The Cable Caddy

I don't quite know when, but at some point in my life I started getting sick of chargers for everything that I buy. Why does everything have to have a special charger?! Why can't they make some kind of standard size for that crap like they did with USB. Why must it all be so different, and such an emormous waste of space. It's like I'm living in a jungle of wires!

My solution: Using scrap laminate wood I had left over from a rack build (for rack gear) I did a while back. Truth be told, I built this quite a while ago. It has saved quite a bit of hastle and really saves space. I'm sure if I spent more than 20 minutes making it, I might've come up with something a little bit nice and intuitive, but I had reached my limit, and what happend happened.
The basic design is based on a power strip underneath a box which consists of 8 plugs for crap to plug into. I some how managed to fit all the semi wall warts of our cell phones and camera chargers and what-not-doo-hickies. The jungle of wires is mostly contained underneath. I had to tie up and tape down some of the wires to prevent them from "afroing" out thus launching my creation into deep space. I added a rack-like layer at the top to create more docking space for big charger things. As you can see, we also use it as a place to keep our nail clippers, so we don't lose track of 'em.

I have to say, though... my wife and I got a DSi recently, and it has a different plug than the DS... what the hell? Who decides that these plugs have to be different for every minor new edition of some hardware. Just make a choice and stick with it. You'll lower everyone's blood pressure that way. It's not like I'm gonna go out and buy your charger again if it breaks on me-- count me out... you can bet I'm gonna be looking for the cheapest Chinese replacement to tide me over until your crappy hardware breaks and I move on from that, too.

To make a long and stagnant story short, this device has saved us some hastle, but I do believe that I will have to make a new one in a year or two to come. The moral of the story is to make one of these guys as big as you can and store it somewhere easily accessible and as unobtrusive a place as possible. Get the biggest honkin power strip you can (with plug space on the side and on the top). Get a switchable unit to turn it off when it's not in use to save a slight amount of power (which may be debatable).

If I still lived in America, I'd feel obligated to write a letter to congress to pass some kind of law to get power cables for electronics to reach some kind of standard. I'm sick to goddamned hell of dealing with so many different power cables and wall warty non-sense. I thought that's what we were partying in 1999 about... getting rid of stupid things like this. So much for the 21st century of Back to the Future II.

Hobo Nichi Techo

It was some time last year. I somehow discovered that Itoi Shigesato had a website. On that website was something called a "Hobo Nichi Techo", which is essentially a planner.

It was around November of last year when I first discovered the Hobo Nichi Techo. I became interested in getting a new planner because... well frankly it was almost the end of the year, and my current planner at the time was running out of space. I had just gotten Mother 3 for the Gameboy Advance at the time and so I must've been looking for information on its creator, Itoi Shigesato, on the internet. I stumbled upon his website which, given the time of year, was really pushing the Techo. I was a little bit iffy about ordering one from online, as seeing them in person would give me a better idea of which one I really wanted. The problem is, seeing one in person was a problem considering where I live-- Toyama. I had plans to see my school's brass band perform in Osaka at the end of November, so things kind of worked out. I waited and waited, and one day my girlfriend and I were finally in Osaka, looking at what would become our new planners.

Here is a video posted by Itoi Shigesato featuring his Hobo Nichi Techo on youtube:

I absolutely love that video for some reason-- and the song, too. Anyways, as you can tell by my pictures, I got the safari beige color, with the "cool" looking stripes on the pen holder on the side.

Anyways, I have had mine for over half a year now, and I wanted to post a semi-review of it. In short, I think it has worked out great for me. However, I think there are quite a few reasons why it's not very approachable (particularly to non-Japanese).

For starters, I really like the simplicity of it. The books themselves, as you can tell by the video, are mostly all very interesting. I quite enjoy the color I chose, although it has admittedly faded and gotten a little dirty with time (on the outside). My girlfriend got the red one, which is a nice color as well. I particularly like the designs of the two-tone "Cousins", but they are a little bit too large for what I need.

The planners are filled with little pockets and slots to fit all kinds of things in, from business cards to nearly paper thin calculators (incidently made by Itoi's company). They also sell additional books to what would be the main planner. I bought a weekly schedule planner book and a set of 3 simple "note" books. I have to be honest, the weekly schedule book is a waste of money, as it seems to be exactly the same as what's in the main planner. I found the note books to be the best part, though. The note books are simply smaller books filled with pages of blank graph paper. I use one of these books to do my finances in. I mark how much I've put away every month (and for what particular purpose), I keep track of my gas milage, I keep track of how many coins I save, and also keep track of my bills and work expenses. That all fits snugly in the inner page of my techo, which is really handy (don't get too excited, as there's no personal information in it besides yen symbols and numbers). I also bought what the Japanese call a "Shitajiki", which is basically something hard to put under the paper that you write on. I also found it convenient to make my own little cards to keep up with my class scheduling (which remind me strangely of old-school library book checkout cards).

