This FAQ is a work in progress – a volunteer effort which can't be guaranteed to be complete & up to date – your comments, suggestions, and criticisms are welcome (e-mail me).
Types of shops in and round Akihabara Akihabara (pronounced Akihab'ra, sometimes shortened to Akiba) used to be many small parts shops, with some electrical consumer product discount department stores. (History). Then computer superstores like LAOX, open until as late as 9 pm, started up. LAOX still has one of the biggest duty free stores in Akihabara. New competitors include Yodobashi camera's superstores in Nishi Shinjuku & Akihabara, also open until 9 pm, and Bic camera's superstore in Yurakucho. T-Zone has downsized from a computer department store with English hardware and software to a computer parts store open until 8 pm. Small discount stores with very competitive prices on notebook computers, desktops, peripherals, and digital cameras, include PC Bomber, OutletPlaza, Otto, e-Trend, Radar, Atom and A-Class. DOS/V Paradise is another good parts shop, but (like T-Zone) seems to have found that having small shops everywhere can be a big drain on resources. Onoden is good for home appliances, and Sato Musen has branches everywhere.
Some products and prices
New Digital Camera comparison matrix!
For digital
camera reviews, the best sites are probably Digital
Photography Review, Imaging Resources,
and Digital Camera Japan (in
Japanese). The Fuji 6900Z with x6 zoom was superceded by the S602 and then the
S7000 (now competing with the high-end Sony x5 zoom 9Mpx CMOS-sensor DSC-R1
at about ¥90-100,000), and newer Fuji models include the x10 zoom 9Mpx
S9100 and the x10.7 zoom
6Mpx S6000fd (an upgrade of the S5000 of August 2003) both announced Sept. 2006
and priced
at about ¥60,000 and ¥50,000,
both competing with the new x12 zoom 6Mpx Canon S3
IS with Image Stabilization
at about ¥40,000, the Panasonic x12 Zoom 6Mpx DMC-FZ7 and
x12 Zoom 10Mpx
DMC-FZ50 with Image Stabilization at about ¥35,000 and ¥61,000 respectively;
the x12 Zoom 7Mpx Sony DSC-H5 is about ¥55,000.
The new compact x3 zoom 6+6Mpx ISO 3200 Fuji F30 is about ¥33,000, competing
with the new compact Canon x4 zoom 6Mpx IXY 800 IS (SD700 IS) with Image Stabilization
at about ¥32,000.
Panasonic has the ultra compact x3.6 Zoom 6Mpx DMC-FX01 at about ¥31,000
(plus newly-announced DMC-FX07 and DMC-LX2), and the x10 Zoom 5Mpx DMC-TZ1 at
about ¥31,500,
both with Image Stabilization. New Sony x3 zoom ultracompacts with image stabilization
include the 7Mpx DSC-T30 at about ¥35,000 and the 6Mpx DSC-T9 at about ¥30,000.
(Japanese Canon and Panasonic digital cameras are generally switchable to English
mode).
Nikon had the 10x zoom 8Mpx CoolPix 8800 with Image Stabilization.
The 8Mpx Konica-Minolta DiMAGE A2 with 7x zoom & Image Stabilizationwas about ¥88,000.
The new ultra-compact 3-CCD Panasonic NV-GS500K video camera is about ¥69,000,
and the NV-GS300K is about ¥57,000.
Fujitsu's NB18C/T and its predecessor NB18B notebook PC have 15" display, 1.8 GHz Pentium 4-M, 256 MB RAM expandable to 768 MB, 60 GB hard disk, TV tuner and DVD-R/CD-RW combo drive, modem and LAN ports, 4 x USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 (Firewire), two PC card slots and SD card slot, 1.8 hour battery life, weigh 3.5 kg, and discount to about ¥216-228,000 – but the NB16C/T Celeron 1.6GHz version with 40 GB hard disk is about ¥175-183,000. The new summer-model 1.8 GHz Celeron replacement with TV tuner and 1.9 GHz Pentium replacement without TV tuner both discount to about ¥202,000. The compact, lightweight (1.75-2 kg) MG12C/M notebook has 13.3" display, 1.2 GHz Pentium III-M, 256 MB RAM expandable to 1 GB, 60 GB hard disk, DVD-R/CD-RW combo drive, modem, LAN and wireless LAN, 2 x USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 (Firewire), one PC card slot, 3.2 hour battery life (6 hours if you swap out the DVD-R/CD-RW combo for a second battery), and discounted to about ¥215,000. The summer-model MG13D 1.3 GHz Centrino replacement costs about ¥193,000. and has a x2 DVD multi drive and 4.5 (8.2) hour battery life. The autumn model MG70E costs about ¥234,000. The summer model MG17DA 1.7 GHz Athlon XP-M model with CD-RW and 40 GB hard disk and 3.1 (5.7) hour battery life for about ¥154,000. Representative desktops include Fujitsu's new C24C/R 2.4GHz or predecessor C20SB/M 2GHz Pentium 4 with 256 MB RAM expandable to 1 GB, 120 GB hard disk, TV tuner and DVD-R/CD-RW combo drive, modem and LAN ports, 4 x USB 2.0 and 2 x IEEE 1394 (Firewire), for about ¥216,000, and the CE18B/R which is a similar 1.8GHz Athlon model for about ¥169,000.
