A Week in Tokyo 12

first off, wow! they let you keep a 30,000 yen item for free?????

so i never have any bad experience with online purchase...*please let it stay that way*
only brought from ebay, hlj and amazon before...

i like the transperant umbrella

and oh yes, i like the river-side picture and the cute scooter

also the pictures of the food you had are making me hungry...ja, off to dinner bye2

Wow, those Sakura trees are still as beautiful as always ^^

Nice office as usual d>_<b

Btw, what's the shelf on the wall, that displayed the figures, called? Been searching IKEA for it and can't seem to find it >_<;

We have something similar to COD.
Only difference is that you pay for the item at the post office and not at your front door once it arrives.
Never had any "nightmares" when ordering stuff online^^".
But I guess it's bound to happen sometime in the future D=

The only problem I have when ordering online is that sometime it takes several weeks for it to arrive. And, the shipment cost is sometimes a headache.

Awesome photos, Danny. I loved the ones in the beginning, the sakura looks beautiful.

The sakura! The spotlessly clean streets! The ridiculously cheap bentos! The sunshine! The mouthwatering Katsu! Dammit, i wanna go back to Tokyo SO bad!
Great pics, sir. If only i could post my own 'week in Tokyo' someday...

As for credit card woes, i only had 1 problem and that was when i tried to book my month in Tokyo (for 3 people!) on expedia last year. It was over 3 grand, and my bank held the payment thinking it was a suspicious transaction. I had a right job trying to get it cleared. In the end, it didnt work, and i had to use my dads credit card, then pay him off after my payment was invalidated.

Hey Danny.

How about enhancing your RSS feed with the Media RSS extension, so that it is compatible with Piclens (see <http://www.piclens.com>, or <http://www.piclens.com/lite/webmasterguide.php> for web developers).

No web mastery witchcraft you might have could beat its beauty and functionality (and, as of now, looking at large pics here sort-of sucks, may I say? –reloading everything for each new picture and having to re-scroll–).

Being able to browse dannychoo.com with Piclens might tear your bandwitdth apart, though, and gone will be all the ads, so consider that too.

Great pics! Sunny days in Tokyo are the best. And I must say, your office is the coolest room I've ever seen! :O

About the buying online thingy, I dunno since my parents become quite reluctant when it comes to ordering something over the net. Wish they sold those Amazon prepaid cards over here.

I never had bad experiences when ordering online with my credit card so I hope it stays that way ( keeping my finger crossed ) ^__^.

I buy anything online from figures,computers parts, electronics items, etc whenever it's possible. The only thing I probably don't buy only is clothing.

Since I moved to Canada, I tend to use my credit card more and more for convenience and credit rating mainly.

Another thing about credit card is that I can dispute the charges in a case, someone else is using my credit card >.>. Never happen so lets keep it that way >.<

Yet a Week in Tokyo posts are among the best posts here, probably my one of my top favorites to view here on the site.

I'd like to someday take a stroll along that river on the way to work. ^^

I am not 100% sure ,but I think that castle building was a love hotel. :D
Nice pictures! :)

started ordering from Amazon Japan only this year, was just trying for fun at first, but ended up buying magazines every month... using debit card to buy.

Hey I thought I inveted the Macaroni and cheese salad? : (

Hey Danny, how do you attach your sos brigade on your dashboard? Glue? Tape?

Love the Hanami sights at Meguro River, I stayed close to the river when I first came to Japan and it was the first blossom I ever saw, totally unforgettable.

*sigh*

those pictures are just beautiful! i need a looong vacation soon :) (and the money. japan isn't that cheap either ;/ ^^)

Cool, Naka Meguro, I pass the station on my way to school :D

Tonkatsu looks tasty.

so far, i haven't had any problems with online purchases...

Always great to read and see these "A Week in Tokyo" especially when there's a few yummy foodies pics in the mix!! ^___^

Hanami looks beautiful especially among the night lights and along the Meguro River. Is that your missus walking along with the bike in front in a few of those photos, Danny?