The planner part of the set, or what is basically the meat and potatoes of this thing, is wonderful. They sell two versions: A weekly planner starting from Sunday, and a weekly planner starting from Monday. It was brought to my attention by my girlfriend that starting from Monday is actually more traditional in Japan. As a teacher, it is quite convenient. Going vertically down the page, the time is revealed (on the left side). This works out great as I can write down my class schedule for the week ahead of time and kind of figure out when I'll have time to make lessons or have meetings with other teachers. It is also nice because I can plan out what I will do before and after school. On the right side there is extra space to write in detail what you will do, or if you have done it or not. It also has check boxes on the top of the page to help you make goals for the day. At the bottom of the page there is some blank space and lastly a short story or anecdote from famous people, a random person, or even from Itoi himself (in Japanese). Some of those are actually quite funny.

At the beginning of the planner book is a calendar section to make long term plans and have a big calendar to look at. At the back is some space to make weekly schedules and some blank pages for notes.

One reason why I think these are a little bit inaccessible to non-Japanese is... well, it's all in Japanese. That takes away a certain dimension of the experience. Another thing is that all the pages are graph paper. It really helps to make well thought out ideas; but only in Japanese. Writing in English on graph paper is frankly a waste of space. There simply isn't enough realestate to jot down even the simplest ideas. In Japanese, though, you can. I have to say, though, that the boxes are a little bit on the small side (although this changes from year to year based on customer input, supposedly). I could imagine, though, that if you have a short hand system, you could probably get along really well with one of these. It's small and compact and I think quite stylish. It has two book markers for quick navigation-- I use one for my day to day business and another for the calendar section to get a big picture.

Something that I have noticed since I have started using my techo is that when I don't have classes at work (like during summer/winter/spring vacations), I simply don't use my techo that much. When I do have classes, I use it quite often in a day. At home, I find that I rarely use it for scheduling and more often than not use my note book to help keep track of expenses and savings. The beauty is, though, that it's all there. There's even space for my pen. It's like a computer that you don't have to plug in or start up and shut down. It's a funny thing to think like that, but having grown up with computers, I often lose track of the convenience of a pen and paper to get down ideas quickly.

A funny story about my pen, by the way... my girlfriend and I got married recently -- on my birthday incidently. We were at the city hall filling out some forms and I guess I must've forgotten my pen there or something. We got a call from them a few days later saying that I had forgotten to sign something. I went there and signed what needed to be signed, and on a whim asked if they had seen my "multi-pen". The man stood there with a well expected dumbfounded look on his face as I scanned my surroundings only to find my pen sitting in one of their pen holders. I explained to the man that there was a high chance that it was my pen, and upon taking a closer look at it, I realized that indeed it was. I retrieved my pen and my wife and I drove home. In retrospect, I suspect that maybe they had accidently collected my pen which caused a hiccaugh in the process making me forget to sign that last document! Yikes! I'm happy to say, though, that my pen is back in its Hobo Nichi home at long last.

The Obama Burger (Fukui Prefecture)

Last year I made a trip to Fukui Prefecture with my girlfriend. We went sometime in July and did some sightseeing. We saw what is arguably the oldest castle in Japan- Maruoka Castle. We also stumbled upon a nice little place called "take no ningyo", which was a place where they make dolls out of bamboo-- the main theme was bamboo, so much so that they even had bamboo flavored ice cream available to eat (which was refreshing, and much like green tea ice cream). We then took a trip to the famous temple called "Eiheiji". Outside of which we waited over 15 minutes to take a picture of a buddhist statue with a frog statue next to it, as there was a man blocking the view (he had been praying at it since before we got there, and when he moved, he was praying at it from a distance. When we left, he went back to praying at it from his original position... he might've been there for more than an hour). We then found our way to something I was really looking forward to seeing. It was a place called Diamond Beach (水晶浜). It was like paradise, we swam around and watched the sun set over the water, much like the Californian coast to which I am accustomed, only the beach was much much cleaner. It was too far out of the way, and plus they were going to close before we could get there-- a town called Obama. We saw them in a magazine: The Obama Burger.

