another had a unique way of telling the time for 1500 yen. I didn't buy either of them. Two watches are plenty for now.

No such luck with finding Nazo No Pyramid. The games they have here are mostly overpriced. I managed to to get a 2GB Silicon Power Flash drive for 980 yen. The cheapest I could find.

For the first time since I've been in Japan, the police questioned me on the street. They asked if I spoke Japanese, checked my gaijin card, then said they wanted to search my bag and jacket.

I'm surprised they never asked before. I've actually been wondering if any police would ever interrogate me. Even though I was expecting it to happen, I felt a little uncomfortable and so did they when they said it was part of their job.

I'm sure I looked really suspicious to them.

On a lighter note, I couldn't help but notice this sign in front of Aso Bit City.

Look closely.

First it says, "Any Plans For The Weekend?"

Under that, it says, "Jerk Off Myself"!!

I keep trying to think how that could've be translated, but from my sources, the japanese translation is pretty much the same. Weird.

Aso Bit City has a lot of anime character goods. Today I found the coffee mug in the store that I lost a lot of money playing for, in Yokohama. I realised how much I did the catchers more for the challenge, than the actual item.Having said that I still bought the mug. If you hover the mouse over the picture you can see both sides of it. 

It features Miku Hatsune.

She is part of the Vocaloid singing PC software that allows you to create songs without singing any words yourself! Too easy huh?

Apparently she has quite a big following in Japan.

Can't get enough of cute Miku? Maybe you will after watching this video.

It's hard to believe that it's not a real person singing the melody. The simulation is really convincing.

Akiba is just one big toy shop to me. Maybe that's why I like it so much. Great lightsabers for 12,800 yen. An Alien figure for about 1100 yen.

What's not to like?

To finish off the night the gf wanted to eat out, so we had some nice okonomiyaki and ankomaki near her apartment in Yotsuya.

Yummo.

JJ Classy Very

Maybe I left it a bit late, but I didn't get to Akihabara until about 5pm.

Even though it looked like it was going to rain, I decided to go anyway.

I had two things in mind.

First, I wanted to check out some stores that might have a few 80's handhelds I am interested in and secondly, I was after an EZflash 3-in-1 to use with my DS for extra RAM to run Quake 2, and a nice rumble feature to shake my DS for a nice force feedback effect.

On the way I couldn't help but notice this billboard on top of a building.

JJ (Jimmy In Japan) Classy Very! HA!

The first thing I wanted to do was check out all the places for handheld games.

I was mostly disappointed with what I found.

There WAS a huge Yoshi dinosaur for 25,000 yen though. I SO want it, but trying to get that back to Australia seems impossible, but it's so cool. I WANT!!

The places brought back a lot of memories. There were a stack of Super Nintendo consoles (Famicon), and Sega Game Gears and every other one you could think of.

One interesting display that never really made it too far out of Japan is Virtual Boy.

It was Nintendo's attempt at 3D gaming. The screen's graphics are in luminous red. It wasn't too bad. The 3D effect was ok, but it didn't blow me away.

I saw a Bandai Solar game for about 2600 yen. It wasn't in good condition so I passed on it. If anyone in Japan has one in reasonable condition for a good price let me know. ok?

Moving on.

Before I forget, one new renewal (as the japanese would say for "renovations"), is the all new 8 floor Mandarake Complex.

Full of Manga, figurines and other junk you have to have. Interesting.

It started to rain a little which didn't make me too happy. Not only that but time was running short. On sunday most stores in Akiba are closed by 7 or 730pm.

I went to the shop I bought my 200 yen DS screen protectors from, but they had sold out. I shouldn't be surprised. It was a great price. If I hadn't tried to have a second go putting on that dang thing, trying to remove one tiny hair under the screen it would've been perfect.
Last of my mission was trying to find the expansion pack for my DS. I was trying to find the cheapest price. There are so many computer stores with less than memorable japanese names that I had trouble going back to the best place.

