Random photos of stations I have visited

[mojo]

 

Dinner. However they prepare the meat in Japan, it's incredible. That's Oolong tea, by the way.

 

Oh, and I went back and bought the Neo Geo. Expected it to be heavier. I'm 95% sure I can fix it.

Edited December 15, 2023 by mojo

[Gunzel]

7 hours ago, mojo said:

Thanks so much for that! I keep an eye on the Hard Off news page, but I didn't see it mentioned and didn't know about that sub-brand! I am planning to visit Niigata, probably next week, and will definitely go to that store!

Good luck! They had a boxed Sony Hitbit F5 which I would have loved to grab, among (many) other things. 
 

i look forward to hearing about your post office experience as well. 

And was KingJim in the HARD OFF Ueno Okachimachi store, or perhaps one of the Akihabara stores? I reckon I saw the same labeller in a HARD OFF recently. 

 

[mojo]

16 hours ago, Gunzel said:

Good luck! They had a boxed Sony Hitbit F5 which I would have loved to grab, among (many) other things. 
 

i look forward to hearing about your post office experience as well. 

And was KingJim in the HARD OFF Ueno Okachimachi store, or perhaps one of the Akihabara stores? I reckon I saw the same labeller in a HARD OFF recently. 

 

 

Oh man, it takes a lot of willpower to avoid collecting little MSX computers! The early ones were just so sexy, like the future was supposed to look.

 

Stamp thing was in Miyahara. Today I went to the Hachioji branch of Hard Off, Eco Town, which is always worth a visit. They had so much great stuff, although not the PC98 laptop I was considering from last time... They have their own theme song now, a remix of MCU's Hard Off tribute rap:

 

 

 

They had an Action Mac Lord. National were not shy with their product naming!

 

 

I should have bought this... Next time.

[mojo]

 

These new trains sound nice. Quite the incline coming out of the Keio Hachioji station.

[mojo]

 

Some more station signs. Continuing the crab theme...

 

[mojo]

 

Meijirodai.

Edited December 16, 2023 by mojo

[mojo]

 

Takao.

 

 

Hachioji. Apologies to the oji-san in the first image. What are those ropes about? They seem like they are holding the pantograph on, looped through the windows. I should have taken a closer look. There were similar ropes on the other pantograph on that carriage, but none of the others that I could see.

[mojo]

 

Everything Hello Kitty you could ever need. The first one would have been a great photo if the phone strap wasn't in frame! Well, if I had taken it a second earlier too, when the train was further back on that bend.

[mojo]

A couple more unedited videos.

 

 

 

The second one uses the primary camera instead of the ultrawide. It's supposed to have better low light performance, and quick glance suggests that it does.

 

It ends abruptly because I forgot to clear space on my phone, and the last two videos I thought I deleted were actually still in the bin. So I ran out of space. I'm recording at 200Mbps which is probably very excessive.

[Gunzel]

I imagine the pantographs are tied down because the train is being hauled under wires with a different electrification voltage, or perhaps will be hauled outside a wired area, maybe even both. 

[railsquid]

12 hours ago, mojo said:

 

 

Hachioji. Apologies to the oji-san in the first image. What are those ropes about? They seem like they are holding the pantograph on, looped through the windows. I should have taken a closer look. There were similar ropes on the other pantograph on that carriage, but none of the others that I could see.

 

Seibu stock being moved around, either for maintenance, scrap or possibly to/from the Seibu Tamagawa line (there is a connection between the JR and Seibu lines around Shin-Akitsu on the Musashino Line).

FWIW I've seen stock from other private companies stabled at the sidings at Hachioji.

[mojo]

Thanks, that's interesting info!

 

 

Manhole in Toda.

 

 

Sign warning of high winds in Minami-Urawa.

 

 

Hard Off there with a great selection of retro stuff.

[mojo]

 

Some very reasonably priced stuff. the X-RGB 2 is a great scaler, a bit overshadowed now but still very very good. Especially for Japanese machines.

 

 

Guitar with a cassette player built in, and an MSX computer that was apparently mostly used in schools with a Laserdisc player.

[mojo]

 

Bagged a Cassette Vision! The description says that it might have faults, but I can probably fix them. It's usually the power supply or capacitors.

 

 

Interesting Kato model.

 

 

 

 

Omiya, can't decide which framing is better.

[mojo]

 

 

The first one would have been great if I'd managed to frame it a little better and keep my fingers out of the frame! Hopefully I can crop it.

 

[mojo]

 

Omiya station.

 

 

 

 

[mojo]

 

Another video. The best one yet I think. The main improvement being that I managed to get the phone level. It's a nice little walk. Still processing for 4k so give it an hour...

 

 

Edited December 17, 2023 by mojo

[Gunzel]

Nice find with the Cassette Vision. And I like the Pioneer MSX machine. I’d like to get at least one of the Pioneer Mac clones but I haven’t found one yet. 

[mojo]

Oh, they did Mac clones? I know a few Western companies did, but I didn't know that Pioneer did too.

 

 

Higashi-Matsuyama today. A couple of hours on the train. The first Hard Off is another 30 minute walk...

 

 

But well worth it! This branch has both excellent retro machines and the best quality junk I've found so far. I ended up buying the Bandai console. It's rare and not emulated. I want a PC-FX as well, but they are not cheap and are kinda heavy... The PC-FX is another largely failed console. It had about 50 games, so not a total disaster, but almost all of them are dating sims. NEC decided that 3D graphics were not good enough yet and that FMV was the way to go, so they made a console with great video quality but little else. For some reason I love losers...

 

The fairly rare FM sound unit for is for the Sega SC-3000 mkIII. That machine is basically a Master System without the FM sound, unless you add this to it in which case it basically is a Master System. I kinda want one because they look so nice in white, but good ones are not cheap.

[mojo]

 

Japanese consumer product design from the 70s and 80s...

 

 

Another very nice MSX. I picked up the SyQuest drive, another looser in the removable storage wars that were won by MO discs in Japan, until USB flash drives crushed them all.

[mojo]

 

Back to the station... Didn't see the cats I saw last year, they must be busy...

[mojo]

 

Wakaba. Japan has lots of little parks scattered around.

 

 

Hard Off often has some model train stuff, but it's hit-and-miss and rarely comprehensive.

 

 

Another poverty-inducing find that I managed to resist, the SuperGrafx. It was a modified PC Engine with two graphics chips but little else going for it. To make matters worse the shape made it incompatible with the popular CD-ROM add on. I think it would have fit in the shape of the original, but they wanted it to be larger to imply it was more powerful. Only about 6 games were released for it, and half of those worked on the standard PC Engine with very slightly reduced graphical quality.

[mojo]

 

Take from Wakaba Station, through the slightly dirty window. I wish I had taken more time to find a good spot to get a shot from now.

 

 

Manhole cover in Sayama.

 

 

Hard to resist. It was in mint condition, and the image is iconic. I wish I could spend more time going through Laserdiscs at Hard Off, looking for ones with good covers. The problem is that they are often relegated to plastic tubs at floor level, and the tubs get really heavy. With arthritis it's not easy to pull them out and flip through them. Occasionally you find a Hard Off where they are higher up, or they at least have nice drawers on rails to make browsing a bit easier.

 

What I really want is a Tron one...

[mojo]

 

Another longer walking video. Give it an hour to reach 4k. Wide angle lens as it was daytime.

[mojo]

 

Another lovely MSX today...

 

 

 

Aobadai Station.

 

 

Sagami Otsuka station.

 

 

An interesting no parking sign.