Bye Bye Nakai…

July 4th, 2009

Well, I think it is anyway.

Who or what is Nakai?

It’s the closest home centre to my workshop, and it is (I think) closing down. I drove by on Wednesday and saw the parking lot full of cars, and I suspected something was up but I didn’t stop because 1: it was raining and 2: I was short of time.

You might think a little rain isn’t much to worry about, and you are right, rain doesn’t bother me much at all, except that it’s wet and usually cold. But that’s a minor thing really. But on Wednesday it was raining and it wasn’t playing around doing it. Enough rain that I had to stop driving a couple times because I couldn’t see. 10 seconds in the open and I was soaked, so maybe I should have risked it anyway.

I did get there today though, and realized what was going on.

They were dumping all their stock, and I mean dumping. 30-50% off everything in the store, and I mean everything.

Because I was at least 2 days late, the pickings were slim, and I felt like a vulture so I didn’t really feel up to strip mining the place anyway.

What I can’t work out is whether they are just getting all the stuff off the shelves so they can do a makeover or if they are going out of business or just shutting up that one store. The lady at the counter mentioned that they would be shut in a couple of days time, then closed for a week or so then a day off some time and that’s all I managed to pick up.

If they are closing, I am not a happy camper. In the small town there are two home centres close to the workshop, Nakai here and another one which I tend to avoid wherever possible because they fouled up something badly on me. There is another one not too far away, about 10 minutes drive that is interesting, but not great.

The thing is that over here, a home centre is something like a hardware store, an Ikea and a haberdashery store with a little pet shop and some electrical items thrown into the mix. Unfortunately, they usually aren’t all that great…

Around here, there are 2 main chains and a couple smaller chains. The 2 main ones are Nishimura Joy and Daiki.

Nishimura Joy (usually just Joy) is big, prices aren’t bad and they have a good range of items. Our local one went from a poky but cool store into a mammoth thing that has a full supermarket, a craft store and a Baskin Robbins on the same building, and they have room for plenty more stores. The only problem is that they regularly discontinue items, and they are usually the ones that I want.

Daiki is like Joy, only much lamer. They used to be great, and then they all started being like one another, absorbing smaller chains and whatnot and just became a glorified haberdashery store. They do have some useful stuff, but I will visit them once for every 10 joy visits.

There used to be another common chain called Pal, and they were really cool. Daiki took them over and all their coolness bled away.

The smaller chains are Nakai (3 stores here) and Komeri (2 stores I know of). These places tend to be a little more independent, and are better for it. They have some really nifty things on occasion, but the good also needs some bad, and they lack some of the ‘essentials’ that I need. I know Nakai’s deficiencies so I can work around it.

One of the smaller chains is a place called ‘The Masao’. I don’t know why they called it that, but it seems to be a name that a few places that are totally unrelated to each other use just for some kind of brand recognition. These places cater to grandma and grandpa farmer as well as Uncle carpenter. Less filler here, and there is one in particular I love going to because they have 4 20×10 foot shelves stacked with tools and hardware. Stuff I can’t really get anywhere else. The problem is that store is about 30 minutes away from my weekly schedule. Another one of these stores I pass by 3 times a week, and they consistantly got nuttin’.

Then there is a random scattering of tool stores. If you like Japanese tools then these places might make you weak at the knees. The larger one in town usually has at least 10-15 full chisels sets on hand, as well as 100 or so planes and related items. When I need something, I go there and they got it almost every time. Sure, they treated me like a syphillitic leper when I first darkened their door, but after a few visits and a few yen with which I laced their palms, I am treated like a common leper now, which is how everyone gets treated, except the folks who are always buying stuff there. It’s normal, and they don’t think any less of me because I am not a local. They know that I know my stuff which makes a difference. I hope they won’t dissappoint tomorrow…

There is another small place I have been to a couple times that has very little on the shelf because they have very little shelves. But again, they would make a Japanese tool buff cry with what they do have.

But the story is of Nakai and that he might be going away.

I have not bought a lot of stuff from there, mainly because I never have enough money to buy anything, but it was darn handy to have a place to get little doodads I needed within walking distance of the workshop.

I hope they re-open, I really do…

Stu.

That’s two…

June 27th, 2009

As an addendum to the pain of riding in a storm on Monday, today I had another stroke of bad luck.

Today, the chain on my bike decided to snap…

So I got to run to my class on a nice, sunny day while pushing my bike along for the ride. What fun. About as much fun as having needles jammed under your fingernails.

Luckily I got a lift to my regular bike shop after class and my friend Yoshi slipped in a section of new chain to get old faithful mobile again.

The problem was that the chain had snapped 5 minutes into a 15 minute ride, so I had about 2 km to push/scooter/roll which was not at all good. I was lucky that I left home early and managed to get to my class just on time, but as to why I left home early I just don’t know. Maybe a little pre-cognition or something.

The only good part was that I got to see a good friend for the first time in a long time (Yoshi at the bike shop) and got to drool over some pedal powered machinery. Seems like I will need to pay him another visit real soon though because I need a new chain, rear cassette, a tyre and a new saddle.

Being in Japan (and just over the inland sea from Shimano’s factory) drivetrain parts are cheap, cheap, cheap so replacing them isn’t going to be too much of a problem, but I don’t know about the saddle, and that’s a story in and of itself.

Way back when I first arrived I was given/sold a bike that was so sad I couldn’t do a thing with it and disposed of it (for cash even!) and got myself into town to buy a new bike, that being the bike I am on right now. After a few small changes to seat post and stem, I was off and riding.

It wasn’t long before I started clocking up some serious miles though, and realized that while the bike I had was pretty nice as eye candy and good for shorter hops, more than 30 minutes on board was not going to work. I was not greatly impressed with where I bought the bike, but as it was the only game in town (as far as I knew) I was stuck for getting some better parts for the thing to make it better as transport rather than show-pony.

The internet to the rescue!

I ordered from the U.S. a bunch of stuff for my bike upgrading the drivetrain, brakes, rims and a few other miscellaneous parts. By the end I was left with the original frame, head set bearings, fork, seat post and saddle. Everything else was changed over (and all my old parts put onto my new girlfriend’s bike. Both girl and bike were new.) and all was going along swimmingly.

The day after I got the bike back together, we (new girl and moi) decided to go for a bike ride, up a mountain. That wasn’t too bad aside from one of the cranks dropping off at the top of the mountian, requiring us to ride back down to find a missing bolt rather than riding on over the top.

The big ride also exposed some flaws in my bike. Mainly the ‘brake upgrade’ was nothing to get excited about, the tyres being studded for dirt were a pain on the road and the original saddle was too narrow and hard. Internet shopping again for a better pair of tyres and a new, softer saddle.

Tyres were a good thing, the wide, soft saddle was to my surprise worse than the narrow, hard thing I already had on there. I put the original back on until I found something better.

Over the next few years I happened upon Yoshi working in the family bike shop, and found that he a; spoke passable English and b; knew my girlfriend from High school. It took a few scant minutes to realize that buying bike parts made in Japan from a store in the U.S. and having them sent here was a fools game, and have bought everything for my bike from my local bike shop since that day.

That would include a new fork, several tyres and chains, some new driveline gear, a handlebar and seat post and a few other bits and pieces here and there, leaving me only the original frame, head set and saddle.

Fast forward to now, and my poor bike has lost some of it’s flash and glamour now coming up on 7 years and tens of thousands of miles under it’s belt, most parts replaced at least once, some major parts more often than that (I have worn out a derailleur, a rare feat!) but still with the original frame, head set and yes, that saddle remains.

It would seem that the narrow, hard thing that I derided so much all those years ago was a better match for my posterior than I thought.

But it’s time to replace it. It’s got a few tears and the leather is becoming hard (although highly polished!) and it needs to go. The real drama is finding a suitable replacement for an old friend that has litterally looked after my butt for so long. It’s not going to be easy, but I gotta find one soon.

Then we will be down to the original frame and heatset bearings from my original bike…

And maybe, just maybe I might be able to wangle in some new head set bearings while we are there. Just for the heck of it more than anything.

Maybe not.

The novelty of replacing almost the entire bike has most certainly worn off by now, all because of that silly saddle I grew so close to. :(

And in case you were wondering about the girl who got my old bike bits, I saw her today. Heck, I see her every day since she now exists under the moniker of Mrs. Schtoo. ;)

Goodnight,

Stu.

Sometimes…

June 23rd, 2009

…my life sucks…

I was planning to post a little last night just because I wanted to, and also do a little in the store site too.

Instead I had a shower and went to bed.

Riding a bicycle for 6 km in between clouds dumping tons of water on the ground, and not quite getting it right all the time meant I got home quite well soaked and in no condition to do anything other than go to bed.

For the most part, it was almost like riding in the eye of a typhoon. Lots of heavy rain, a period of nothingness, then another great big dump of rain. Cyclones and hurricanes are much bigger and badder of course, but a typhoon is nothing to be sneezed at either.

Especially when you are on a bicycle… :(

Yawn…

June 17th, 2009

No, not because I am sleepy (well I am, but that’s pretty much a permanent affliction nowadays) but because this blog is running Wordpress 2.7 and the store one (that I control) is running 2.8 and the difference is huge.

Not as user friendly as the much older 2.x ones were, but 2.8 is significantly faster without help, while 2.7 is a slug and made worse by the over involved and convoluted carp you need to go through to get anything done. That is at least tolerable in 2.8 I guess.

News from here is, regrettably not all that great.

It would seem that I cannot do very much woodworking at all, none is about it really and that shows no signs of changing in the near future unless I can free up some time, which may well happen if the store dies.

