I used to imagine that all technology was cheaper in Japan. Unfortunately I now know that that's not the case, especially with the growing trend for ground breaking technologies to come from outside Japan (i.e. the US).
You'll often find things like camera or computer accessories cheaper on Amazon.com than on the shelves in Akihabara - and that's stuff made in Japan!
One thing that I really wish was cheaper is hard drives. The sweet-spot per GB seems to have now reached 1TB, but they're still pretty pricey.
I bought two 1TB USB models today, which set me back about ¥26,000 - much more than I was expecting. Still, shooting video several times a week means I'm burning through disk space - 200GB on Monday alone!
Whenever I buy an external disk, I buy another to match it - I then use SuperDuper to update the backup drives each night.
All hard drives fail, and I personally think that if I don't have at least two copies of something, I have to expect to lose it.
Ideally I'd love a Drobo (google it if you don't know what a Drobo is) - but the price here in Japan is still too high.
I'd love to know what other people do to store / backup data. What software do you use, and what's the cheapest, hassle-free way to get terabytes of hard disk space?
Anyway, time for bed now. I'll leave these disks plodding away through the night.
Joseph
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