We always said we'd go back some day to get the coveted burger of Obama. This previous weekend, we had our chance. My girlfriend and I had some business in Osaka to take care of, and we returned home on a Monday. They have special deals on the weekends for the freeways (which are actually toll roads here), but those special deals don't apply to weekdays. We made a point of doing some sightseeing on the way home by means of avoiding toll roads by driving through some small towns we wanted to see. Since we had such a good time in Fukui last year, and because we wanted to try the "Obama burgers", we set our sights on the small town of Obama, which is located on the tail of Fukui Prefecture, just neighboring Kyoto.

The toll road we took to Obama actually ended there-- the road suddenly turned into a regular street, and we found ourselves on a wild goosechase. We decided to take it to the locals. Our first stop was a convenience store-- to which we had a slight detour in what was the most narrow street I've ever driven on (my tires were scraping the curbs part of the time... on both sides). The street ended up being part of a shrine-- which was interesting, to say the least. The shrine looked run down and the road looked like it was in slight use, as there were cars on either end of it. Anyways, we asked the convenience stores straight up if they knew where we could get the burgers. The response: "Obama burgers?".

There was a quick exchange between the elderly women-- "oh! I know, it's across the street from the post office over there, right?" "NO! That's Mos Burger!!"... "oh really??... wait, it's over there by the station, right? next to the cafe?" "that's McDonalds!!!". Everyone had a good laugh at the lady's expense.

We looked at any travel magazines or maps they had available, but to no avail. One of the women offered to call the city hall to investigate for us. The worker at the city hall suggested a souvenir shop down by the fisherman's warf. They drew out a map for us and we drove down the road for a good 30 minutes (at approximately 60 km/h) before seeing the next convenience store-- the one at which we were instructed to turn at. We turned... and turned... and turned. We couldn't find it. We asked one of the local fisherman if he knew where the place was, and he pointed the way. Just for kicks, we asked him about the "Obama burger". After about 5 seconds of cold silence, he replied "what?". We thanked him and drove away. After parking the car on the side of the road, we entered THE building. It was decked out in Obama/Obama memorabilia... that is to say all kinds of crap you don't want representing both the town and the President (of the United States). We proceeded to ask the lady at the front desk about the "Obama burger". She thought that maybe she'd heard of it before, but wasn't sure. It wasn't looking good, as this was the building called "The Food-Culture Center of Obama". We had one last chance-- the souvenir shop keeper.

Clerk: "We stopped making those about 6 months ago."

*Pause for shock*

Us: "Wait... how come? We came all the way from Toyama... well, we're actually on the way home from Osaka"

Clerk: "The truth is...................................... they weren't very good"

Us: "it took us forever to find this place! Nobody knew about the Obama burger, we asked all over town (half laughing)"

Clerk: "In fact, they were terrible"

Us: ...

Clerk "Take a look at the picture"

So that was the end of the Obama burger, of which remained only a picture of 2 buns in whose 'inbetween' resided something riminiscent of the Science Diet Dog food that my grandma used to feed her poodles. It was sheer and utter defeat coupled with hilarity strong enough to cause a new outlook on life. The search was over, it was time to go home.

We hopped back on the highway and drove off into the sunset-- quite literally, as it was just about 6 PM by the time it was all over. We had half a tank of gas, just enough to get back home.

My "Apple on the table" (500 Yen Coins)

This is what an explosion of Japanese 500 yen coins looks like.

Although things seem to be changing recently, Japan is much more-so a cash-based society than California was. One of the more interesting things about Japan is that they have coins that are worth a surprising amount of money-- the 500 yen coin: The king of coins. They go about as far as a $5 dollar bill would get you in America, which really says something considering the biggest coins in regular use in California seem to be quarters (there are $1 coins that the blue line ticket machine in long beach seems to crap out on purpose, but they are more often than not mistaken for quarters-- the Susie B's, that is. The Sacagaweas are gold, but apparently not very blind-people friendly as their dimensions don't differ too much from the good 'ol quarters). Japanese have 1 yen, 5 yen, 10 yen, 50 yen, 100 yen, and 500 yen coins. With that aside, the 500 yen coins are truly beasts among beasts in the world of coins. That means dropping one and seeing it roll into non-existance is quite a shocking experience. It also means that getting one is a bit of a special occasion, especially if you get the older silver kind!