In the end I picked it up for 2480 yen at the same place I bought my "heavy duty" metal DS case. I'm happy with that. Everything works as it should.

The gf had a sweets attack so I picked up some azuki bread at the 99 yen shop along with some batteries so cow suit Rilakkuma can walk around the apartment. Sugoi!

She didn't feel like cooking so I made us some tasty spaghetti with heaps of pepper and onion. The way she smothered the pasta in parmesan cheese I could tell she was lovin' it.

Who wouldn't?

Red Goes Faster

Like you didn't think it would happen..

Yes, I am now the proud owner of a nice little Nintendo DS lite.

After work I decided on the spur of the moment to go to Akihabara. I could have waited until thursday, but after Nakano I don't think gf wants to go to another geek hangout with me again.

First stop was Yodobashi. The gf likes a particular watch and I was thinking if I used my point card it could make the DS or the watch a little cheaper.

They unfortunately didn't have it in stock, and said it'd be a special order, so I passed on that. I saw it in Bic. I might get it tomorrow.

At Yodobashi the DS, like every other big store (Sofmap, Bic Camera, Sakuraya) has it for 16,800 yen.

I was having none of that, so I went to Wink Digital and got a nice crimson red and black shiny one for 14,800 yen. It's new, but for some reason the warranty has been stamped for the 13th of March. Ten days. I can live with that.
At least the 5000 yen cash back is going towards something worthwhile. I can hear my mother saying what a waste of money. Yes, probably but what a glorious way to blow it, huh?

If you're looking for stuff in Japan, a great price comparison site you should check out is Kakaku.
I picked up a nice cart for 3990 yen. That will come in very handy.

As well as that, I got a USB power charge cable for 100 yen, because it didn't have a warranty (?), but works fine.

I tried to ask what was wrong with it ("works good?", "ok?"), but none of them knew what I was asking at all. The cable will be useful for Australia as the power charger is only good for japan's electricity.

While I was in Akihabara I wanted to look around a bit as well.

I was hoping to go to Mandarake in search of interesting stuff like in Shibuya and Nakano but it was closed. Apparently they're moving and they closed their doors just yesterday.

I asked a guy yelling advertising his wares where it was and wouldn't you know it I was right next to the building. I saw a nice metallic aluminium case for my DS in R3 for 980 yen. Hmm, should've got it. Dammit.

AsoBitCity is another unusual shop filled with cosplay, manga and hentai dolls.
Even though they don't like anyone to take photos, I couldn't resist taking a shot of these life sized manga dolls.

I finally got myself some replacement blades for my Gillette razor from Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku. I added the purchase to my point card and I thought they were using my points instead of adding them, but the marked price was wrong. Just 1120 yen, Bonus!

I think I did pretty well on a single blade since I arrived. Ten months, not bad. If only I didn't feel like I was cutting sheets of skin off my face.

Oh I experienced my first earthquake during a lesson today. It wasn't big. The students didn't even notice until I pointed to a slightly shaking coat hanger.

Anyhow, It made a good warm up.

Something Fishy

Man, do I have a funny story to tell.. This will crack you up. 

 Today I bought a fisheye lens. Get it? No? 

 I actually don't have a camera to connect it yet. Drum roll please and cymbal crash. Funny huh? 

 I have been thinking for quite a while now to get a SLR camera to document the interesting sights of Tokyo. 

 Crazy as it might be, I love the fisheye effect on photos and this was my primary motivation. And dang, I need a hobby in this place. Any other excuse to procrastinate, I will find it! 

 If it keeps me away from the evil UFO catchers it will pay for itself.

 Another day off, another day in Akihabara. 

 I don't know why I gravitate here. I'm eternally in search of my inner geek. I like looking in electronic stores, touching all the shiny toys and yes, the catchers here are always interesting, but I didn't play any of them today. 

 Google Earth is really coming in handy. It must have been hell to find addresses before internet maps were available. With the help of my GPS phone, I found the places painlessly. 

