Check this out guys:
That's right, it's a Japanese drama show set in the AXT Tower! The cool helicopter shot of the tower was made a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday morning, which I remember clearly because that was the day I had to walk back to the tower to pick up my bicycle, as the front fender broke and made it unmovable. As I was ripping off my front fender at the back of the tower people at the front were shooting this drama show. Awesome :D
I got a laptop today that is smaller than anything available 5 years ago, with a mobile internet subscription that provides me with internet faster than what we had in the Netherlands 5 years ago. Admittedly, I lived in a countryside area, but still. And who would've thought that a notebook battery could last for over 8 hours? I'm impressed.
What I'm not impressed about is the speed. It would seem that even playing a video from my camera or a clip on youtube is impossible. I knew already that the Atom series are not exactly the fastest CPUs, but now I've seen it firsthand. Oh well. I wasn't expecting to play movies on it anyway.
In the end I went all the way to Akihabara (1.5 hours train ride from Atsugi) to get a netbook. The options nearby were just sucky, and I was hoping to score an Asus Eee 1005 from the Yodobashi in Akihabara, which I figured was the one store that should have everything imaginable. It turns out that they didn't have the 1005, but they have the 1101, which has a 1 inch larger screen (diameter), and an battery life of 10.5 hours, according to Asus. I'll certainly be testing that in the near future.
Signing the contract for internet was fun. They've managed to streamline the process a lot since I first came to Japan four years ago. All they need now is your bank card and your alien card (the card every foreigner living in Japan needs to have), and that's it. Sign, wait, leave. Very nice. Interestingly the salesman told me that it was impossible to use Skype on the wireless internet, and that a Japanese OS was required. First thing I did when I got home was try the software on an English version of XP, and it works fine. I didn't try Skype, but VOIPBuster works fine, although the sound quality is notably worse and hitchy when compared to my usual connection. Oh well, much, much better than nothing. Long gone are the days of adventure where you find yourself in the middle of nowhere without any way to contact anyone. Nowadays I could call my parents from hell if I wanted to.
I found this weird tool-like thingie in the box of the internet dongle. I theorize that this is a screen cleaner, and I'm about 3% sure of that. When you push inwards the top white thingie the bottom thingie that looks like a gray tongue comes out. Pushing the silver button retracts the tongue back into the mouth. Fascinating.
Well, that's all for now. I'll probably try to install an English version of XP soon, and the memory could use an upgrade too. Ta ta!
So I've been looking around to get a 3G USB dongle. Basically you get a subscription at a phone provider and they give you a USB stick that you can plug into your laptop to have internet anywhere in Japan. Sounds simple, right? Well, it isn't.
First of all, there's a lot of different providers, and each provider usually offers several different types of contract. Things that differ are the minimum cost each month, the maximum cost each month, the way the cost increases with your usage and the amount it costs to buy off your contract before it finishes. All the offers I've found so far require you to sign a contract for 2 years, which, in my opinion, is way too long.
So far I've found that Au offers a rather crappy service that nobody recommends. There's emobile which seems to be rather pricy, and so far I've found that NTT Docomo provides the best deal yet, with a minimum monthly fee of 1000 yen, and max of 6000 yen.
So why didn't I already get the Docomo deal and post about my happiness from the rooftop with my new wireless internet? The reason is this: if you sign a contract for this wireless internet (Docomo or emobile, maybe other providers too), you basically get a free netbook. That's right. A free netbook. Fairly sweet deal. Except there are lots of different netbooks.
This adds a whole bunch of other variables into the mix. I'll list them here. The choice of netbook brand and type is different for each phone provider and for each store. Some phone stores only offer contracts for a specific provider, and they only have one or two different netbook models available. Other stores have multiple providers but the same limited choice of netbooks. Then there's the big electronics stores like Yodobashi camera, that basically have a larger range of netbooks and contracts available. I think it's probably best to get it from Yodobashi, BIC camera or Yamada denki if you're interested in getting a netbook+internet deal. Note that the more expensive laptops are not free, but you can get a discount if you buy a wireless internet subscription at the same time. Within this provider+store-limited range you have to weigh price, amount of discount, battery life, size, weight, etc. etc.
Learning all of this has been rather confusing for me. Basically a store servant told me that I get a laptop for free, and he gave me pamphlet that clearly stated that I have a choice of four laptops, including the ridiculously expensive Sony Vaio X series (which looks awesome by the way). After researching a bit more I went back to the store and I asked if they had the Vaio available, but they didn't have it and they couldn't even order it. That's how I found out that each store only offers a choice of netbooks that are on display at that moment. Which is not much if you're living in a minor city like Atsugi. I did visit the Yodobashi store before that, and in retrospect I should have gotten a contract there at that moment. They didn't have any of the netbooks on my wishlist though.
