Random photos of stations I have visited

[kuro68000]

     

 

This was next to a shrine. It's the "Gonokami Maimaizu Well". I guess it was dug that way because they couldn't dig a vertical well at the time.

[kuro68000]

     

 

  

 

Should probably not stand in the middle of a level crossing. Miss the train and had to wait 15 minutes to get this shot too!

[kuro68000]

           

 

Akiruno Station.

[kuro68000]

        

 

Haijima Station.

 

  

 

Ochanomizu.

[kuro68000]

 

[Kingmeow]

Having been on JNSForum for over a year I never clicked on this thread due to the title.  "How many stations could this guy have visited?"  Well about a month ago I clicked on a recent post by mistake as I was checking for new posts on the forums home page.

 

My God!!!!!  😲 This thread in insane!  🙃  Once I realize that it's not just about train stations but rather a journal of @kuro68000 adventures across Japan, I was immediately hooked.  I proceeded to start from Page 1, and it took me a few weeks to get to the end.  I felt like I have traveled all over Japan, with some places I recognized and have been to, plus I think I know where every single Hard Off is located in Japan.  🤣🤣🤣

 

As a fellow geek, those old PCs and electronic equipment were my childhood!  I started with an Ohio Scientific Challenger with 4K Ram and cassette drive for storage.  If memory serves me right, it was around the time of the Radio Shack TRS-80.  Also, a photographer hobbyist starting with film back in the 70's by borrowing my father's Fujica ST-701.  Went fully digital in 1999 with Nikon Coolpix 950.

 

Keep up the good work and now I look forward to future posts and pictures of yours.

[cteno4]

10 hours ago, kuro68000 said:

 

 

I love Japanese houses so I'm going to try to build one.

oooh cool! if you could then generate 2d wall cut patterns we could start a new sankei biz!

 

many of the real estate companies selling new small homes have pdf print papercraft model of the home styles so you can make your own paper model if of your perspective house to fall in love with and sign that contract!

 

jeff

[Gunzel]

On 12/15/2023 at 12:06 AM, kuro68000 said:

 

 

 

 

I have a Super Cassette Vision, but am looking for a good original Cassette Vision. Grabbed this game for it. The "cassette" here is what we would call a game cartridge, not an audio tape. The original Cassette Vision is a rare console and unemulated, because it doesn't have a CPU or ROMs for games. Each game is its own electronics, usually a single chip. Like the old machines that had Pong and half a dozen other sports that were all variations of bat and ball. It sold pretty well.

 

The Super Cassette Vision bombed in the market. It was more like what we think of as games consoles, with a CPU, but very under-powered.

Were you still after a Cassette Vision? 
 

 

HARD OFF Kanazawa Nonoichi, a game too: (edit: just realised it looks like its the same game haha!)

 

Edited December 22, 2024 by Gunzel

[kuro68000]

13 hours ago, Kingmeow said:

Having been on JNSForum for over a year I never clicked on this thread due to the title.  "How many stations could this guy have visited?"  Well about a month ago I clicked on a recent post by mistake as I was checking for new posts on the forums home page.

 

My God!!!!!  😲 This thread in insane!  🙃  Once I realize that it's not just about train stations but rather a journal of @kuro68000 adventures across Japan, I was immediately hooked.  I proceeded to start from Page 1, and it took me a few weeks to get to the end.  I felt like I have traveled all over Japan, with some places I recognized and have been to, plus I think I know where every single Hard Off is located in Japan.  🤣🤣🤣

 

As a fellow geek, those old PCs and electronic equipment were my childhood!  I started with an Ohio Scientific Challenger with 4K Ram and cassette drive for storage.  If memory serves me right, it was around the time of the Radio Shack TRS-80.  Also, a photographer hobbyist starting with film back in the 70's by borrowing my father's Fujica ST-701.  Went fully digital in 1999 with Nikon Coolpix 950.

 

Keep up the good work and now I look forward to future posts and pictures of yours.