My first encounter with the 500 yen coins was when I came to Japan in the summer of '07. It has been long enough to almnost forget the disbelief I had in what was basically a $5 coin. I remember having pockets full of coins during my travels and feeling very uncomfortable with the fact that it was topping $30 or so buckaroos. If you plan on going to Japan, I recommend getting a coin purse, man or woman, to help prevent coins, such as the 500 yen coin, from flying out of your pockets when you go to reach for a train ticket or something.

After moving to Japan, I had been spending quite a bit of money. I had decided some time after the first few months that maybe I could save some of my 500 yen coins to kind of justify some of my spending. The idea had come to me when noticing a section of 500 yen coin banks in the 100 yen shop. I bought one that went to 3000 00 yen, which was quite big as they normally go to 1000 00 yen. I started saving my 500 yen coins and it quickly became a passion. I was determined to never use 500 yen coins. I would try to make sure that my change when shopping would round to about 500 yen as to obtain more of them. My hobby, I guess you could call it, ended up expanding further. I started saving all of my coins... and I can tell you that 100 yen coins are the ones that add up without even trying. I have since become a little more lenient and have decided to use my 1 yens, 5 yens, and 10 yens to help me obtain more 50's, 100's, and 500's. I think that is a good policy and anyone who is looking to save money while in Japan should look into saving your coins. They may be small, but man do they add up.

My 500 yen coins especially started adding up. My "Apple on the table" bank had become quite hard to pick up with one hand. Before I knew it, I had to shove the coins in to get them to go in. Soon the big question arose: "To break the bank, or not to break the bank?" I had that feeling a couple of times in the past, but held back in fear of opening it and counting my coins only to be very dissapointe that I didn't quite pass the finish line of 3000 00 yen (roughly $3270 as of this writing).
It was a moral decision, really. At this point, I'd like to lie and say I couldn't make the decision... and then suddenly my red "Apple on the table" bank exploded like some kind of 500 yen coin volcanic eruption. Refer to the picture on the right for this fantasy in more in-depth detail. It wasn't something I could choose, it just happened.

I dumped it all out on my floor in my "washitsu" and took a bit of time to aw over the shiny metallic mess I had made. It was like the treasure of some sunken ship-- I'd be one to believe the weight of the coins could sink a ship, too. I feel a bit like Uncle Scrooge on Ducktales by saying this, but I've grown quite accustomed to the sound of 500 yen coins and really enjoyed the sound that the waterfall made that sparkled in the colors of Copper, Zinc, and Nickel that came out of the busted tin from which it all errupted. The harshness and rawness of the coins was quite a juxtaposition to the relatively flimsy and soft paper money or lifeless plastic money. I couldn't say as much for the 1 yen coins, though, as those seem as cheap as monopoly money when compared with american pennies. With that said, though, I'm inclined to believe they are actually worth their value wheras pennies are notorious for costing more than they're worth. The 500 yen coins are really something to behold, especially in this number!

I always get cases for my coins to make them easy to count. It was my first time getting cases for 500 yen coins seeing as how I'd always just empty my pockets right into my "Apple on the table" bank. They are a bit bulkier than the 100/10 yen cases, of which I have the most. It's interesting to note that each case of 500 yen coins can hold up to 250 00 yen. The 100 yen coins only go to 50 00 and the 10 yen ones go to a laughable... 500 yen. That's kind of why I stopped saving 10 yen coins. The cases cost 100 yen for 3, and spending 100 yen to store 15 00 yen seems like a waste to me. The 50 yen coins are border line with their 25 00 limit. Anyways, I went out and bought 12 cases--4 packs of 3 for my 500 yen coins. I was quite worried about not filling them all up, but slowly but surely things were looking good. I admit, I got quite nervios in the middle as I wasn't sure I'd fill'em all. When I got to my last 3 cases, it was quite exhilarating... when I got to the last case, it was obvious, I had done the impossible. The "Apple on the table" had done me good, real good. I ended up with one coin shy of an extra 400 00 yen.

I was very satisfied with the performance of the "Apple on the table" and am so satisfied that I will use the 1000 00 yen version for my next run, which I believe is called "Orange on the table". In truth, there are two versions, and next time my girlfriend and I are going to race each other. Seeing all my coins like this in containers reminds me of some kind of domesticated what-would-have-been wild beast. As I have said the name umpteen times, you have probably understood by now that I really loved my "Apple on the table" bank and while I somewhat regret the erruption that happened, there is something almost poetic about it-- in a weird kind of way there is beauty in the consumption of the bank after it has served its purpose.

It took about a year and a half to fill it up. By use of math and deductive reasoning, I'm going to put my next bank, which will be a third of the size, at just around a year. I'll tell you all about it.