Old model inkjet printers like the PM-740DU at about ¥10,500-13,000,
and the Epson PM-G800 (with USB 2.0 -- supported by Windows XP -- but not Centronics)
are about ¥21,000 while the (USB 1.0 plus Centronics) Canon PIXUS 860i is
about ¥17,000, and low-end laser printers like the 7kg 20ppm A4 Epson
LP1400 at about ¥22,500, and the 20kg 15ppp USB2.0 (plus network option)
A3 Canon LBP3600 at under ¥50,000 are now quite cheap; the new 20kg 20ppm
B/W / 12ppm A4 color laser Oki Microline C3100 is about ¥57,000,
the C5200N network version about ¥71,000, and the A4 PS3 PostScript emulation
5400 at about ¥126,000 weighs 20kg and does 12ppm color and 20ppm BW; the
29kg 16ppm B/W / 4ppm color LP1500C is about ¥88,000 and a duplex option
is available; the 41kg 21.6ppm color A3 LP9500C is from ¥175,000 with duplex
and Postscript options available. Multi-Function Scanner-Printer-Copiers are
represented by Canon's color laser and Auto Document Feeder (ADF) ¥72,500
MF5750 (with fax functions) or ¥54,600 MF5730 (without) and the inkjet PIXUS
MP790 at under ¥45,000 also includes ADF and (like high-end Brother and
HP models) fax functions. Epson's new high-end PM-A900 3200 dpi scanner/ copier/
6-color inkjet printer combi costs about ¥32,400, while the PM-A870
2400 dpi scanner/ copier/ 6-color inkjet printer combi costs about ¥25,000,
and the low-running-cost plain paper 1200 dpi 4-color CC-600PX is about ¥17,500;
the earlier Xerox 1152J is about ¥24,080, but HP is claiming 4800 dpi effective
printer resolution for its PSC750/2110/2150 range. USB 2.0 flatbed scanners are
quite cheap: Canon's new 2.5 kg, A4-size D1250U2 1200 dpi/16-bit scanner discounts
to as little as ¥9,900 and comes with an impressive software bundle which
includes Adobe's Photoshop Elements, thumbnail database, and e.Typist OCR software
(their new LiDE50 is even smaller and lighter, and USB-powered). The D1250U2F
at about ¥11,900 includes 35 mm film holder. Epson's 2400 dpi GT-9300UFS
is about ¥16,800, and includes Photoshop Elements. Canon has just released
the 2400 dpi Canonscan 5000 at about ¥13,700, and the 5000F with 35 mm film
holder at about ¥16,900.
Representative CD-R(W) drives include portable USB 2.0 drives like Panasonic's
24x CD-R & CD-RW (read-write) KXL-CB45AN drive at ¥15,200 (can read
DVD-ROM 8x, DVD-R/RW/+R/+R DL/+RW 4x and DVD-RAM 2x) and Sony's MPD-AP20U CD-R
24x, CD-RW 10x;
DVD-ROM 8x at ¥30,000 ; full-size external CD-RW drives
like the Melco (Buffalo) CRWD-48U2 (48x CD-R, 24x CD-RW, USB2.0) are now under ¥10,000.
Sony has just announced a 4xDVD-R (15 min for 4.3GB) with 2xDVD-RW and
(unique) 4x support for both DVD+R and DVD+RW (which are more compatible with
DVD-ROMs), as well 24xCD-R and 16xCD-RW support (DRU-510A is ATAPI version at
about ¥15,800, DRX-510UL is Firewire / USB2.0 version at about ¥19,500
and the new DRX-530UL with 8x DVD+R is about ¥17,500; Melco's DVM-L4242IU2
version of the DRX-510UL is ¥17,600, Melco's Hitachi drive based DVSM-34242FB
with DVD-RAM x3 is about ¥18,800, and the DVD+R x8 DVM-4284FB (based on
Sony DRX-530UL?) is about ¥16,800); Matsushita-Panasonic has models with
8xDVD-R as well as their new 5x DVD-RAM 9.6 GB both sides format and 24x
CD-R, 16x CD-RW (the ATAPI LF-M721JD is from about ¥16,000 and the USB2.0
LF-M760JD costs about ¥4,500 more) and also the LF-P867C USB2 compact
portable Multi DVD-R, DVD+R 8x (DL 2x), DVD-RW, DVD+RW 4x; DVD-RAM 5x; CD-R 24x; -RW
10x (write) at about ¥24,000;
Pioneer has released the DVR-A06-J ATAPI model (4x DVD-R and DVD+R; 2x DVD-RW,
2.4x DVD+RW, 16x CD-R and 10X CD-RW) at about ¥23,000 (but compatibility
is said to be inferior) and DVR-SK11B-J portable 2x DVD-R/DVD-RW, 16xCD-R
and 8xCD-RW at about ¥27,500. Gigabyte's GA-8INXP fast E7205 chipset P4 motherboard,
at ¥12,000 up, was one of the first to offer AGP 8x, FSB 800 MHz, SATA and
ATA 133 RAID, and USB2.0, as well as onboard Intel-chipset Gigabit LAN support.