I'm looking for a netbook with the best battery life, and if possible a way to install an English version of XP. The Asus Eee PCs seem great for this. They're meant to tinker with. On the other hand, a true beauty like the Sony X series, which is extremely light and small, and has an SSD, is pretty much a lost cause if you want to customize it. It comes preinstalled with Windows 7, and the Japanese version at that. Even if I could reinstall WinXP I'd spend hours and hours finding the right drivers (if they even exist for XP). Another argument against the Vaio is the battery. While I've read online that the X series is supposed to come with two batteries, a small and pretty one that lasts about 3 hours and a huge and bulky one that last up to 9 hours, it seems that in Japan they only sell the X series with one battery, and the salesman couldn't tell me which one. I'd say it's likely that it's the small one though. And don't even think about buying an extra battery from Sony, because they will rip you off and spit you out. Like a guppy.
So the Asus seems like a good choice. There's plenty of drivers and resources online, so it should be easy to reinstall the OS. There's also some topics online of people who swapped the internal harddisk for a solid state disk, which should increase the already long battery life even more (though I didn't read any statements about that yet). And since it's Asus and the Eee series is quite popular, it shouldn't be that difficult to find an extra battery, if I do decide that I need more battery life. Asus is very consumer-friendly, I think.
Well, not sure if that will help anyone, but at least I sorted out my thoughts. I think I'll go back to Yodobashi camera one of these days and get a wireless internet contract and a netbook, most likely an Asus. If you think otherwise, I'd be glad to hear it of course.
Yoi otos#UgvrJ#@*(hgj4w
Four fairly strong earthquakes in less than twelve hours. Japan is sinking, people..
Update: make that five in 24 hours... o_0
Only four years ago. I was a student in a local university in my province. I had a crappy digital camera, didn't know anything about shooting photo's, and coming to Japan had never even occurred to me. Not to mention the fact that I was geeky, living at home, and never went abroad without my parents.From my blog, two years ago.Fast forward to now. I am 23. I have been living in Japan for 2 years. I have grown enormously, as a person and as an engineer. I enjoy traveling by myself, doing crazy trips, taking pictures with a DSLR, and enjoying spending time with international friends. My workplace is great. I work at the 22nd floor of a huge skyscraper without any other tall buildings around. The view is spectacular at clear days. I can see Mount Fuji every day from my room on the 5th floor and my working place at the 22nd floor. How many people can say that they've even seen mount Fuji once? I am lucky.
All I have now is gratitude. That sudden instant, where I realize: "hey, what the f*ck, I'm in Japan! What the bleep am I doing here!?!". It puts things back into perspective, and that is something I have been missing for a long time.
Square bread. Square cheese.
So why is the HAM round?!?!
Some observations about the youth heim, my venerable home in the country of wonder and flying chopsticks.
20+ different kinds of raw fish. Oishii!
I've lived in Japan for four years, and I'm rarely amazed these days at some of the Japanese peculiarities that I come across in daily life, but a couple of days ago was a pleasant and unusual exception. I was sitting in my room in front of my PC when I suddenly heard a melody playing outside, becoming louder and louder, instantly reminding me of an old-fashioned ice cream truck that I remember we used to have in Holland. So I went out on the balcony to look where the sound came from but I couldn't see anything yet. It took a long time until the car where the music came from finally came into view. And it wasn't an ice cream truck...
(Be sure to turn on the audio to listen to the funky beat.)
So... why oh why does a gasoline truck go around in a residential area to deliver fuel to people's houses? Well, nobody here has central heating, so I am guessing that a lot of people will need fuel for their gas-powered heaters for the coming winter. Just leave it to Japan to be: 1. so convenient that the fuel truck stops in front of your doorstep, and 2. plays a happy melody while doing it. Sasuga desu ne...
And while we're on the topic of Japanese quirks, another typically Japanese thing happened to me today at the convenience store. I went there two days ago to buy a bunch of stuff, and apparently they forgot to put the package of cheese that I bought into my bag. (Yes, I'm Dutch, I require cheese to live, even conbini cheese will do). I didn't notice that they forgot to put it in cause I also bought a lot of other things, but today when I entered the store again one of the crewmembers approached with a tiny plastic bag with my previously forgotten bag of cheese inside! I ask you, in which other country can you expect service like this? Amazing.
Edit: just a test to see if blogging from my mobile phone still works. Obviously it does, but next time I'd better rotate the picture..