Author: Justin

Moving update: House slowly emptying

The shipper came to pick up my two cubic meters of stuff and friends came by to help relieve us of furniture and 100V electronics (Thailand is 220 – 240VAC). We are wasted. The house is almost empty. My beloved hikari line (FTTH) and wireless card are shut off. I’m surfing in seemingly slow motion from a neighbor’s open wifi access point (and sadly, still getting twenty times the speed I will have in the Thai countryside, although, come to think of it, I’ll trade bandwidth for mangosteens any day of the week). I’ll miss B-Flets, but happily take 3 dollar foot massages in return.

Also, my Towers of Power are gone – one (Blacky) in the shipment today, bound for the port of Bangkok on a pallet, and the other (Whitey) in my newly-purchased hardwalled suitcase (note: My PC naming skills are severely PC-inhibited – my laptop’s name is Jappy). I’m using a laptop as my main for the first time in years, and my soul is screaming for a decent GPU. Oh, fuck this, I refuse to fall as far in geek apathy as writing an ode to refresh rates…
…..
BTW, we are out of Japan on Friday. Goodbye rising sun, hello land of smiles.

SDS-WAVE??? (Super Discount Shop rip off)

I ordered a Coolpix for a friend through an online electronics shop a couple days ago after finding the cheapest price on kakaku.com. These are the fuckers in question: http://www.sds-wave.com
This is the camera they sent me:

That’s basically all it can do, is display this initialization screen for about ten seconds before shutting itself down. The shit is obviously broken. Yet, SDS-WAVE will not let me exchange it for a new one, refund my money, or fix it for me. I told them I am leaving next week for another country and they were like, “hey, it sucks to be you, gaijin. Have a good time working that claim through Nikon Customer Support.”
You know what? The joke’s on them. I’ve been on the phone with people at Nikon since yesterday, and guess who’s gaijin-hating ass is gonna get product yanked? Nikon is also making things right regarding the defective product I was sold.
Next thing is to make sure SDS-WAVE’s deplorable business practices are made known to the price sites/boards they are using to dupe people with. Don’t fuck with me, bitches. I’ll go out of my way to pay you back tenfold.
Meanwhile, buyer beware! This is one bad shop, filled with liars, thieves, and men of no honor! Don’t get cheated like I did; go elsewhere!

Leaving a country

…you have lived in for a long time, there are certain truths you must face.
This is somewhat unpleasant, like suddenly feeling queasy after just a couple of drinks at a club, after not having imbibed for months and suddenly acting like a lightweight, and just as inevitable as puking into the gutter. A seemingly long period of wishing you hadn’t done what you did, followed by complete release and relief.

Red Tape

Thanks to three different departments at city hall (including one who claims my wife “does not exist”), the tax office, the social security fund office, NTT, international banking problems, and my landlord, my head is about to explode.
Luckily, living vicariously through the exploits of The Claw operator at the end of my street serves as a good release:


The Claw

Shaka – The Oldest Buddha in Japan


He resides in Asukadera, in the town of Asuka Mura, where I stayed for five months when I first came to Japan 13 years ago. We visited our relatives’ church there a few days ago.
The most amazing thing about this Buddha is that he survived fires and earthquakes that ravaged the very temple built around him – he was the only thing left standing, and the villagers protected him by wrapping him in straw. The current temple was rebuilt for him around 180 years ago. Unfortunately, whoever tried to repair his face did a very poor job of it, but he still projects a lot of power.
He’s the oldest Buddha in Japan.