 I got the secondhand lens in Sofmap. Yes it's used, but it's in good condition I think. I think I annoyed the salesperson in english a bit, making sure the lens wasn't scratched (it had just a smudge). He must've thought I'd try to bring the price down further. He looked a little surprised when I said I'd take it. 

 The original price for the lens was 63,800 yen and it had a 10% off sticker bringing it down to 57,420 yen (about $600). I know that's a lot, but in Australia it costs about $1100! So, I suppose if I ever get bored of it, I should be able to sell it for the same price I hope. 

 I was feeling guilty buying it (That's from my mother by the way. Thanks mama). I still had in mind to buy a memory card mainly for my phone, but it looks like it will be doing double duty for photos as well. I thought to get an 8GB card, but they're 10,500 yen. I settled on a 4GB one for 4000 yen. The bigger card will be half the price in a few months anyway. 

 So now I'm going to look for a well priced Nikon SLR. Either the D40 or D80 is on the cards. Only the later will auto focus with this lens, but I have to see how much I'm willing to spend. I don't want to spend too much on this new "hobby". 

 Stay tuned. 

 Oh. I picked up my watch yesterday by the way. The clerk said a whole lot of words in Japanese ("we didn't do anything"?) I just said, "watch ok?" and he said it was. That's good enough for me. So far so good. I'm going to be treating it with kid gloves from now on. I'm sick of bothering them, and I'm sure they are sick of seeing me too. 

 The cheese is also now finished finally. It was growing an beautiful exotic green mould so I made the decision to make a super size omelette with about 500 grams of cheese. All I can say it was cheesy all right. The salami helped too of course. 

 The gf isn't back yet. I can't wait to tell her about my new purchase. She will be so happy for me.

Oh Mickey You So Fine

As if I needed an excuse.

I went to Akihabara to get a new battery for my Mickey Mouse watch and some blank DVDs to backup all the crap that I have accumulated in Japan filling my hard drive to the brink. Not that a laptop drive has a lot of space to start with anyway.

As my "fixed" watch is in the shop getting re-fixed, I've got a week to wait to get it back hopefully working much better than before.

Before I left the apartment, I looked up a shop on Google Earth and made it part of my mission to see if I could find it. It's a little outside of Akihabara, so I was relying on my net reference and a little help from my phone GPS.

It's a bit hit and miss. Sometimes it picks up the satellites, and sometimes I can't get it to fire up at all. Today, I was in luck. It got me within a block of the target so I found the place easily. Maybe I'm not going to be as lost as I thought.

Akihabara is an interesting place to wander around.

I searched in as many shops as possible to find the cheapest watch battery and discovered that Yodobashi Camera was the least costly at 390 yen. I was hoping to find the 397 battery in a 100 yen shop, but it looks like it isn't the most common battery around these parts.

I went into the closest Maccas with yet another expired coupon and.. success, another free coffee! Sugoi!

While I was there I used my swiss army knife to carefully remove the tiny screws of my watch. It's probably not the best place to change a battery, with a potentially watch destroying coffee close by.

Nearby I also picked up a pack of Tim Tams for 298 yen. It wouldn't be a bargain back home, but here that's a pretty good price.

It gets dark here early about 5pm, so I made my way back home to make nice din dins for the gf and myself. The salami and cheese are yet to finish, so on tonight's menu is a tasty combo with these tasty morsels. I got the oishii seal of approval.

She got her keitai back too. Looks like the japanese are honest enough to return a misplaced phone. That would NEVER happen back home.

Oh, eight months in Japan by the way. Bring it on!

Re-Entry Visa

This is my first full day off in Tokyo now that I am finally living here. 

 I woke up at 11am. I had in mind to go to the Tokyo Regional Immigration Office to get my re-entry visa organised. 

 I still have a lot of time to do it, but knowing me if I leave it to the last minute I would forget about it, meaning that without it I will not be able to return to work in Japan next year, which in a word would be a real "bummer". 

