Random photos of stations I have visited

[Aleks]

7 hours ago, mojo said:

 

Yokohama Ishikawacho, at one end of the Motomachi shopping street.

 

I did not realize you could get these types of places in Yokohama... for me it's just associates with MInatomirai...

[railsquid]

10 hours ago, mojo said:

 

Early 8k TV from 2018. 8k broadcasting has been going for a while in Japan. The state broadcaster, NHK, decided to skip 4k entirely.

 

 

I guess they didn't get the message: https://www.nhk.or.jp/bs4k8k/4k/ 😄

 

[kuro68000]

12 hours ago, railsquid said:

 

I guess they didn't get the message: https://www.nhk.or.jp/bs4k8k/4k/ 😄

 

 

I think it's more the production side, they didn't invest a lot in 4k production. Other companies making content for them might produce it, and of course their 8k content can be downscaled to 4k. The two channels, 4k and 8k, launched on the same day.

[kuro68000]

 

[kuro68000]

[kuro68000]

 

Minatomirai.

[kuro68000]

[kuro68000]

 

Computer problems in Akihabara...

[kuro68000]

 

Some more station signs, this time from Asakusa on the Tsukuba Express line.

[kuro68000]

 

Kita-Senju. I like the graphics but somehow it feels like cheating a bit to use normal 16:9 LCD displays. I guess they are industrial ones, probably made by Paansonic.

[kuro68000]

[kuro68000]

 

Kasukabe station. You can see the little クレヨンしんちゃん (Crayon Shin-chan) sign on the left, should have got a better photo of it. In the manga/anime he lives in Kasukabe. Gotta say, his local Hard Off is a bit mediocre.

 

[kuro68000]

 

From the platform of Satte station.

[kuro68000]

 

[kuro68000]

 

Some local celebrities?

[kuro68000]

 

Next time I want to make an effort to get photos of things like the SALE sign made up of posters.

 

The Japanese seem to love stuff like that. Posters in general, sticky labels (Japanese labelling technology is unparalleled and they have industrial durability - you often find them at stations), and signs made up of coloured cloth backed tape.

 

Years ago one of the staff at Shinjuku station got some attention for his cloth backed tape signs, during the renovations. On that subject, I'm not sure about the new Shinjuku station. I didn't go there many times, I don't really like Shinjuku, and was mostly changing trains rather than going in and out of the station. Still, the old layout seemed easier to navigate, even if it was less convenient.

 

The new setup has a lot of pillars that block your view, and when it's crowded you get people coming out from behind them without warning. It's also a bit of a maze, at least to me.

[kuro68000]

 

Anyway the Satte Hard Off had a nice retro corner. I rarely buy from these corners, but I love visiting them. My dream would be to live in Japan and get a LaserDisc and VHS player to do some archival of old videos. A lot of it is not available anywhere else and I've got the archival bug.

 

Maybe if I win the lottery...

 

Anyway, they also had a fantastic selection of electronic test gear and retro gaming stuff, but I'll spare you the photos.

[kuro68000]

 

Nearly forgot to get a photo of the outside of Satte station.

 

 

And on to Kurihashi.

[kuro68000]

 

So tempted by this, especially for the bargain price of 3000 yen. I didn't think I had enough room for it though, and didn't have any games. I had seem some games at other Hard Offs, but no time to go back and get them.

 

This machine is a real mystery. It was fairly popular in its day, but little is known about how it works. The main issue is that the console itself has only an RF modulator and the controls in it. No CPU, that's in the cartridge. That means that the CPU and ROM and in one chip, and it is very difficult to extract the ROM data. Without understanding how the CPU works that data isn't much use anyway. The chip in the cartridge is basically a complete game system, with sound generator, video generator, control inputs, CPU, ROM and all the glue logic.

 

That made the console itself much cheaper, but the games much more expensive. The games were fairly simple, not a huge upgrade over the older "Pong" type consoles that similarly had everything built into one chip. In theory it was very flexible as there was no real limit to what you could put in the cartridge, but in practice the whole industry moved towards having most of the hardware in the console and only game data in the cartridge (with some exceptions).

 

 

I was really tired and a bit pressed for time, so I got a taxi to Hard Off and then decided to walk back to the station. As usual Google Maps picked the most optimal, if somewhat convoluted route, and I had some nice views.

[kuro68000]

Oh, forgot the videos of Kurihashi.

 

 

My phone supposedly does 4k at 60fps, but it always seems to drop frames in practice. Unless it's my computer. Does it look smooth to you guys?

 

This seems to be a fairly new development that is still being built up. Massive houses and right next to Hard Off and a shopping centre.

[kuro68000]

 

Outside Kuki station. I've noticed that Japan has a lot more bushes than the UK in public areas. I guess the UK doesn't like them because they require more maintenance. The ones you do see are almost never cut to shape like this, and only exist to keep people out.

 

In general Japanese local authorities seem to consider maintenance and keeping the local area pleasant to be a much higher priority than in the UK. It's so relaxing, everywhere is nice and you don't have to be constantly on the look out for trip hazards, dirt, and puddles. The shock when getting back to the UK is pretty severe.

[kuro68000]

 

Ad for the local park. He's basically saying "Now is the time... full power... play!"

[kuro68000]

 

Kasukabe eki-mae.

[kuro68000]

 

[kuro68000]

 

Went for some eki donburi. Forgot to photograph the food. Still, this is a nice example of a Japanese proper fast food restaurant. It's all designed to be super convenient and fast. You have tissues, water, and condiments right there. Ticket from the vending machine so staff don't have to handle cash.

 

Disposable chopsticks though, not very eco friendly. Speaking of which, Hard Off has alkaline batteries. Not sure how to submit a suggestion that they switch to NiMH, although some older stuff doesn't work with those because the voltage is only 1.2V and alkaline/zinc are 1.5V.

 

Oh yeah, and if you want some good NiMH batteries, Eneloop are unrivalled. They are kinda expensive though, but IKEA LADDA batteries are actually just rebranded Eneloops and a bit cheaper.