Re: [tlug] Ubuntu Laptop Assistance Please + Rant about Akihabara

[Lyle H Saxon <llletters@example.com>]

On Fri, Jun 15, 2012 at 12:42 AM, Raymond Wan <rwan.kyoto@example.com> wrote:
> My first time in Akihabara was in the late 90s.  I can't
> remember 'back then' very well, but I think there were fewer
> large electronic stores scattered across Tokyo.  I think
> this was the pre-Bic Camera and pre-Yodobashi Camera days.
> So, Akihabara was the place to go.
>
> Now, you can go to either of these chains throughout the
> Yamanote line and skip Akihabara all together.  I think
> Akihabara just had to change with the times...

You have the right picture, but the details are off a little.  I
shopped at Sakuraya Camera and Yodobashi Camera in Shinjuku and Bic
Camera in Ikebukuro in the early-1980's, so they definitely existed,
but computers barely did!  Yodobashi Camera was called Yodobashi
*Camera* for a reason!  Their main business was focused on
photography!  Also, back then, basically Bic Camera was in Ikebukuro
and Yodobashi Camera was in Shinjuku and that was about it.  Since
then they opened many new stores, but probably won't be expanding
beyond what they have now due to on-line shopping.  I had some bad
experiences in Akihabara shopping for electronics (not computers) in
the mid-1980's and swore off of the area in favor of Sakuraya (are
they extinct now?), Bic Camera, and Yodobashi Camera.  I didn't return
to buying anything in Akihabara until I started buying used computer
parts for Frankenstein computers.  You would have to go way way back
to be "pre-Yodobashi Camera"!  From Wikipedia:

Yodobashi Camera History:
1960 - Started off as Fujisawa Shashin Shokai
1974 - Changed its name to Yodobashi Camera Co.,Ltd.
1975 - Shinjuku Nishiguchi Store opens (first store created)
1989 - Publishes Yodobashi Point Card
1998 - Internet shopping store opens
2005 - Akiba megastore location opens
Yodobashi happens to be the name of a former town and ward making up
present day Shinjuku ward, where the company was founded.
In the 1970's Yodobashi camera store in Shinjuku sold 1/3 of all SLR
cameras in Japan.

> I lived several years in Kyoto and saw a 5+ floor Maruzen
> there become a karaoke [all floors of it!] and, later, a
> Kinokuniya become a video arcade.  With Amazon being able to
> deliver your order to Lawson, you don't even have to ask
> a courier to re-deliver your order if you're away from home.
>
> Japanese steel and concrete stores will become karaokes all
> across the country!

You may be right, but a lot of former high-class department stores in
Tokyo have become discount electronics stores.  The Yurakucho Sogo
became Bic Camera, the Kichijoji Mitsukoshi became Yodobashi Camera,
the Ikebukuro Mitsukoshi became... what's the name?  Lobo?  Whatever
the name is, it's a large discount electronics store.

What was Bob Dylan's line?  "The times, they are a changing..." ;)

Lyle