 

I'm really glad you are enjoying it! To be honest I've been holding back a bit on taking photos in Hard Off and on posting the ones I do have here, but I'll see if I can put a few more up since some people seem to be interesting. Part of it was an attempt to figure out which Hard Offs were the best but what I've realized is that the stuff they have changes so often and is so random that it's largely impossible to say that any particular one is consistently top ranked. That's part of the fun really, you never know what the next one will bring, or what you will get walking through the doors.

 

From memory the TRS-80 was an interesting machine, basically the 6502 reference design for the TI chips it used. The British Dragon machines were the same and can run a lot of TI software with minimal changes.

 

What I like about Japanese machines is their unique ecosystems and loyal followings. I also like that most of them had a split memory design - separate CPU and graphics RAM, with the graphics RAM often being the larger of the two. Most Western machines used a single unified memory system to reduce costs. I even have an FM7 that has two CPUs, one dedicated to graphics. Saw an FM8 and was very tempted, but it didn't have the bubble memory module so I managed to resist.

 

I have so many Laserdiscs now too... Going to post most of them home I think, but if I lived here... Those and VHS tapes, I'd be doing a lot of preservation work!

 

 

12 hours ago, cteno4 said:

oooh cool! if you could then generate 2d wall cut patterns we could start a new sankei biz!

 

many of the real estate companies selling new small homes have pdf print papercraft model of the home styles so you can make your own paper model if of your perspective house to fall in love with and sign that contract!

 

jeff

 

I see so many great houses here, it's unreal. We just can't build anything half as good, only half the size. It just blows my mind how great many Japanese neighbourhoods are. Maybe the UK set the bar extremely low, but when I talk to people there, people who complain about UK towns and cities and want them to be better, they can't even comprehend how good it is here. They really just can't imagine it, and even showing them on Google Street View only scratches the surface. A lot of the stuff that makes Japan good is outright illegal in the UK, or just wouldn't work there.

 

I'm actually really looking forward to this bit of software.

 

 

8 hours ago, Gunzel said:

Were you still after a Cassette Vision? 
 

 

HARD OFF Kanazawa Nonoichi, a game too: (edit: just realised it looks like its the same game haha!)

 

 

Thanks! I actually have a Cassette Vision now, although it is in a bit of a state. It's got some cable burns and needs cleaning. I'll probably pick up a Cassette Vision Jr when I see I a good one going cheap. I have Pakpak Monster too!

 

The Cassette Vision is interesting because the games have the CPU built into the cartridge. There is no way to extract the ROM other than by decapping the chip, and even then the CPU isn't publicly documented, so there is no emulation.

 

Anyway, on to today.

 

        

 

Washinomiya.

[kuro68000]

  

 

Kazo-Higashi. I spotted these blue ceramic parts in these drain blocks. A guy noticed me taking a photo and explained that they were made by a local company. Later I found other places had different ones, presumably also locally made. Really nice touch, I love this kind of thing about Japan.

 

I took a long video walking to Hard Off here, which I will post as soon as the upload finishes.

 

 

 

Whole set of these DVDs, very tempting. If they were Laserdiscs I wouldn't have been able to say no.

 

  

[kuro68000]

  

 

Kurihashi Station.

 

 

 

I'd love to know what these sound like.

 

 

 

I posted a photo of this car last year and the guy still hasn't washed it!

 

[kuro68000]

        

 

Sugito.

[Gunzel]

There was a boxed Cassette Vision Jr. as well as two more boxed Cassette Vision’s at the HARAD OFF Kanazawa Moroe store. Bunch of other weird old consoles as well (TVJack, TVVader). 

[kuro68000]

        

 

Sugito Station.

 

 

Saw this and it was almost perfect. Very light weight. No back straps but I could live with that. It was just slightly too small, wouldn't fit some of the boxes I have in mind. I wish someone made that but maybe with the wheel base folding and some back straps, but even just a larger version of that would be great.

 

  

 

They seem to be building a new platform at Kasukabe Station.