I fell in love with butter corn miso ramen ever since I had it here: http://www.ichibanboshi.com.au/ just outside of the Kinokuniya bookstore.

I've bought stuff online now and then, mostly games and figures which I can't get here (in Australia). Have had only 1 incident where it was a bit of a headache due to an incorrect address. Don't know if COD is that common here due to the fact that you'd have to be at home waiting for the delivery.

What is konata?

Can't wait to get some Mirai stickers, so I can start some street viral campaign for you!! hahaha

Nice pics there..
I spot something odd in this pic http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/6795/img0252bom0.jpg
If you notice there seems to be ghostly figure of a leg at the bottom right of the picture.
Signs of paranormal activity?? ^_^

AH!! T_T i wanna go to Japan!

I haven't had any nightmares ordering stuff online coz' I don't have a credit card... Wooooo!
Question! Does the castle in the first few pics have any cannons or archers on it?

I used to sell collectible trading cards on Ebay years ago but stopped cos of spam. I don't buy stuff online but my wife buys lots of online clothes with friends, to reduce shipping.

BTW, think the Japan news feed at the left corner is a great idea!

Wow!! That looks so cool.. And your office still looks awesome Danny.. ^^

I wish I could live in Japan to enjoy taking pictures during the sakura season..

ebay. it's cheaper for a reason. ('~')
http://www.dannychoo.com/detail/mac/eng/image/231/eBay+is+cheaper+for+a+reason.html

Got a pre-order messed up at.... HLJ ^^; think they either took in too many orders they could fill or something or mess up the order of filling the orders (some people who did not preorder actually got the dolls first) So those who preordered end up getting screwed over :P

Saw on TV that meat takes longer time to go down the pipe to become poopoo :P approximately 2 days? LOL Salad is hard to fill up the stomach ^^;! They go down the pipe by the end of the day usually (if I din remember wrong) :3

Thanks for sharing the goregous hanami pix!

gah, im so envious of you danny. just one more year and i'll be living there :D

Very interesting read. :)

So far I never had nightmares ordering stuff online. Though I'm very cautious and always do some research about shops I've never heard of before ordering anything and I avoid Ebay, too.

Over here there's something like COD, too. If you aren't home when the goods arrive the delivery guy will notify you and try again the next day. If you aren't home at that time either you can still pay at the post office.

It's the safest way to pay for stuff you ordered online. If possible I always do this. There are only very few online stores that I trust enough to pay in advance and even fewer shops overseas.

the COD thing is very interesting.too bad they dont have that here.would save me from having to call back and complain

Busy week, so to see Danny. The sakura look beautiful over there; ours is just about to bloom so that's nice.
About ordering online, I do it *all* the time. The only bad experiences I've had were with 2 orders for figures from ebay. For one it took ages to arrive and then the figures turned out to be resins (painted though). But they had been dirt cheap so ended up keeping them as a reminder. Other one was with a seller who simply didn't ship and took me forever to get my money back (thank god for paypal's warranty). The latter's seller ended up giving ME bad feedback because I had not communicated. Yeah right....

OT: Anyone else noticed the weird poll pie slices?

http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/2108/huhgr3.png

I've been an avid ebay user for over 5 years now. Out of all the transaction I've completed I've had about 3 duds. Fortunately, I knew the Ins & outs of credit use to assure I could get my money back. Outside of ebay, never had a problem online. Ringo, come to me!

Amazing photos again. I think I enjoy these Week in Tokyo articles more than anything. I much prefer to 'go native' in a country, than just tourist about all day every day.

Oh yes, nice VF-1 too :)

I ordered a Gundam Seed Destiny 1/144 HG Gaia gundam off ebay and it never came. I email the seller and he never replied back, so I just forgot about it....

I order online all the time. I can't say I have encountered anything out of the ordinary. Though I really need to get a hold of that Fauna figure.

Even at cities they still admire nature.....

great photos once again mr. choo choo, I really favor the cherry blossom photos. One question, what is the "orz" in gundam orz?

