Yamaha, Iwaki

I should probably be writing about my apartment and showing you people images of where I live and such, but it is 2am and I’m dead tired and I bought a guitar today. How could I not write about my new guitar instead? Also, my apartment is still a mess. I’ve got the kitchen organized and sorted out my closet, but in my living/dining area, I’ve amassed an incredible amount of documents, books, pamphlets, receipts, bags, notes, and who knows what else. Tomorrow I’ll be able to get this cleaned up.

I think that I’ve been spending quite a bit of money in the week that I’ve been here. I’ve bought a bunch of kitchen stuff for my apartment, a new hard drive to back up my photos, a cable to hook my laptop up to my TV. The social events can be a bit costly as well, but I think it’s important for me to build a network of people in Iwaki – although I didn’t seem to have to worry about money last night (it being my birthday and all)… more on this another time.

I went to a new part of town today in search of a cable for my computer. Just a quick note here: I managed to get directions to the electronics store and ask the name of it all in Japanese. Whilst in this area, I saw the name of a second-hand store that another JET was talking about the other day. The place is called “Hard Off” – not sure what the translation is supposed to be here, but the place sells everything from dishes, clothes, furniture, electronics, and even musical instruments. The electronic section is pretty amazing as the shelves are lined with old speakers, dvd players, old Nintendo game systems (game cubes were stacked a half dozen high and took up a whole shelf – each costing only $10). It was in this section that I found this old Yamaha nylon string guitar. It was missing a string, some of the wood is scuffed up quite a bit, and the strings were all out of tune. After tuning it best I could – the tuning knobs are pretty stiff and it’s a bit hard tuning a guitar that is missing the 4th string, it really came together. I figured out that “Blackbird” can be played almost in its entirety without the 4th string. Anyway, the guitar actually sounds pretty good and it was only 4000 yen – which is about $40 US. It definitely needs new strings but it reminds me a lot of my Fender at home.

Getting it home was a bit interesting on my bike. I managed to secure it pretty good between my back and my backpack for the ride home. Needless to say, when I got home, I was occupied up until dinner time and managed to show up quite late for some evening plans at the Iwaki Festival going on downtown. I still managed to catch the end of the Odori, which is the main feature of the night… more on this another time.

These are photos of my new guitar in its new digs beside the window.