Random photos of stations I have visited

December 13

Shin-Kamagaya Station. I'm no good at timing shots of moving trains, but got lucky on this one. This is the 5x zoom lens as well.

Kamagaya-Daibutsu Station. Another one added to Railway Station Photos.

Edited December 13 by kuro68000

December 13

Magomezawa.

December 13

Walking in Yokohama. Still processing so give it an hour or two...

Part 1 - Walking in Magomezawa.

Part 2

December 14

Took it a bit easy today. Went around Akihabara, but it's not as interesting for me as it was 10 years ago when there were more electronics shops. Some of the retro game/computer shops are okay, but I didn't spend all that long there. Aitendo has opened up again, but I can't think of anything I really want at the moment.

Found this weird VHS tape. Is it just tips for playing go?

I guess you can normally only get this jigsaw from that one museum.

Some illuminations in Musashisakai.

December 14

Great information display for buses. I wish more stops had this. The ones around here also have a display showing how long until the next bus, and it seems to be live and accounting for delays.

I've got a few of these at home. The ones designed specially for 240V are the best. These ones... Well, they seem to tune them for 220V, maybe to make sure the minimum output voltage is 100V, maybe to save on copper. Anyway, between a 240V running as high as it might go and the transformer having the wrong ratio, the output can be rather high. Most stuff doesn't care but I don't like running it at higher voltages, especially with older things that have a linear power supply.

Went to the public bath in the evening. Will try for China tomorrow. There is a Hard Off that specializes in tools. If they don't have any JIS standard screwdrivers I'll order one on Amazon, but fingers crossed they do as I prefer to reuse. The Amazon one is only 1000 yen, Vessel brand which is decent, and three interchangeable size heads, but still... The main difficulty is identifying them as they looks very similar to Philips and Pozidrive.

These are both pretty good for the price. Will likely need new belts which can be a pain because you have to take them apart. I'll keep looking, these are chonkers. I do like the upright type. Actually have an NEC one but I'm not sure what the fault with it is. Belts are okay.

Edited December 14 by kuro68000

December 15

I hate buses.

December 15

Sounds like there is a story there.

December 15

3 hours ago, Gunzel said:

Sounds like there is a story there.

Chiba buses that come once every two hours, and don't have numbers so it's hard to tell which one you want. For whatever reason Google Maps' name of the bus often doesn't match up with what is on the actual bus, and I couldn't find the destination stop on any of the posters either.

Combined with being late it's very frustrating, and if you miss the one you want the next one is hours away.

Much prefer trains.

Anyway, went to Chiba today. First stop the tool specialist Hard Off. Might have found some JIS screwdrivers, but it's hard to tell just by looking at them. Some had writing on but it wasn't clear to me if "+2" meant JIS cross size 2 or PZ2 or something. Oh well, it was fun anyway.

The other Hard Offs were good, found some great stuff. One had a junk Casio PV-2000 for 11,000 yen. Never seen one for anything like that price before! 40 years after release they are all in a bad state - they keyboard membrane deteriorates and turns into flakes, but if there aren't CAD files for a new one online somewhere I'm sure I can design one and have it fabricated.

It was a total failure in the market. Under powered, and despite being mostly the same hardware as the PV-1000 it was not software compatible. I'll have to make a multi cart for it.

I also found some interesting LD and an old broken Apple PowerBook charger. The cashier was a bit confused when I asked for scissors and cut the cable off the body of the charger (there was no saving it). I'll convert it to USB.

Kinda wondered if the taxi driver was flirting or just being chatty, but I can never tell regardless of language or culture. Still no idea how I met my wife.

Had a nice long and interesting walk, but wasn't able to film it as I was carrying too much. Was thinking about getting a small case with wheels, but they aren't ideal for buses. I think I'll need one for trips further afield. Weirdly right now lots of places have cheap cases new for less than Off House wants used. The used ones might be better quality. I think their issue is the same one that Hard Off has with computer gear. The price might have been reasonable a few years ago, but not today...

I did record one shorter walk later one. I recorded going up hill years ago, just holding the phone. Went down this time, with the gimbal. Captured audio from the recorder so when I get back to the UK I'll hopefully be able to upgrade from the phone mics. I'll post the unedited version when it's finished uploading.

Had a nice dinner in China and then realised I left my shopping bag on the train. I'm going to get some string and tie myself to it in future. Or maybe just keep the bag between my knees, but you can't do that when it's crowded.

Anyway they didn't have it half an hour later, I'll try again tomorrow.

On the way back to Asakusa now, but won't get there till 10. Recording some audio on the train. I need to listen to it just to check it, but don't have any headphones and the laptop speakers are terrible. I'm looking at headphones, but can't decide what to get. For home I want some super comfortable on-ear ones. For travel I'm not sure. Cheap in-ear ones that I'll probably lose, or nice Sony ones that I'll also probably lose. Or some bigger cans that could kinda do both, assuming I don't mind carrying them around, and which would be harder to lose.