Hmmm, I had been wondering if Danny shopped at costco. I work at costco here and want to transfer when I study in Japan.

Yes, it happened to me before. The items were gone for no reason couple times when ordering online. =(

is that a first generation VF-1 super strike valkyrie i see there beside the frosted flakes. you have good taste sir.

also, never had trouble buying stuff online, but had a few problems with shipping at one time.

Good articule, and very interesting.

I usually buy a lot of stuff online, and have some rough times with some criminal that don`t send the product or ships the item very late, but isn`t the normal thing, plus is strange that this happens, but if you want and advise, be extremly careful with the sites you buy, or put you data. A very secure way to send money is Paypal, they protects your info very well, and much sites acept paying by this way... Sites like ebay also grants you some guarantie about unfair sellerbuyers...

Good luck with your deals, and enjoy it, LOL

I once had issues ordering a camera from Amazon marketplace. The seller was a fraud. :/ We got our money back though.

I buy online now and then. I've never had any problem.I've bought board games, hardward and sometimes any cool T-shirt.The most Important thing I've bought is my Macbook. I was a little bit nervous since It did last almost 2 weeks and I had already paid for it but everything went fine and I'm a happy Mac fanboi now. ;-)

Wow...they let you have a 30k yen item for free? Lucky you!! I've never had a problem ordering online...the worst I think was it took a month for it to arrive (that's me being cheap and chose the free shipping option XD). The only problem that I could think of when ordering online is product replacement and I just hope that I'll never have to go through such an ordeal.

I like those transparent umbrellas too...I even asked a friend who worked there to get me one when he goes back here sometime this summer. ^^

Those Hanami picts (and even the non-Hanami ones) are great. Any chance of getting some of them in the wallpaper sections (and

hmm, I recently tried Play-Asia. Ordered something cheap to test their system before I go all out.

Seems like they are really slow, 2 weeks and they still have not shipped out my item. Grrr.

No more business for them from me

Got me 3 of those transparent umbrellas during my last trip, one already got stolen,
ToT
I wonder if those amazon cards work outside of Japan, I got me some itune cards from North America once that wouldn't work outside the US.
Love the Macross Valkrie beside the frosties btw. ^^
btw2, could you put this onto the wallpaper pool please.
http://www.dannychoo.com/slide/eng/weektokyo/19404/photo/A+Week+in+Tokyo+12/
looks so absolutely enchanting. ^^;
btw3 did you take off your search on yor site?

Is that Mrs. Choo's back, or are you stalking someone Danny? :P

Anyways, that view... is one of the reasons I still dream of living in Japan.

It was around this date 2 years ago I've been in Japan.

About nightmares while online shopping... I had once on eBay, but wasn't a major thing.

Went through all the process of buying a cellphone, had to open a PayPal account, send several documents by fax and other stuff... and in the end of the process, the seller told me they didn't have the cellphone on stock.

I gave a negative review stating what happen, the seller gave me a negative review saying I was lying.

Needless to say, I'll never use eBay again.

The latest problem I had is here in Brazil, with a big online store that also has a big chain store (called Americanas).

But I'm solving it. Just today I got an e-mail from a big newspaper asking for more details on the problem. They possibly will publish the story if it doesn't get solved in the next few days.

You see, here in Brazil the law is so slow that we have to rely on the media to make our complaints...

I've never used ebay or paypal... but my sis recently had her account hijacked and the scammer bought a $700 laptop. The seller sent us the laptop without checking. The laptop was left on my front doorstep by UPS in a messed up looking box. We didn't open it and refused acceptance. Paypal sorted it out as the user names did not match... the seller was p*ssed and lost 5o bucks shipping cost and tried to get that out of us... later he became anal (via email) so we had to report him.

Pumpkin, pumkin!

I like when you photograph the food you had. Japanese food is really tasty but not as healthy as people think.....

Danny do you care a couple figures when you go out. Cause i just notice that nearly all your good picture has a figure by it. Man i cant wait till i study aboard in Japan...

