Catching up some more -- though not a very exciting week
I just went outside to watch my 9th-grade girls play softball for a bit (it's gym class), that was kind of amusing.
Anyway, the rest of the week...
Monday after work I decided to replace my damn point-and-shoot camera already -- for the last month or two it has had a slight problem... well, not so slight really... where SMOKE COMES OUT WHEN YOU USE THE FLASH. Basically, I drop my camera all the time and it probably goes through one REALLY bad drop per month, and so things slowly start to go wrong with it. It started making weird clicky noises when zooming, and then it started having the problem with smoke coming out, and so on and so forth. Also it always has little flares when you use the flash indoors in less that ideal conditions.
I'll tell you -- my little Canon IXY 920IS was probably the best point-and-shoot camera I had so far. Huge screen, nice resolution, fit in my pocket comfortably, took reasonable photos until it started dying. It was actually the second or third camera I bought here... the last IXY I had before it died after a particularly bad drop where the lens simply wouldn't come out anymore.
But Canon never keeps the same model cameras for more than 2-3 months at a time it seems, so now they have a whole new line of IXY cameras out.
I tried out all of the current ones -- the fancy IXY 50S and 30S, which seem to be geared to people who either want fast photography in lower light, or to people who want a bigger zoom on their pocket camera. I dismissed the IXY 10S right away because I do not care about a touch screen and think it would actually be pretty terrible for my style of shooting.
So that left the IXY 400F at 17,700 yen and the IXY 200F at 11,700 yen.
I actually did not pick the 200F because it was cheaper. I picked it because after playing with it, the controls just felt more natural coming from using the 920IS. I actually think the 200F is a worse camera than the 920IS, but given the price, I'm not sure I care, it just has to last me my next few months in Japan, really.
Or, actually, to better explain: I went to Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara after work. I looked at the Canons a little bit, noted the prices, played with them a little, and grabbed an IXY pamphlet and went to the 8th floor to eat dinner and think about it. I got dinner at the Kanda Grill, which has "western style" food which actually means "Japanese interpretation of western food"; in other words, I got omurice and burger for dinner. I looked through the pamphlet and decided to just go with the 200F and came back downstairs and bought it.
Honestly, I had allocated myself 30,000 yen for a new camera since I wasn't sure what the prices were like now, so getting such a cheap one was kinda nice in a way. And it also meant I could afford to do the other shopping I did that evening -- I stopped in the Tokyo Dome to get the Dragons CL championship photo magazine (the Marines one isn't out yet) and also to get some Hisashi Iwakuma stuff, I figure that even if I decide I don't want it later on, it'll probly be possible to Ebay it, like a wristband and such. They still had a whole bunch of Iwakuma stuff there on Monday night, but Tuesday morning we learned that the Oakland A's won his posting rights, so I have a hunch that stuff will be disappearing soon...
Anyway, so that was Monday night.
Tuesday night I met up with![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
februaryfour and doubt72 in Ueno. The plan was karaoke and dinner, but we ended up doing dinner first, at of all places, TGI Friday's. I hadn't been to the one in Japan before, and my impression is honestly... not impressed. They didn't even have cheese sticks on the appetizers, but they listed having enchiladas with mozzarella cheese in them. WTF? I had chicken fingers for dinner and a brownie sundae which was decent but still not like what you would get in the US -- they had small pieces of brownies rather than one huge brownie.
But I guess it was still amusing to be hanging out at a Friday's a week before those two move back to the US...
After that I had a brief stop in the Yodobashi to test print a few photos, and then the three of us went to Big Echo for an hour and a half of karaoke. It was good, I was trying to sing older stuff that I don't usually drag out; the result being that Doug knew all of the songs but Ai didn't quite so much. (She also picked one of my songs for her very first song, キセキ by Greeeen. It's always a little weird when that happens.) We finished off all of it by having the 3 of us sing Don't Stop Believin and 粉雪 and that was that. Ai gave me her Big Echo card afterwards but we'll see if I ever actually get to use it or not.
Hmm...
Wednesday my goal was to do laundry and clean up a little after work. I got kaitensushi at Heiroku after dinner... I really ought to just stop going there as lately every time I'm there I get kinda grumpy afterwards, I have to order everything that I want, which defeats the purpose of going for kaiten, right? But it's kind of the only option in Akabane. If it were nearer the station I bet they'd get more people and be able to do a wider variety of stuff.
I tried to get/steal a Marines poster from Ito Yokado but they insisted that they have to send them all back to their company, even though CLEARLY the posters are just going to get put in the garbage, they're Marines victory "support sale" posters until 11/10. Sigh.
I stopped by Kaldi and got some chocolate. I just had a craving for it suddenly, so got some Lindt truffles and a bag of Hershey's kisses. Yum yum yum :)
I did laundry, and technically I cleaned my room. But it's such a pain in the ass. I did manage to vacuum the floor at least, which I really needed to do, but it is kind of sad how no matter how much I clean, it seems like the room is still messy and I have too much stuff and I feel overwhelmed by the idea of moving it all back to the US.
I guess that catches me up. I do not have a particularly exciting life. I should really be trying to get out and do more stuff in the evenings, just wandering around Tokyo, but I get apathetic about it because of the idea of riding home crowded trains afterwards. But Christmas lights are up soon and it might be fun to go take photos of the lights around various areas, or something like that. I dunno.
Anyway, the rest of the week...
