@@UsagiElectric ✋ cool I admire you sir you are mega talented and I am 44 years old but when I was 18 I had to show my ID when I wanted to buy a beer because in the store they assessed me as 13 years old now I deal with pipe computers and I watch your videos with great pleasure they are very interesting👀⭐🏆⭐👍
@@UsagiElectric But you left us So Alone, which has affected my Self Esteem, but I am working on my Bad Habit but It'll be a Long Time before I can also Come out and Play! :D
Absolutely Nobody: Name three enthusiasms that have absolutely no overlap. Also nobody: Vintage computers, rabbit keeping, and Japanese culture. Usagi Electric: Hi!
Three of the four overlap for me even before being introduced to this channel. I did get really into fish keeping and visited some of the famous sites near Osaka, Nagoya and Ojiya. You could get yourself some serious heat stroke visiting in the summer though so make sure to bring plenty of liquids and a parasol because as ubiquitous as convenience stores are in Japan they don’t seem to be around when you really need them outside city centers. If you like race cars and exotics, head to Nagoya. I spent a year there and every day for several months walking to work downtown meant seeing different rare exotics being driven. A dealership a stones throw from my apartment had a 1974 Datsun that had run at Le Mans. An exotic car dealership had one of the fifty Maserati MC12s. While walking home from Kanayama, a gentleman had his garage door open and he was working on his De Tomoso Pantera and next to it a Lamborghini Countach. A final memory was again just walking to downtown Osaka I passed an open commercial garage where I saw a couple Ferrari 458 Italia GT3s being prepped. One more, I met a young man at a church meeting who was showing me how he used Gran Tourismo on his PSP to practice his lines at Suzuka where he drove for a GT team. A few weeks later after the F1 race he brought me a couple signatures of the F1 drivers.
Thanks! The Bendix G-15 was pretty much the entire reason we flew into Tokyo instead of direct to Nagoya, and boy am I glad I did. Seeing the Facom and Univac as well were both just stunning!
Second hand electronics in Japan is generally in very good condition IME, but, exactly as you say, the logistics of getting your haul home does temper the appetite! For radio amateurs looking for an excuse to go to Japan, I can solidly recommend JARL's HAM Fair, an annual event in August, with lots of rare second hand ham radio gear in superb condition.
Same here, even the stuff labelled as "Junk" often times just works when plugging in. You can find some wildly good deals, so much so that you run out of luggage space real quick, haha.
I have a few places I want to see in Japan as well; Mt Fuji, Kyoto, and definitely a day trip to Toyosato (yes, I'm one of THOSE anime fans). But I suspect I will never get to go.
Beautiful Bendix and FACOM, but the Univac takes the cake. I'm certain that the logic modules use thyratrons rather than regular single triodes. If you found a Wang in a Hard-Off, would it become Hard-On? There's just a ridiculous amount of cool vintage stuff inside, and now I guess Western retro tech youtubers affluent enough to travel to Japan are gonna raid them all, haha. I'd get lost in one of those places and not go out anytime soon. The Japanese counterpart of Ax-Man or Apex Electronics. And speaking of typewriters, I wonder if you spotted any Selectric. Of course you had to get those 6AU6! Marketed towards audiophiles. AS-A, a thing of beauty and a joy for ever! Good luck with the deep dive. I wonder what you'll find Waaaaaaaaaay-Down-Insiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide. Cool caves. I always liked going underground. 26:59 that Canola has a lot of edge-lit displays! Just like those used on the Apollo mission control consoles... A thing of beauty, a joy for ever. It would be so cool to see that calculator in action - I wonder if it works.
Just came back from my occasional return to Japan a few days ago to be gifted this video today on my recommendations... I'm stunned on the fact I missed out on all of these thrift shops and museums while being there! Absolutely epic video as said. Next time I better go check those Hard Off thrift stores...
いつも Usagi Electiric を楽しみに見ています。日本へようこそ！ 日本の楽しい動画をありがとうございます。 I always enjoy watching Usagi Electiric. welcome to Japan! Thank you for the fun movie from Japan.
20 years ago (time sure flies...) my partner and I went to Japan on a tour package. Back then I wasn't as into vintage computers and gaming as I am now, so I didn't go to any computer/hardware type places (also while our tour schedule did offer some flexibility, there just wouldn't have been enough time to go to every place I would have wanted to go.) I was (and still am) a huge anime fan though, so we did find some time to traipse through Akiba, which was absolutely amazing. (although since I wasn't as into retro back then, I didn't go to any of the retro gaming/hardware type stores like HARD-OFF, BEEP, etc.) It was the first, and so far only, time, I have ever traveled beyond my local area, and I had the time of my life, and I so desperately want to go back, especially now that I am into retro, and after watching videos such as yours and retrobits' (another RU-vidr.)
Been to Nara too, interesting to see how the deer targeted those who was afraid of them rather than those who weren't. Have some lovely (but unfortunately shaky) footage of that.
Love the plugboards in the Univac 120. I have a bunch of IBM type 912 plugboards and they are similar. My dad programed them using jumpers back in the 60s at Collins Radio. He laughed when he saw one had a metallic cover plate securing the jumpers and said they were the only thing that kept other employees from taking his plates and altering them for their own uses. From the serial number of the board in front of me I'd say they weren't scarse.