I've been rather lucky so far (knock on wood) and haven't had any problems ordering things online. I'll have to dig up the site I use to check to see if a retailer is legit.

Quite a busy week there Danny. But then again, with beautiful weather, it makes it worthwhile to just take a brisk walk around the neighborhood.

Locally here in the states, our weather is so mixed up. Some places are warm n' sunny, and here in Tacoma, Washington (cloudy). =.=

To be honest, I did have a minor hiccup with my credit card one time. After paying a bill, the card company took more out. Incentive? Um, at least my bill is paid now. So phew.

Btw congrats on welcoming Mirei San to her new home!

Never dared to ride a taxi in Japan, I wouldn't know what to tell them about destination etc =_= I ride the subway and only the subway so much that I don't know much of the surface direction of Tokyo. If I were to drive a car from Akihabar to Shinjuku, would be a totally different sight than the train ^^;

another fun week in Tokyo

good to bring your buddies along with you for Lunch , i bring my Spartan MKIV sometimes

people at work think im a kid.. LOL
especially working in a hospital

I had a chance to go see sakura with the Japanese club at my college, but it was just way out of the way for me to drive. Thank you for showing me authentic Hanami activities in Tokyo! ^_^ I wish I had had the opportunity to study abroad in Spring rather than Fall.

No bad credit card usages for me, other than this one online vendor I chose randomly to order a Hinata keychain/keitai decoration thing that I had no idea shipped from Singapore. I was pissed when they said I would have to wait 3 WEEKS for it to arrive. >_<

Nice office Danny. Hmm interesting day you had. So do you pick the places to eat or your business partner? The food looks good!

Hanami at night is really nice ^^

only purchased online for once, so doesnt have bad memories

30 000 yen, and they let you keep it for free?! That's some real friendly customer service O_O

I have been ordering stuffs from both HLJ and play-Asia for quite long now. i only experience missing parcel from play Asia once and everything i get in there are limited version. That was the worst nightmare for me and fill with so much hate complaining to the PA. ^^;;; Luckily i got refund.

However, my second attempt ordering is also nightmare. PA also done a very bad job checking their email as i order a wrong figure and request to cancel it after 10 minutes. it just didn't happen and sent out the next day without informing me for changes. i feel disappointed and the stupid US$56.90 figure still with me.

Really like those Sakura! ^.^

Outside my hotel in Shinagawa was a place where folk could lock up their umbrellas before entering the building - is umbrella theft a big problem in Japan?

like the colours of the first photo, very clean. England is overly orange in comparison.

Hi Danny, I just made an account simply to ask you a question.

I saw that you run a dual monitor setup on your MBP.

How do you deal with running your desktop on a larger monitor (it looks like your "main desktop" is on the big monitor and the secondary desktop is on the laptop) when you take the laptop around.

What happens when you unplug the laptop? Do you run special software or something?

Hope you have a moment to answer, if so thanks so much!!! :)

I've been lurking around this site for a while, but I had to sign up just to say... Butter corn miso ramen looks AMAZING. I want :( (Don't worry, I will say more in other areas!!)

wow, I can't believe how bautiful the second picture is. I wish we had a lot of sakura here in Denmark...

My dream work place...^^

Such a wonderful office

I am afraid of buying stuff online but in the end, its really addicting XD especially after I started using Pay-Pal

Butter corn miso ramen for lunch and Udon, and or, Ramen run by mom & pop set ups are THE best reason and way to enjoy Japan off the beaten path. That stuff is wonderful, never forget it.

You just can't beat a night of dancing until 2 AM, get shitfaced drunk, beat up a guy who was trying to rip a pretty girls panties off, then go get two more beers and a massive bowl of Ramen, all before 3 AM.

Gawd I loved living in Japan!

My sister brought 3 of those white transparent umbrellas from Japan last year, then brought one to her office one rainy day, and someone stole it.

That scooter is is absolutely adorable. It does really need a Mirai sticker on it. It looks like it could be an ice cream truck or something.

Manga? *dies* If I only knew how to speak Japanese so I could "borrow" a few of those.