Monday after work I decided to replace my damn point-and-shoot camera already -- for the last month or two it has had a slight problem... well, not so slight really... where SMOKE COMES OUT WHEN YOU USE THE FLASH. Basically, I drop my camera all the time and it probably goes through one REALLY bad drop per month, and so things slowly start to go wrong with it. It started making weird clicky noises when zooming, and then it started having the problem with smoke coming out, and so on and so forth. Also it always has little flares when you use the flash indoors in less that ideal conditions.
I'll tell you -- my little Canon IXY 920IS was probably the best point-and-shoot camera I had so far. Huge screen, nice resolution, fit in my pocket comfortably, took reasonable photos until it started dying. It was actually the second or third camera I bought here... the last IXY I had before it died after a particularly bad drop where the lens simply wouldn't come out anymore.
But Canon never keeps the same model cameras for more than 2-3 months at a time it seems, so now they have a whole new line of IXY cameras out.
I tried out all of the current ones -- the fancy IXY 50S and 30S, which seem to be geared to people who either want fast photography in lower light, or to people who want a bigger zoom on their pocket camera. I dismissed the IXY 10S right away because I do not care about a touch screen and think it would actually be pretty terrible for my style of shooting.
So that left the IXY 400F at 17,700 yen and the IXY 200F at 11,700 yen.
I actually did not pick the 200F because it was cheaper. I picked it because after playing with it, the controls just felt more natural coming from using the 920IS. I actually think the 200F is a worse camera than the 920IS, but given the price, I'm not sure I care, it just has to last me my next few months in Japan, really.
Or, actually, to better explain: I went to Yodobashi Camera in Akihabara after work. I looked at the Canons a little bit, noted the prices, played with them a little, and grabbed an IXY pamphlet and went to the 8th floor to eat dinner and think about it. I got dinner at the Kanda Grill, which has "western style" food which actually means "Japanese interpretation of western food"; in other words, I got omurice and burger for dinner. I looked through the pamphlet and decided to just go with the 200F and came back downstairs and bought it.
Honestly, I had allocated myself 30,000 yen for a new camera since I wasn't sure what the prices were like now, so getting such a cheap one was kinda nice in a way. And it also meant I could afford to do the other shopping I did that evening -- I stopped in the Tokyo Dome to get the Dragons CL championship photo magazine (the Marines one isn't out yet) and also to get some Hisashi Iwakuma stuff, I figure that even if I decide I don't want it later on, it'll probly be possible to Ebay it, like a wristband and such. They still had a whole bunch of Iwakuma stuff there on Monday night, but Tuesday morning we learned that the Oakland A's won his posting rights, so I have a hunch that stuff will be disappearing soon...
Anyway, so that was Monday night.
Tuesday night I met up with
februaryfour and doubt72 in Ueno. The plan was karaoke and dinner, but we ended up doing dinner first, at of all places, TGI Friday's. I hadn't been to the one in Japan before, and my impression is honestly... not impressed. They didn't even have cheese sticks on the appetizers, but they listed having enchiladas with mozzarella cheese in them. WTF? I had chicken fingers for dinner and a brownie sundae which was decent but still not like what you would get in the US -- they had small pieces of brownies rather than one huge brownie.But I guess it was still amusing to be hanging out at a Friday's a week before those two move back to the US...
After that I had a brief stop in the Yodobashi to test print a few photos, and then the three of us went to Big Echo for an hour and a half of karaoke. It was good, I was trying to sing older stuff that I don't usually drag out; the result being that Doug knew all of the songs but Ai didn't quite so much. (She also picked one of my songs for her very first song, キセキ by Greeeen. It's always a little weird when that happens.) We finished off all of it by having the 3 of us sing Don't Stop Believin and 粉雪 and that was that. Ai gave me her Big Echo card afterwards but we'll see if I ever actually get to use it or not.
Hmm...
Wednesday my goal was to do laundry and clean up a little after work. I got kaitensushi at Heiroku after dinner... I really ought to just stop going there as lately every time I'm there I get kinda grumpy afterwards, I have to order everything that I want, which defeats the purpose of going for kaiten, right? But it's kind of the only option in Akabane. If it were nearer the station I bet they'd get more people and be able to do a wider variety of stuff.
I tried to get/steal a Marines poster from Ito Yokado but they insisted that they have to send them all back to their company, even though CLEARLY the posters are just going to get put in the garbage, they're Marines victory "support sale" posters until 11/10. Sigh.
I stopped by Kaldi and got some chocolate. I just had a craving for it suddenly, so got some Lindt truffles and a bag of Hershey's kisses. Yum yum yum :)
I did laundry, and technically I cleaned my room. But it's such a pain in the ass. I did manage to vacuum the floor at least, which I really needed to do, but it is kind of sad how no matter how much I clean, it seems like the room is still messy and I have too much stuff and I feel overwhelmed by the idea of moving it all back to the US.
I guess that catches me up. I do not have a particularly exciting life. I should really be trying to get out and do more stuff in the evenings, just wandering around Tokyo, but I get apathetic about it because of the idea of riding home crowded trains afterwards. But Christmas lights are up soon and it might be fun to go take photos of the lights around various areas, or something like that. I dunno.
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I have a 100 yen coupon for the place in Shinjuku. Want it?
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Hee! Maybe you should get a camera made out of magnesium alloy? One that's built to last? :)
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It looks like the IXYs come in a whole bunch of colors - which did you get?
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My color selection process is generally "Do they have a nice, rich red? No? Black, please." ;)