[kuro68000]

  

[Tony Galiani]

Wow - great stuff but I have fallen way behind - hoping to catch up over the next few days.  That video from yesterday is pretty neat though there are some items in there that, if modeled, people would think they are unrealistic!  Looks like a freshly painted wall near the beginning - but only the top section while that lower portion is bare stained concrete.  And that building at about 7:08 looks odd - mostly orange but with the top two floors in lemon yellow - not quite sure what to make of that.

Cheers,

Tony

[cteno4]

5 hours ago, kuro68000 said:

I see so many great houses here, it's unreal. We just can't build anything half as good, only half the size. It just blows my mind how great many Japanese neighbourhoods are. Maybe the UK set the bar extremely low, but when I talk to people there, people who complain about UK towns and cities and want them to be better, they can't even comprehend how good it is here. They really just can't imagine it, and even showing them on Google Street View only scratches the surface. A lot of the stuff that makes Japan good is outright illegal in the UK, or just wouldn't work there.

 

I'm actually really looking forward to this bit of software.

Yes I’m constantly snapping screen grabs of interesting houses from your walks. I find my self saying quick turn to the side there! I wish the metadata made it tru to find those streets and see if Google street view has been down the street! Maybe you should hire yourself out to Google street view and it could pay for the handoff habit. Just a thought. 😜

 

even interesting little yard scenes, gardens stuck in at odd places, odd building angles at weird intersections, and the myriad of ways cars get fit into a place that you would swear it would not fit let let alone be able to get in and out of the car!
 

thank you again for the vicarious travels and the growing mountain of modeling ideas. I’ve been bad and not kept up well with my picture and screen grabbing from your travels and I’m trying to catch up and be more organized as I realize how great many great scenery ideas are in this topic.

 

5 hours ago, kuro68000 said:

Kazo-Higashi. I spotted these blue ceramic parts in these drain blocks. A guy noticed me taking a photo and explained that they were made by a local company. Later I found other places had different ones, presumably also locally made. Really nice touch, I love this kind of thing about Japan.

I was wondering about these. Figured they were for ventilation and also just some more overflow drainage, but also wondered if they allowed a device to clamp in them to easily pull up blocks. I’ve often wondered how the solid bocks used for these street drain covers get pulled up as many times they seem set very tightly into surrounding road structures, gutters, etc,

 

anyhow another interesting bit to add to making printed streets, who knows many be a new etched line for @Kamome442! I now mush have 40+ of your manhole cover pictures now to also sprinkle onto streets as well as all the fun signs mounted in sidewalks.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[kuro68000]

 

Jeff, I'll post a full reply later, but when I edit these videos I do plan to try to add metadata like GPS coordinates.

 

It was really windy yesterday so the sound is bad on this one. Hopefully the Roland captured better sound as it had a wind shield. At one point the wind actually overpowers the gimbal!

[kuro68000]

22 hours ago, Gunzel said:

There was a boxed Cassette Vision Jr. as well as two more boxed Cassette Vision’s at the HARAD OFF Kanazawa Moroe store. Bunch of other weird old consoles as well (TVJack, TVVader). 

 

I will try to get up there! The weather is improving so I'm contemplating trying it. Can't decide if I should rent a car or not. I wanted to try it out with a trip to Yamanashi, but I found that if I rented a car in Tachikawa and spent 1 hour at each store, starting at 9AM I'd just barely have enough time to get it back the same day and avoid an overnight stay. So not really worth it, at least not from a financial standpoint.

 

So what I'm thinking is either drive from Yamanashi north and then west, around to Nagoya, or do it on the train. I'll have to have a look on Booking.com to see what hotels are available. Sometimes you get great deals on off-season ones with good facilities like an attached bath. Man, the one local to my hotel on Asakusa that I used to frequent closed. It was so convenient.

 

 

Speaking of which I found a good case today, but just a centimetre or two too small. It has two compartments inside that can open into one but because of the position of the handle you lose some of the depth and it's not quite enough.

 

 

17 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Yes I’m constantly snapping screen grabs of interesting houses from your walks. I find my self saying quick turn to the side there! I wish the metadata made it tru to find those streets and see if Google street view has been down the street! Maybe you should hire yourself out to Google street view and it could pay for the handoff habit. Just a thought. 😜

 

Some people do make a living putting the videos on YouTube... Dream job really, just travelling and making videos about it.

 

 

17 hours ago, cteno4 said:

even interesting little yard scenes, gardens stuck in at odd places, odd building angles at weird intersections, and the myriad of ways cars get fit into a place that you would swear it would not fit let let alone be able to get in and out of the car!

 

It's one of the things that makes Japan great. No terraces, all custom designed for the plot, and people making so much of odd little shapes. I've looked at home/interior design books for inspiration, but none of them are half as interesting as real life!

 

 

17 hours ago, cteno4 said:

I was wondering about these. Figured they were for ventilation and also just some more overflow drainage, but also wondered if they allowed a device to clamp in them to easily pull up blocks. I’ve often wondered how the solid bocks used for these street drain covers get pulled up as many times they seem set very tightly into surrounding road structures, gutters, etc,

 

anyhow another interesting bit to add to making printed streets, who knows many be a new etched line for @Kamome442! I now mush have 40+ of your manhole cover pictures now to also sprinkle onto streets as well as all the fun signs mounted in sidewalks.

 

I find signage in Japan really interesting. It's much more pervasive and a lot more effort is put into it.

 

Now I have a question for you. Seen today:

 

  

 

 

What are these fan things? They seem to be connected to the electrical grid cables and I don't think they are turbines, they are just spinning in the breeze. But they can't be just fans either, they are too small to have any meaningful effect on the crops, which I can't identify. I wondered if maybe they have water sprays behind them or something, to mist the crops in the summer.

[kuro68000]

     

 

Some interesting finds in Nerima. Picked up the Sumo VHS tape, but left the other two. The Neo Geo joystick I might go back for if I can't find any better ones. It needs some cleaning up but does have autofire. The "Packet Controller" is I think some kind of packet radio modem.

 

 

A Phase Change disc. I have one and a drive now! These were an alternative to CDRs and were in many ways superior. They store data magnetically on the disc, but read back with a laser. It is extremely stable because the magnetic field can only be altered when the disc is heated by a laser on the opposite side to a floating magnetic head.

 

I think in the end the cost made it lose out to CD-RW and later disposable CD-R.

 

 

 

A rare MSX with extra cartridge slots. While most had the standard 2 slots, in theory there was no reason why you couldn't have more. It's just that most software could barely cope with two, or even one - some games didn't work on certain machines due to their memory layout.

[kuro68000]

 

Need to do some more research into this computer kit. It must be fairly early. No keyboard or display as standard, but you can add them.

 

     

 

Higashi-Kurume station.

[kuro68000]

  

 

Musashi-Fujisawa interesting scene.

 

  

[kuro68000]

 

A rare HD VHS tape. From what I understand they were a miracle of compressing the crap out of the HD signal, which was already insanely compressed for broadcast. All analogue, of course.

 

     

[kuro68000]

           

 

The... Megaton? Market??

 

There's something wrong with that book sign too. I thought about going in, but had a bit of an episode earlier in the day. Saw another "used DVD" shop and decided to pop in. Well, there were a few used DVDs, but 90% of the shop was porn. New porn, used porn, just a big wearhouse of porn. Mask on, hood up, swift exit!

[kuro68000]

         

 

Iriso Station.

 

 

A ventilated jacket. On the one hand I'm glad we have this kind of tech as the planet heats up, but on the other hand now people are expected to work in that heat!

 

 

Not sure about this. It has VGA in and out on the side, BNCs with RGB and sync on the other. Just a media converter, or..?

 

 

A year ago I'd have bought this, but I have scanned all my photos now. It's a scanner for slides and film, with incredibly high quality.