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recent
I just spent a hellish day in Shinjuku. In order to keep myself from trying to smuggle a gun into Japan and shoot someone, I'm going to have to find some way to justify the wasted time... there must be something good that came of it.
1. I did get a great new camera even though I had decided against it only two days ago. The battries aren't charged yet, so i can only take photos from my window, but I'm already 50,000 yen happy with it. It has 12x zoom... heh heh heeh ehheeeh ehheh eheeh!
It is only 2 megapixel, but I have never printed a photo yet, so I don't think that matters. What really ticked me off about my old camera was that it had only one zoom setting... "far away". This has 12x natural zoom, and 36x digital zoom... heh heh heeh ehheeeh ehheh eheeh!
Another thing I love about this one, is that I never have to use that dang screen that kills the battries in 30 seconds. In my old camera, in order to change any of the settings (long shutter, timer, erase photo, etc...) I had to turn on the screen, and withing 30 seconds of doing so, I was done unless I had spare battries. This camera has most of the functionality I need on a physical dial or button on the camera (as opposed to on a menu screen) and besides that, the view finder also has the ability to review and erase photos without using the screen. I know this takes more power than having a non-eloctronic view finder, but it is still miles ahead of forcing me to turn on that screen to do anything.
I love it so far. Awii loves chewing on all the new cords and cables that came with it too. Check out these samples. They're nothing special photography wise, but I was just playing. The main point is that the first photo in each set is what my old camera would have taken. To take the rest of the fotos, I would have had to move closer and closer to the subject. To take these, I just sat in my masage chair in my window and zoomed in... 12x heh heh heeh ehheeeh ehheh eheeh!
That is one good thing that came from going to Shinjuku today... but that only took 10 minutes because I had already made up my mind to buy it. After that I wandered around to various bike shops looking for wither an affordable bike to replace mine, or a new rear wheel to replace mine. If the wheel cost more than 15,000 yen I buy a new bike, no questions asked.
Unfortunatly, it was just over 10,000 yen to replace the wheel, but most stores didn't have all the parts in stock. This caused me to spend two hours looking for a shop that did. This in itself is not bad. I learned some good stuff about bikes I didn't know before, and got some good tips about where to meet other sea kayakers, but all that value is ofset by the salesmen who would not give me a straigt answer to my questions.
"I know this part is rare. Do you have this part in stock?" they reply, "Ahhhhh I see what you mean... Well, as a matter of fact... this part is very rare." again, "I know this part is rare. Do you have this part in stock?" they reply. "Ahhhh it is rare. I would have to check our stock..." They don't move. "Do you have this part in stock?" they reply, "Hmmm... if you like, I can check for you." I say, "Yes please do. 1,000 pardons for taking your time." They say, "I expect that we don't have it but I can check." I say, "I expect so too, but please do check." They say, "Hmmmm... I will check." They go talk to someone else, without ever checking their stock (aparently I should have been talking to the other clerk) they return to me ans say "This part is very rare." I say "So you don't have it, right?" They say. "It is rare."
I know that I should be able to pick up wether thay have it or not from their first reply, but I'm too American I guess. and they piss me off more than you can know. It was even worse when I was trying to find out if a certain part that was not exactly what I wanted could be used anyway, or if it was physically impossible. Imageine the same conversation, only instead of me asking "do you have it?" I am saying "I don't care which is best, I only care if it is compatible or not".
In order to save myself from the stress and violent urges that come from going into town, I have attached a price tag on it. From now on, if I need anything, and think that I should go to Shibua or Shinjuku to shop around, I am going to place a "5,000 yen per trip", plus an extra "5,000 yen per hour wasted shopping" price tag on going into town. Looking at it from that perpective, buying the new wheel, (which I didn't buy yet because I couldn't get a straight answer about if it would work or not with my bike) would have cost me 11,000 yen for the parts, 5,000 yen for the trip to Shinjuku, and 15,000 yen for the time spent walking through crowds of slow moving people. that's 31,000 yen! Almost a new bike! I think it's obvious that I would have been much better off buying a new bike at the bike shop down the street...
Oh well, ya live and learn.
Do what kind of camera is it?
It's a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1K I got it at Yodobashi with an extra battery and 64MB memory disk for 52,000 yen.... of course if you add in the price of the stress of me having to actually go to Shinjyuku and walk through swarms of slow people, and all the time I have wasted muscleing my way through crowds at the camera counter just to get a look at the camera in the past few weeks, that price is actually more like 112,000 yen!
Kevin,
I wonder at what point we are supposed to pick up on those subtle, non-verbal signals.
Your experience with being told all the information you alreay knew is a very common one, I'm sure.
Gary
It's not that I really didn't pick it up. I knew before I walked into thestore, but I am not satisfied unless I have a distinct, direct "yes" or "no". Unfortunatly, I must have looked like I was going to punch him if e said "no."
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