I love the travelogue style of this video, you should definitely do more of these whenever you visit Japan, this made my entire Sunday, thanks for sharing this 😎👍
Thank you for taking us along with you on your visit to Japan. Wonderful! A great mix of the geeky stuff and just soaking up the amazing beauty of the place. I loved the deer park. Such beautiful and gentle creatures. We have lots of them around where we live, and enjoy watching them when they decide to come graze in our fields. No getting close to them, though...as soon as they smell our scent, they bound off into the forest. Congrats on the fantastic find of the old Casio AS-A. A rather groundbreaking calculator with a minimalist design that allowed Casio to brag the calculator as the smallest, lightest, and least expensive calculator on the market at the time. It came with some compromises in order to shrink the electronics down to 35 ICs and a handful of discrete components, though. I have some information regarding the Casio AS-A/121-A that you may be interested in . Blessings to you, RIck B. from The Old Calculator Museum.
I lived in Yokosuka in the early 90s while I was in the Navy, and made frequent trips to the Akihabara district of Tokyo. I was always looking around the used electronics shops and looking at the amazing Japanese computer systems that I'd never seen before. I remember the Hard-Off stores!
Hi David, I enjoyed your video, lucky I didn’t see all these retro collections before my holiday as the family had other things planned. I noted the car and clock museum as I have a synchronous IBM “International” clock and I saw one in the Hotel Nara. I did visit Akihabura though to look for retro junk!😂(a bit wet and humid in early July; - May and September probably better).
One of the most hilarious things I've ever seen in Japan was the wild deer on Miyajima wandering up to tourists and eating their maps ;) There seemed to be a lot less of them when we were there back in January (at least compared to the last time we were on Miyajima which was about 2014 IIRC).
Back in the day, the only way to get to Matsuyama was by ferry... but that was a LONG time ago... Also, if you like deer, try Miyajima. Glad y'all had a good time...
Oh man, those thrift stores look awesome! I wish we had something like that here in Australia, but instead I'm forced to buy off Yahoo Auctions Japan via a proxy buying/shipping service, which does work out cheaper if you hang out for a bargain, but they're not amazing deals. A few weeks ago I picked up a Game Boy Color [sic] and Game Boy Advance for a "reasonable" price (only slightly more including shipping than you'd pay for either off eBay Australia). The GBC worked fine and I used it with an OLED screen upgrade kit, which worked great. The GBA didn't initially work, but then I disassembled it and it magically started working. Could've been a dodgy power switch, and cleaning the board with IPA may have helped bring the switch back if some got inside. Anyway, I guess the sights were pretty good too. Glad you had a great time.
Getting poetic at the start of the video. Japan is easily the top 3 places I would like to go. It seems like a fascinating place with a fascinating culture. I would love the electronics malls. Would hate what it would cost to ship everything I bought home. Thanks for sharing the experience.
Hah, that first shot of Hardoff in Nagoya used to be my go-to location. That SFC in carrying box has been there for a while and I had been tempted to buy it a few times. The Fujitsu Oasis has been there for about 2 years, given the price point.
I'd love to go there. You even showed us a Facom! I'm a tape TV production gear guy, not as much computers (though I like any tape or media machine) so I'd love to go there several times, especially if I know anyone there.
Cool video. I used to live in the Okayama/Fukuyama and spent time at the IPU in Okayama so its a bit of a trip down memory lane. Funnily enougth I also have family in Nagoya
I'm sure I recognise that woodland gorge area from the (way too many) Japanese otter videos I have watched. I would love to go, not just for the tech, but the gardens, countryside, historic bonsai and the overall culture.
@@UsagiElectricI found it in the end (Noda), just returning back to city, fantastic place, lots of calculator history. Well worth the visit, the people especially were so nice!
Hey! I collect old calculators. It is nice to see an old old AS-A. I have several of these, one new old stock still in its string sealed box, as well as the AS-B it's slightly thinner and newer replacement. Have you had it apart yet? Work of art inside.. Magnetic reed switched keys too! They came with some black vinyl dust cover for the calculator too but the only one I have is with the new old stock one so I guess they were often discarded. This was built before casio developed it's LSI (If I recall correctly they were the first to really integrate everything!) so it's made up of around 40 individual chips, none of which should be too challenging to replace if needed. The layout of the calculators two boards is also pretty well thought out, the logic is on the sub board and the driver stuff is on the top. Since you have some signs of life you most likely have an issue on the top board, probably around the driver transistors, which are all individual. The two boards don't use an edge connector though like the later models do and are instead joined together by about 40 wires so just be extra careful when you take it apart as it's easy to break stuff on them. Look forward to see it coming back to life!
Natsukashii! I used to live on Uchinaa (what the natives call Okinawa) as a child, and would recommend, if you haven't already, that you visit Japan's newest prefecture, Okinawa. The vistas you showed us in Japan are very beautiful. I can't believe you found a Bendix G15 there, and what it was used for was even more incredible. There's so much to see and do, and it takes me back to about 12 years old to see it.
Funny... A few years ago, a family member would bust out a slice show on their vacation and force people to watch... Now 5,000 flock to watch the same thing on RU-vid 😂