Gigabyte's GA-8PENXP fast Intel 865PE chipset P4 motherboard offers IEEE 1394
as well for ¥22,000 (the similar GA-8IPE1000Pro2 is ¥15,500 -- Intel
2.4CG is ¥20,000). Gigabyte's GA-7NNXP at ¥20,000 is a similar Athlon
XP board (Athlon XP2800 is ¥20,000), Gigabyte's GA-7DPXDW+ at about ¥29,000
supports dual Athlon MP2200/2400 (at about ¥14,000 each) with IDE RAID and
100Mbps Ethernet, Gigabyte's FA5DP bare-bones kit offers a nearly-complete 400
MHz FSB Socket 478 computer in compact mini case for about ¥39,800. You
can add Celeron 1.7 GHz CPU, 256M RAM and 60GB hard disk and keyboard for about ¥32,000
more. The Celeron is about ¥6,000 for 1.7GHz/FSB 400MHz, and about ¥10,000
for 2.4GHz/FSB 400MHz, the Pentium 4 is about ¥15,000 for 1.8GHz / (A)FSB400MHz
or ¥20,000 for 2.4GHz / (B)FSB 533MHz or 2.5GHz / (C)FSB 800MHz. IBM's IBM
Deskstar 60GXP [IC35L060AVER07] 60GB 7200 rpm 3.5" hard drive is about ¥12,400,
IBM's Travelstar 80GN [IC25N040ATMR04] 2.5" 9.5-mm thick 4,200 rpm 80GB 8MB-cache
hard drive for notebooks is about ¥25,700, the 40GNX [IC25N040ATCS05] 5,400
rpm 8MB-cache high-speed high-availability version is about ¥14-15,000 and
the new HTS726060 7,200 rpm 60GB 8MB-cache drive is ¥35,150. Toshiba's MK6022GAX
2.5" 9.5-mm thick 5,400 rpm 60GB 16MB-cache high-speed high-availability hard
drive for notebooks is about ¥26,100, and their MK5024GAY 7,200 rpm 50GB
16MB-cache model is about ¥32,000. A Matrox G450 or G550 AGP 32MB dual-head
video card is from ¥9-11,000, an nVIDIA GeForceFX 5200 AGP 128MB is under ¥10,000,
and the GeForceFX 5200 Ultra is from about ¥17,000. A good 17" monitor like
the Mitsubishi RDF173H is about ¥23,000, or a 15" LCD like the Mitsubishi
RDT153M at about ¥40,000 or Nanao L365 for about ¥48,000, the end-of-life
16" Nanao L465 at about ¥42,000 or the 17" Nanao L565 at about ¥56,000.
The Samsung 172MP at about ¥80-84,000 is reputed to be a best buy in 17" multimedia
LCD displays (with TV tuner) and the 15" 150MP (if you can still find it) is
about ¥50,000.
New LCD color TVs like the Sharp LC13C3 at about ¥53,000 and the LC15C3 at about ¥73,000 are holding up in price, but conventional CRT-model imports are now as low as ¥10,000. Consumer home products like air conditioners have also come down in price a lot: Sanyo's SAP-E25N is from ¥71,000, and Toshiba's RAS-255NDR air conditioner is from about ¥63,000. New medium to high-end models are much more efficient than older models -- maybe you can cut your power bill in half by upgrading. A COP energy efficiency index of 4 or 5 means you can use 400-700 Watts to transfer about 2-3 kW from inside to outside (cooling) or outside to inside (heating). High-end Sanyo models have temperature and humidity sensors in the remote controller. Hitachi microwave ovens like the MRO-SA3 at under ¥20,000 use three sensors: infrared, temperature and weight. National produces 100-120V rechargeable electric toothbrushes like the EW1011 for about ¥9,000, and 100-240V rechargeable wet-or-dry electric shavers like the ES7017 for about ¥9,000 or ES8016 for about ¥11,800, also they now use replaceable batteries.