I need a down jacket too. I found an issue with the fleece. It interacts with the jacket I have and there is a lot of moisture. It's not sweat, it's outside the fleece and not on my inner clothing. For some reason water just condenses on my upper arms between the two, like massive amounts of it. I had to take the fleece off anyway due to overheating today.

December 15

Anegasaki Station. Even that random building at the back has had some architectural thought put into it. The hallmark of Japan really - someone thought about it, someone cared to put the effort in.

December 15

Kizarazu station.

December 15

Yoshinoa... A mistake I make once per trip.

Kimitsu Eki Mae.

Uchiminowaundo Park.

Kimitsu Station.

Edited December 15 by kuro68000

December 15

Walking to Iwane Station. It was a long but pleasant walk, apart from when I nearly fell into a ditch because it was dark and rural parts of Japan just have open ditches at the side of the road.

I'm not sure if there is a way to make these distant flat landscape photos look better, or landscape photos in general. Could use the wide angle lens but it's not as good as the primary one at night. This time I really needed the Night Sight though, it was very dark. Somehow everything just seems further away than in real life, in all these kinds of photo.

December 15

Iwane Station has this "liminal space" in the bridge between platforms, where the complete lack of anything gives it a strange feeling.

Changed train at Kinshicho.

Oh yeah, randomly this Hard Off had not one but two of these super rare and pretty crappy game consoles. I resisted. There is Gakken computer kit that looks interesting though. The other thing I'm really looking out for is a SORD computer.

December 15

Walking in Nagaura, downhill.

December 15

Have you considered a rolling back pack? My wife and I use them for travel and they are carry-on size. Handy as I usually wheel them but can use them as a back pack in areas with bad pavement (such as Greece).

Cheers,

Tony

December 16

10 hours ago, Tony Galiani said:

Have you considered a rolling back pack? My wife and I use them for travel and they are carry-on size. Handy as I usually wheel them but can use them as a back pack in areas with bad pavement (such as Greece).

Cheers,

Tony

I did think about it. Don't you find you get dirty when the wheels touch your back while wearing it? I suppose it's not a huge deal.

December 16

I assume Google have an equivalent of the Apple AirTag, worth having a look at that. I keep one in my bag and one in my suitcase (always nice to know your suitcase is in the same city as you when you land, or not).

I have the Sony XM5 headphones, mainly for the plane, and when I have to work in the office. They’re reasonably comfy and not too heavy, bulky though.

December 16

3 hours ago, Gunzel said:

I assume Google have an equivalent of the Apple AirTag, worth having a look at that. I keep one in my bag and one in my suitcase (always nice to know your suitcase is in the same city as you when you land, or not).

I have the Sony XM5 headphones, mainly for the plane, and when I have to work in the office. They’re reasonably comfy and not too heavy, bulky though.

Thanks. I have a couple of AirTags that my wife can check for me. There are Google ones but their network is a joke. It should be the best but it barely works at all.

I see you can get simple tags that just beep and notify your phone when you get out of range, but by that point the train has already closed the doors and set off...

I've literally got a bit of string today. Need a better solution but I'm not going to forget it.

Today was pretty successful. Went to Kanagawa and a couple of new shops. They were excellent, lots of good stuff. If I could carry it... I'll post photos later.

The shops in Hon Atsugi are both good too. Nearly bought some headphones, but decided to hold off for now. I like the idea of the XM5 headphones, aside from the bulk. I use wired ones with my computer at the moment. I like the physical volume knob and physical switch between speakers and headphones.

The XM5 earbuds are supposed to be good too, but you can't exactly throw them on like cans. Would be nice to have on the train I guess. Paralyzed by indecision as usual.

I think I made a decision on the down jacket front. GU ones are a lot bulkier then the Uniqlo ones, even if they are half the price. I'll get the latter. Their website is crap but they do seem to be windproof, which was my main concern. Now I just need to pick a colour in under half an hour.

Oh, and JR found my bag, I'll go get it tomorrow. So another day in Chiba, but shops I haven't been to this trip yet. One sight issue is that the website wants me to say when I'm going to collect, but it won't accept my name. Keeps saying I need to use full width kana, even though I am. I will try on the laptop when I get home.

Monday at 01:27 PM

Shibusawa.

Edited Monday at 01:36 PM by kuro68000

Monday at 01:29 PM

Monday at 01:31 PM

Some great stuff at this Hard Off...

For your model cars!

If I could somehow get them in my suitcase... The TV is a CRT, full HD, and 330 yen! One of the best sets ever for retro computers and games. The Sharp X1 series machines are pretty rare too, and here with the matching monitor.