Jun 2006

Big utensils are terrific. The one on the left is a rolling pin. Yeah, I know!

So we had to go up to Namba for some additional training this Friday past, and we had a couple of kitchen implements we needed to purchase, so we made another trip to Diagon Alley. Seriously, this place has everything you could want for the kitchen and then some. We bought a cheese grater, a butter dish, a kettle and a sink plug. The funny thing is, when we went up to the counter to pay for everything, the man told us (in pretty good English) that if the plug didn't fit the drain, we could bring it back. I could've hugged him. We've had a the most crap time trying to do dishes with a plug that just fits over the drain instead of into it. So now we'll hopefully save on our water bill. I'm pleased about the cheese grater; now I can find some cheddar and have macaroni with cheese.

Oh, there were a group of people who seemed to be handing out free samples of something on toothpicks. I assume if it's on a toothpick, it must be something to eat. So I took one, as I was really hungry and we were on our way to lunch anyway. Everyone (and there were about 20 in this group) stopped and looked at me as I put the green, jelly-ish cube into my mouth and started chewing. Some guy (I can only assume he was a supervisor of sorts) came over and started talking to the guys who handed me the sample, while simultaneously gesturing in my general direction. At this point I discovered that whatever I had put into my mouth could not have been meant for consumption. Or if it was meant for consumption, it shouldn't have been. It tasted like I don't even know what, and had the texture of agarose gel (the stuff microbiologists use to grow bacteria in the lab). This fact leads me to believe that it is some sort of seaweed-derived product. All in all, a fantastic snack idea if you're at all peckish... Anyhow, by this time we had started to walk away, and after chewing for a while, I turned to Andrew and asked for a tissue because "I can't have this stuff in my mouth one second longer." After the tissue I asked for something to kill the taste (after-coffee mints did the trick). Thank goodness we were on our way to Wendy's for lunch, so I could cleanse my palette.

I know a lot of you may be surprised that I've been here this long and I haven't written about electronics yet. So here is the post.

Electronics are fascinating here. There are all the same things as back home, but it's almost one cycle ahead. Plus there are a lot more options here than at home. I was glad that I had to learn that JVC stood for Victor Corporation of Japan because if I didn't seeing the brand name Victor would have confused the crap out of me.

Here are some awesome toys I've seen so far. I took a few pictures in one store before I saw all the signs saying no pictures allowed.

We discovered this display in the basement of the Umeda station the first week we were here. I am standing in front of the 45" Sharp (2" bigger than my TV), the one on the far left is the 55" Sharp and the one in the middle is the 65" Sharp. These are impressive and for a mere 1,200,000 Yen ($12,000) it can be yours.

This is actually the most expensive amp I have ever seen, clocking in at $5000 Cdn. Plus, Sound and Vision reviewed this amp in on for the magazines and was rated for highly. Once you see the back of this, you can never complain about having a lot of connections. Oh wait, here it is.

I took this picture for two reasons. This is the bigger version of my TV. Which is minor compared to the fact that this the exact same demo we had to the Future Shop for the last three months before I moved away. Exactly the same. It had the damn Blue Man Group/Dave Matthews Song, Kill Bill, Master and Commander. Exactly the same. I walked up the stairs and I heard it and I went into full on Future Shop mode. I tried to grab some poor Japanese guy through on track 2, Hero, and sell him the Polk Audio Sound bar. The only problem was, I don't speak Japanese, the don't have any Polk Audio stuff here and I wouldn't have made any money on it. Oh well.

I thought I had taken some pictures of the Monster Cables that I've seen here, but I guess I didn't. I also can no longer complain about the price of Monster Stuff, now that I've seen some of the stuff here. $200 power cords, not bars, cords.

There are two main areas to go for electronics in Osaka. The first one is Den Den Town. It is about two or three blocks (Toronto sized blocks, not Halifax blocks) that are lined with electronics stores. The thing is they are not small little boutique stores, most of them are four or fives levels full of toys. You name it is here.

Here are a couple of pictures, keep in mind that this shot is of only half of Den Den Town:

I have seen a lot of different things that I have not seen anywhere else. A lot of it is Audio gear. They love their audio gear here, which is surprising because they don't have that much space. I went into one store that was just speakers and receivers. It was huge and carried any brand you could think of . And this stuff was expensive. Future Shop does not carry anything expensive compared to this. $5000 stereo receivers. $2000 devices that I have no idea what they do. And $3000 speakers. They have it all. I wanted to hear some of the speakers, but I haven't learned that much Japanese yet.

The other place to go is here:

Yodobashi Camera. This place is 7 floors of Heaven, oh wait, I mean electronics. The thing is that every floor is huge, we're talking Bayer's Lake Future Shop sized huge. And they carry everything, if you want an iPod, a telescope, a computer, a Digital Camera, an electric shaver, a new fridge, a model train set, a fake gun, a Plasma TV, a Home Theatre Projector, to set up a dark room, a suitcase, any applicance, you name it is here.

This is where Courtney will get her new camera. We decided this because they hooked us with a reward card and we collect points on purchases. They probably didn't try for the Yodobashi Camera card because we are foreigners and we wouldn't get approved. Side note: Every big store here has their own credit card. So I guess the Future Shop card concept translates across cultures.

The other thing that is awesome here are cellphones. Except, Courtney's and mine. We got the cheap ones that let us call and text and it only has a 1.8 MB Camera. One of our friends got one that has a GPS, a 3.7 MB camera, it can receive TV broadcasts and I think it can make an omelette, but I'm not sure. The strange thing here is that cell phones are huge compared to back home. Everyone uses their cellphone to send emails, text messages, surf the Internet or play video games. Basically, every cellphone here is a blackberry, but newer and better. I knew I fit in to here when I walked through the station during rush hour, while sending a text message to Court and I didn't slow down or run into anyone. I was quite proud of myself.