Japanese Vacation No.9 (week 2)

[bikkuri bahn]

 

That skyrail looks pretty unique.  The Japanese appear to have managed to combine the most expensive aspects of the two technologies (monorail and cable car)  to create this rare form of transport.  The structure appears to be so over-engineered for such a small car.

The_Ghan

 

It does look unusual, but I guess the "over engineering" is a measure of making it earthquake proof.

Having a cable snap when suspended a couple of hundred feet up doesnt do much good for ones underwear!!

 

Yes indeed.  Apparently it is used as public transport, rather than merely leisure- reliability and extra safety would be important in that case.

[The_Ghan]

 

You haven't spent a couple of hours in Jaycar lately then

 

Angus

 

Yuh, I have.  I only know of two in the whole of Sydney.  The one is York St is small and pokey with a limited range of stuff.  I do buy my wiring and soldering equipment there though, but not electrical components or switches.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[westfalen]

 

You haven't spent a couple of hours in Jaycar lately then

 

Angus

 

Yuh, I have.  I only know of two in the whole of Sydney.  The one is York St is small and pokey with a limited range of stuff.  I do buy my wiring and soldering equipment there though, but not electrical components or switches.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

Jaycar's owners should hang their heads in shame if they saw even a small electronics store in Japan, as should any store owner in Australia if they saw their Japanese counterpart. I think the ones in Brisbane at least, have gone downhill in recent times. I can never take Harvey Norman seriously for a while after coming back from Japan either, and then there's Tokyu Hands, I can't even imagine us ever having a store like them in Australia.

 

The department stores in Japan might have dropped model trains, and now that someone mentioned it, a lot of them toys altogether, you can see where they make their money as you still have to go through six floors of lady's handbags before you get to anything else.

 

On a bright note though, as I was walking down the street from the Sogo store last night I noticed a sign that said "Hobbies B1", so I went down stairs knowing that in Japan "hobbies" could mean practically anything, but it turned out to be a good old fashioned hobby shop, 1/3 trains, 1/3 plastic kits and 1/3 other stuff with a pretty good selection of trains and most price stickers showing discount prices.

[The_Ghan]

Hi West,

 

I agree with you.  I remember spending hours in Akihabara strolling through a mall full of little electronics shops.  Fabulous stuff.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan