Camping in Tokyo

[matsuki]

Not literally...but so far, my experience here has made me feel like life in Tokyo is like camping. There's the announcement system, the food carts, and those politician/recycle shop trucks that come by with their loud speakers...the address system by area, streets with no names...and the apartments with their gas supply provided by giant tanks that are chained to the outside. The unpaved parking lots, the air drying everything, it just doesn't feel like a modern city outside the crowded skyscraper landscape of downtown. Then there's the size of the apartments, the build quality, etc.

To further my case, I think this past year between, the airbed, storage containers, lights and tables, I've found more and more camping gear is cheaper and better suited to living in this area than what most J-people are using. (and can be kept and used for camping if ever replaced by normal furniture/appliances) If you could actually see the labels on what I have, it looks like my apartment was sponsored by Coleman. Even the bigger place I'm supposed to be moving into has no stove/oven, etc. You just know I'm already shopping portable camping stoves.

Hmmm



Obvious camp stove or...



...the not really camping status anymore but looks like it would be insanely expensive if bought in Japan stove

Am I just missing something or just crazy?

[Coligny]

Not literally...but so far, my experience here has made me feel like life in Tokyo is like camping. There's the announcement system, the food carts, and those politician/recycle shop trucks that come by with their loud speakers...the address system by area, streets with no names...and the apartments with their gas supply provided by giant tanks that are chained to the outside. The unpaved parking lots, the air drying everything, it just doesn't feel like a modern city outside the crowded skyscraper landscape of downtown. Then there's the size of the apartments, the build quality, etc.

To further my case, I think this past year between, the airbed, storage containers, lights and tables, I've found more and more camping gear is cheaper and better suited to living in this area than what most J-people are using. (and can be kept and used for camping if ever replaced by normal furniture/appliances) If you could actually see the labels on what I have, it looks like my apartment was sponsored by Coleman. Even the bigger place I'm supposed to be moving into has no stove/oven, etc. You just know I'm already shopping portable camping stoves.

Hmmm



Obvious camp stove or...



...the not really camping status anymore but looks like it would be insanely expensive if bought in Japan stove

Am I just missing something or just crazy?

Same here... when I saw the price of them gas oven I bought me a folding stove top BBQ oven from Coleman (3000 yens autumn discount).

You have a rakuten link for that little masterpiece ? mine tend to make furnace effect and burn the top of the cooking table, I had to sand it to bare metal and spray it with motorbike exhaust pipe high temp silver paint...

And I'm still camping after eight years... even if I'm allowed any modification in the building without even asking... since I still need some help for communication with the contractors it always fall into a stalemate because actually helping turning the house into something correct instead of the actual junky-in-chicago-central-station-place would eat in her KDrama watching schedule...

[dimwit]

Thousands of people camp in Tokyo, it is just that we call them homeless. I have a bunch of camping equipment but we usually use it for .... well going camping or to the beach or mountains or whatnot.

[Samurai_Jerk]

Am I just missing something or just crazy?

You're not crazy. You've just been living in shitty apartments.

[matsuki]

Same here... when I saw the price of them gas oven I bought me a folding stove top BBQ oven from Coleman (3000 yens autumn discount).

You have a rakuten link for that little masterpiece ? mine tend to make furnace effect and burn the top of the cooking table, I had to sand it to bare metal and spray it with motorbike exhaust pipe high temp silver paint...

Haha, the one I posted was from the river. Can you get those gas canisters in NG?? If so, a NG version of one of those would be perfect.

And I'm still camping after eight years... even if I'm allowed any modification in the building without even asking... since I still need some help for communication with the contractors it always fall into a stalemate because actually helping turning the house into something correct instead of the actual junky-in-chicago-central-station-place would eat in her KDrama watching schedule...

I guess that's a big part of it as well...when renting here, you can't really modify anything. With that in mind, camping gear tends to be more durable, lighter, easier to move...and cheaper than what most J-people are using.

You're not crazy. You've just been living in shitty apartments.

SJ, I wish you were right but it's not just apartments. I've lived in two houses (one, larger than most US homes) here and there isn't much of a difference other than the size. I guess you could say mansions are the way to go...a step up from apartments and houses but they're still pretty cramped, expensive, and you need a fucking crane to get anything of size into them. I guess I didn't feel this way the 8 months I spent in Aichi because I had a car there. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, just noting that living here in the suburbs of Tokyo feels like a weird type of really expensive camping.

[Coligny]

Haha, the one I posted was from the river. Can you get those gas canisters in NG?? If so, a NG version of one of those would be perfect.

BTW on mac (maybe windows also), there is a soft called "riverwatcher" that continually check the river for items you want to buy and popup an alert when they are discounted. Since the river is constantly changing price and often do few hours 50% discount on some items it's a real masterpiece...

If someone know a version for Rakuten it would be like christmas in august...

[matsuki]

BTW on mac (maybe windows also), there is a soft called "riverwatcher" that continually check the river for items you want to buy and popup an alert when they are discounted. Since the river is constantly changing price and often do few hours 50% discount on some items it's a real masterpiece...

If someone know a version for Rakuten it would be like christmas in august...

Even better if they have an android app I'll check it out.

[Russell]

BTW on mac (maybe windows also), there is a soft called "riverwatcher" that continually check the river for items you want to buy and popup an alert when they are discounted. Since the river is constantly changing price and often do few hours 50% discount on some items it's a real masterpiece...

Thanks for the tip. I just found that there is a windows version too.

[matsuki]

Thanks for the tip. I just found that there is a windows version too.

Thanks! Great deals indeed!