Gadget Hunting

It's getting cooler here. I've started using my heavier blanket and drinking hot beverages. I bought a kotasu. It's not a gadget per se, but a very useful Japanese item. It's a low table, with a heater underneath. The top is removable, so you can put a futon (quilt) over the table to keep the heat in. Then the top is put on top of the quilt, so you still have a hard surface. I have a light quilt underneath, like a rug, but I haven't gotten the other quilt yet. My friend may have an extra to lend me. Since they are warm, cats like to lie under kotatsu, so there have been some designed so the infrared from the heater doesn't hurt cats' eyes. This is a picture of the complete set up...it's not mine.

Saturday, I went to Tokyo again. I went to the Tokyo Station area, Shinjuku and Ginza.

I wanted to look at DSLR's (Digital Single-Lens Reflex cameras). Panasonic has introduced a new format that isn't really a DSLR, since it has no mirror. But you can still change lenses and whatnot. Also, there is a geotagging accessory for the new Nikon, which will add longitude, lattitude and altitude data to your pictures.

First, I went to Tokyo Station because Maruzen bookstore is nearby. It has a large foreign book section. I found two graded reader sets for reading basic Japanese. Each has five books, and a CD of the stories being read.

In the same building JAXA (Japan's NASA) has a shop with a display. There is a space suit set up so you can have your picture taken "in" it. A nice lady there took my picture and gave me a picture of Tokyo taken from space.

Then, I went to Shinjuku. This shirt was in a shop in the Station. If it hadn't been ¥3000, I might have bought it.

My first stop was Kinokuniya bookstore, which also has a large foreign book section. At the station, I was checking my map to see which exit I wanted when two high school boys offered to guide me there. I could have found it myself, but I could tell that they wanted to practice their English. They were both very nice, and had recently spent two weeks in Australia.

My next stop in Shinjuku was the Nikon showroom. The L Tower Building is accessible from the station without going outside. Nikon is on the 28 floor. There is a very nice view all around the floor. There was a nice photo gallery -- the current show was pictures taken along the Silk Road. There is also a nice view inside the showroom -- lots of beautiful cameras! I played with the D90 for a bit -- compared to my little camera, the autofocus is FAST! It's bigger than the Olympus E420 I was originally looking at, but the menus are well laid out, and the camera feels solid but not too heavy. Of course, it's in a higher price range than the Olympus.

Herere two pictures of Tokyo from the 28th floor of the L Tower Building.



I had hoped to eat at an English Pub called the Hub, but it doesn't open until 4:00, and I wanted lunch now. So I found a spot in the station that had a hamburg steak, fried egg and bacon. I asked for an Akiaji beer to go with, and was surprised to get a 22 ounce bottle, instead of the smaller one I was expecting. Oh well.


Here is what the market looked like in Shinjuku Station. In the bottom section, Yahoo is the fourth company on the left, up ¥300 for the day so far.


Then I was off to Ginza, which is famous for top brand shops like Chanel and Louis Vuitton. Mitsukoshi and Matsuzakaya department stores are here as well. The two companies were founded in 1673 and 1611, respectively. This is a picture of Mitsukoshi. This picture was taken at 5:00 pm and you can see it's already turning dark because daylight savings time is not used here.

Also here is Sony's showroom. I read on the website that the building design was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim museum in New York. But this building is square. On the inside, it's kind of a spiral. You look at one section, point-and-shoot cameras, then go up 4 steps to the next section, laptops, then up more steps. You can see anything made by Sony, including the stuff that is sold in Japan, but not in the US. There is also an overseas shop which sells models compatible with other countries' electrical and TV systems.

There was a display about a kabuki play that was filmed by Sony, so it's showing on the screen outside the building.

My last stop was Itoya -- a 9 story stationary store. Granted, the footprint is nowhere near the average Office Max in the US, but the selection of Japanese pens and other fiddly bits makes up for that. Some people love stationary/office supply stores, others don't see the attraction. I'm in the first group. I've had to get a bigger pencil case, because I keep finding neat pens and pencils.