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Japan Trip 2010: Let me tell you my adventures
My adventures, let me tell you them!
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Author name (Administrator) 2010-08-22, 12:59 #46
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Member since May 2011 · 2173 posts · Location: Brisbane
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In reply to post ID 2972
Subject: Nightfall in Shibuya
Yesterday was pretty awesome.  Headed in to Tokyo and met up with Naomi at noon in Shibuya.  We wandered around briefly and discussed her dislike of crowds and insects (and my love of same) and then spent an agonizing half hour trying to decide what we'd have for lunch, before finally settling on a random shoebox restaurant on the 7th floor called Big Chef.  The view was mostly blocked by random metal shards and nothing we ordered looked like it did on the menu, but we still stayed there for nearly five hours gabbing and giggling.

Then she went home, and I wandered for another hour snapping pics of the place.  Shibuya is home to what is apparently the world's busiest pedestrian crossing.  It's a 'scramble crossing' where all vehicle traffic is stopped and the intersection swarms with a thousand people walking every direction.  It's absolutely awesome, unless you're Naomi.

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/photos/Japan2010/Shibuya1.jpg]

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/photos/Japan2010/Shibuya2.jpg]

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/photos/Japan2010/Shibuya3.jpg]

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/photos/Japan2010/Shibuya4.jpg]
BLEARGH
Author name (Administrator) 2010-08-25, 19:55 #47
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Subject: I like pens.  Japan likes pens.  Australia is illiterate or something.
So.  One of my customers in Australia runs a stationary store.  He sells, among other things, pens.  One day I mentioned to him how hard it was to find a fine-point pen in Australia, and he was surprised.  He sends me his finest pen, was again surprised when I told him it was akin to a crayon.

You see, Australians are functionally illiterate.  They don't write much, and when they do they use massive arm-swinging strokes and they need pens with copious amounts of ink and chalk-sized rollers at the tip. 

As additional proof of this, when I lived in Australia back in 1979 or so, I was attending grade 2, where I was instructed to write between large, one-inch high lines on the paper.  With a pencil.  In Canada I was already using pens in 1-cm lines, and doing quite well thank you very much.  I bitched and whined, to no avail.

This shot indicates the kind of pen choice you get in Japan.  This is one side of one aisle in a shop that does not specialize in pens.  They are a housewares retailer.  They sell tools and furniture and plates and laundry soap and bath mats and so on.  This is their pen selection.

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/photos/Japan2010/pens.jpg]

I bought about fifteen pens, with 0.3mm and 0.25mm tips.  In about ten colours.
BLEARGH
Author name (Administrator) 2010-08-25, 20:03 #48
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Member since May 2011 · 2173 posts · Location: Brisbane
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Subject: Japan is from the FUTURE.
So one day a few years ago I was surprised to find a local supermarket was using digital pricetags.  They had a little LCD display, like a calculator, showing the price of the item they were attached to.  A barcode sticker matching the item was glued to it.  A little infrared receiver was included, and they could be updated by aiming the appropriate device at them.  Very high tech.

Well, a couple of days ago another supermarket made those digital pricetags look pathetic and old fashioned.

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/photos/Japan2010/tags1.jpg]

You see those tags?  They're not just calculator 8-seg numbers, they're fully updatable completely electronic and from so far in the future Australia can't even begin to imagine using them.  The first tags I mentioned had only the numbers that could change.  These tags are fully programmable: descriptions, manufacturer, the barcode number, the size or weight, how many in each bag, etc.

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/photos/Japan2010/tags2.jpg]

In Australia, people mangle and shred the paper tags.  The LCD ones would get stolen.  These ones, with their fancy displays, would probably cause riots.
BLEARGH
Author name (Administrator) 2010-08-28, 12:54 #49
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Subject: Akihabara...
I was in Akihabara a couple of times this trip.  It's not as fun as it used to be, but it's still one of the greatest places on earth to go shopping for electronics.  Check it out.

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/photos/Japan2010/Akiba10.jpg]
BLEARGH
Author name (Administrator) 2010-08-29, 17:57 #50
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Subject: Sounds of Japan 2
You might remember some Japanese sounds from earlier in this thread.  I've got a new one for you.  This is another cicada singing outside the house, but a different kind this time.  These ones are much smaller and have a multi-stage song that starts and ends.  The first one, if you recall, had an endless repeating loop.

Check it out (440kB MP3)
BLEARGH
Author name (Administrator) 2010-08-30, 11:21 #51
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Subject: More pens...
Here's the pen selection from a small hardware shop near me.  Why does a hardware store have more pens than most stationary stores in Australia?

Shit ain't right.

[Image: http://nfgworld.com/grafx/photos/Japan2010/pensD2.jpg]
BLEARGH
Author name (Administrator) 2010-08-30, 14:11 #52
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Subject: Nearly over...
We're nearly done in Japan.  Our train leaves town at 4, our plane leaves the country at 8.  We'll be back in Australia by Tuesday morning, assuming our plane doesn't asplode and spread our screaming chunks all over the ocean.

We spent our last hours this morning cleaning up, packing our carryons, and buying food for the flight.

Best Japan trip ever.  =D
BLEARGH
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