sunrise

Are you saying you'll do it for me Thursday? Thanks, snowdude, I'll see if I can get someone to call them but since the parts are quite specialized I'm not sure they'd have them. They do used stuff or just new?

haha, I wish I didn't have to make the request!!!!!! But to get the parts new would cost a fortune. Howzitgoing? I'm pretty genki asides from being a little congested from travelling, (no, not piggy flu!).

I'm hoping some kind soul out there would be willing to help me source some car parts for a 2001 Prius, hopefully from a reliable source. If someone can help it would be greatly appreciated and karma-filled! Or failing that, even if someone can find the nihongo Prius forums (which I assume must exist somewhere) I'll and find a translator to post my query there. This would be so easy if I didn't have to try and do it in nihongo. Here are the parts: HV Battery (G9520-47050) - Battery Computer ASSY (89890-47050) Thanks in advance!

oh well, in that case, just do what indo says - Macbook and iMac, you can't lose.

Where did you find out about the skyliner cutting down to 36 minutes? I'd love that!

Macbook will be fine. I have an 18 month old macbook (2.2gHz) and it does all the audio I need (48 tracks with enough plugins for my needs), and is totally sufficient for all my basic video needs using imovie, etc... Max out the ram to 4 gigs, of course. (don't buy your ram from apple, it's too expensive. Get your ram elsewhere, but make sure it's a decent brand. Akibakan in Tokyo for instance. There must be something similar in kansai.) One thing to take note of - of the new macbooks, only the white macbook has firewire, the others don't. If you're doing video (or audio) and are using

kool. Though he's only 12, and looking at the site it might be too comprehensive for him at this stage to hold his interest, but we'll see. I might have to get it first and check it out, I've been half seriously thinking about getting a cheap axe myself and trying to improve my own not-very-good guitar skills for sketchpad recording purposes, though I'd have to find the time first, but I did take lessons for 2 years when I was a kid, so if I go ahead, at least I'm not an absolute beginner.... At any rate, it looks good, so does the the Learn & Master drums!

So grungy, you thinking of doing some painting then?

yep, and I'm guessing you have to pay every time you call voice mail but I'm happy to be proven wrong about that.

I arrived at Narita yesterday, immigration staff wearing gloves, masks, plastic clothing, and heat cameras at the desks, or at least at the re-entry desks..... A friend came back from the states last week and said they phoned her later on to make sure she didn't have any symptoms.....

I'm going to check those two recs out - my 12 yr old nephew is interested and I'm looking around for things for him sans having a teacher.

Bob Ross baby.... parody: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lurt5FosdB4

bobby: expensive

This is my first car in Japan, I have to say I was astounded at the cost of comprehensive (let alone 3rd party) insurance!

I did the shaken for my Prius (Jef's old one, 2001 model) early last month. It cost something like around 118,000 yen. I have no idea if that's cheaper than it was 2 years ago. Do these cheaper taxes affect older hybrids too?

I have noise cancelling earbuds by Sony, good for train travel, but am interested in upgrading if there's anything better on the market. Any recs? (noise cancelling only please).

I'd never heard of it until I got booked to do an event for it at a hotel on Wed nite. I thought it was just a promotion for the hotel, didn't realise it went beyond that till I saw this thread.

Interestingly enough the fuel charges when buying tickets in yen from here seem to be higher than from other countries. Case in point, I had a flight to Oz in mid Sept on Qantas miles and the fuel/taxes to Oz was less than $200 one way. When I arrived back in mid Oct, I got an email from Qantas, or maybe it was Jetstar advertising cheap flights from Japan to Oz, with fuel/taxes of 60,000 yen plus. I'm sure this wasn't due to the lower A$, since I didn't book my return flight to Japan (when I was charged the fuel/taxes) until a few days before I departed, and I got the email ad only a few days

wow, amazing pics!

I've been using a Braun for years. SG now you have me curious about the sonic, maybe I'll try one.

Melatonin. Pop a couple 30 mins before sleep the first 3 or 4 nights to stop you from waking early (or if you wake you can go back to sleep). I also take it on the plane and try and sleep. Oh yeh, early morning exercise and swimming helps too.

It's hot out here in Chiba again today.

Yup, it really works. Never say never.

Whether you're getting old or you've had bad eyesight for years doesn't doesn't mean you have to give up on your eyesight. You can improve it with natural vision exercises..... google it, there's a lot of stuff out there that I have no idea about but there are definitely some tried and tested methods that really work. I've met people who used to wear glasses that don't anymore including a Japanese woman in her late 50s / early 60s (the docs told her she'd eventually go blind!) and a kiwi guy who wore coke bottles from age 6 and was glasses free 18 months after studying natural vision wit

I'll probably get out of Tokyo a fair bit - will be hanging out near the coast/ocean and nearby lotus ponds in August, and off to Oz for 3-4 weeks mid sept.