 After a lot of procrastination, I managed to leave the apartment at 2:10pm. 

 I worked out that the cheapest way to get there is to get off at Shinagawa Station and walk the rest of the way. 

 The immigration website suggests to get off at Tennozu Isle Station, but that costs almost double and the walk isn't that much different. 

 There IS a bus to the Immigration Bureau from Shinagawa Station that costs 200 yen. True to my mantra, "That's Crunky money!", I decided I could manage the short 20 minute walk by myself thank you.

You'll know you're going the right way if you see the Minato-ku garbage factory tower on the left side of the second bridge.

 

From the bridge you can also see very clearly which building is the one. It's shaped like a cross. 

 The procedure is pretty painless. In 30 minutes I was outta there. 

 First I picked up an application form from the ground floor and proceeded to the D section on the next floor, where the lady informed me I didn't mark off that I was a male. Oh. 

 Before she put my application through she told me to go downstairs and buy a 6000 yen (multiple entry visa) revenue stamp from the am/pm convenience store while holding onto my gaijin card and passport ( true to it's name, conveniently located on the ground floor in the building). 

 I picked up another queue ticket thinking I'd have to wait in line, but she motioned me to come to the desk and had my passport already processed. Nice. Shinagawa is a pretty ordinary place. I used to go through here quite often as it links my old Keikyu (Keihin Kyoku) Line between Tomioka and Tokyo. I thought there was a Suica Penguin shop but I could only find combini selling JR's overpriced penguin merchandise. 

 I made my way shortly after onwards to Akihabara, a strange place. The land of maids and geeks. I went through Electric Town looking for the Sony micro-portable and found a second-hand one for 69,800 yen which isn't too bad. Don't know if I really need it though.

 

I scored a plush turtle at the UFO catcher. It's made by the same company as the penguins and the purty fur feels similar. I did it for around 600 yen. It's VERY easy to lose track of how much yen you put in. 

 After that I met up with gf and we had dinner at a ramen noodle place in Yotsuya, with the unusual difference of tomato sauce and cheese. I was expecting it to taste like pasta, but the sauce was kind of spicy with unexpected pieces of tender chicken. Gochiso sama Deshita!

The Maids Of Akihabara

I went mostly solo today. The gf is doing a short job for a few days so I was left to my own devices. 

 I didn't have anything in particular planned so I decided to go to Akihabara and Ochanomizu. They are only a short walk from each other. 

 Aki for the UFO catchers and electrical junk in Electric Town (oh, and maids too), and Ochanomizu for guitars, guitars and more guitars!

 

  Arriving at Akihabara I saw one of the maids promoting their maid cafes. I felt like a perv for taking her picture. Yoko would probably call this hentai, but all I can say to that is "pffft". 

 Surprisingly the whole time I was there, I didn't spend a yen on a UFO catcher, although I REALLY, REALLY wanted too, as people were winning all around me. I was waiting for my "moment".

 

I sneaked another maid picture here. She clearly busted me for taking her photo. Thank you maid girl. May your picture remain posted here for all eternity! 

 Later on I met up with the gf at Ochanomizu, sparing her the boredom of me weaving in and out of the numerous guitar shops on the strip. 

 We had some cake and coffee/tea before walking back to Akihabara for some blank CD/DVDs. 

 We went to the local Don Quixote, where I admired the maid outfits that I wish gf would wear for an um, special occasion. 

 There I bought a 700ml 25% bottle of the infamous green shochu. Looking back now I wish I got the 1.8 ltr bottle for 1080 yen. DANG! 

 Akihabara is geek central. With all the computer stores, porn manga comics and GUYS playing the UFO catchers for upskirt dolls, it must be heaven for nerds.

  Just in case one of them missed this "prize" in an arcade, this UFO catcher has a mirror. 

 Arriving back in Yotsuya, I had shochu mixed with peach nectar juice which I heartily recommend. 

 Oh, to be in Tokyo and pleasantly inebriated.