I hope not, but I still don’t know for sure.

I’ll get back here as often as I can, and the regularity and content will be defined by how well or poorly the store does. I suspect that this time next month I might be a tad swamped getting stuff out, and I hope I will be too, but after that… !?!

Anyway, I need some sleep, that rare commodity that I can never seem to acquire enough of these days. How I still manage to function at times has me scratching my head, but still ticking, somehow.

Till next time,

Stu.

Another quick update.

June 8th, 2009

Basically, not much has happened.

A failed adjustment had to be removed, and it meant that I had to use the backup to get the store working again.

A few item descriptions, but not much.

Some pictures, but not many.

A bunch of offline stuff, including painting some umbrellas (don’t ask) and a little ‘woodworking’ which wasn’t really.

It is strange that there have been nearly 1500 page views in the last week, and nothing more than that…

Oh yes, I realized that 4 hours of sleep per night coupled with stupid busy days do not work for me, and I end up getting less than nothing done so I need to enforce my own curfew and get the sleep I need.

This week, pictures and descriptions.

I am not too fussed about no sales right now, and I think we might have to add some honey once it’s all dialed in just to get the wheels turning.

(It is amazing how popular those Swedish steel chisels are too…)

Oh yes, Wordpress will probably make an appearance on the store so it doesn’t get all wound up with this blog more than it already is. That has its advantages (thanks for spelling them out Nikolai) and some disadvantages, especially at the embryo stage the store is at right now.

Gotta sleep.

Stu.

P.S. We also looked at a house today. We might just buy it for the heck of it because it’s in a great spot, but it’s 50 years old (ancient here) and doesn’t have car parking. It’s being sold as ‘land’ because the locals can’t see that a well kept 50 year old house has any value other than landfill.

Really goodnight now…

A slight glitch…

June 4th, 2009

Whilst making some relatively simple changes, I seem to have broken the store…

So no real changes on this day. :(
Except SSL is working. :)
Tis all, good night.

Stu.

Just a small update.

June 3rd, 2009

There are some more pictures up, not as many as I would like, but them’s the breaks.

You may have noticed that the entire site was 404′d for a little while, and that was because the IP address changed from a common server (other sites on the same one) to our own dedicated server. Every site has it’s own IP address, but the www.xyz.com works by the ‘internet’ working out that ‘www.xyz.com’ means connecting to 123.45.67.89 IP address, and that takes a little time.

This is a requirement to enable SSL support, which is also operating but not yet configured. That might take a little while, as there was a little mix up in the process with proper verification.

We will get it worked out, and at the very least will have fundamental SSL support within a day or so.

Anyway, bed time.

Stu.

It’s alive…

June 2nd, 2009

The store is now live and active, so have at it if you will.

I have added a few pictures, well, just one for testing purposes really. I’d love to add more, but since I have been battling a cold (not pig flu!) and have been running on 4 hours sleep a night for a good few weeks, I am going to call it a night and go to bed.

Big celebration huh?

If the two micro-monsters here will allow it, I should get a better scattering of pictures up tomorrow, and give it a good hard shove during this week along with adding some more stuff.

The store is not quite half filled yet, so we have a way to go before I can call it good and I really need to do something about that logo.

Any suggestions?

Maybe I should run a contest or something because my brain is hard boiled and I can’t think of anything good right now. :(
With that, thanks for reading folks (and I mean that, it must take some intestinal fortitude to deal with my constant belly aching and drivel) and we shall see what happens.

Stu.

I think I can, I think I can…

May 31st, 2009

It looks like most of the items planned for the store will be at least up, if missing adequate descriptions and pictures. That’s good, it’s all going a lot smoother than I expected which is an amazing thing after fighting with the whole mess for so long.

Up as of right now are most of the chisels, sharpening gear, planes and saws.

Right now I am making up the marking gear list which is short, but it will be expanded soon.

Later on today I will put up some files and rasps, as well as the hammers along with some more informational text.

To you guys out there, I’d really like to hear what you think. I have had next to no feedback from this, and while it doesn’t worry me too much, I’d still like to know what you guys think.

We have tried to keep the prices as low as we can, and for the most part we have met our targets, they being the same as the street price in Japan (not the r.r.p or an inflated overseas market price).

That’s all I guess. Just hoping that I am not doing all this as an exercise in futility…

Stu.

News.

May 27th, 2009

Just a quick word here about what is going on.

I came to a decision today about the online store, and I plan to stick to it come heck or high water.

As of right now, it is accessible and can be looked at, but purchasing is currently impossible as all methods of payment are turned off.

(If you want you can have a look at what meagre examples are there.)

There will be very few pictures, and descriptions will also be lacking for the most part. Simple reason being they take huge amounts of time to do and something has to give. Most items will be pretty self explanatory and shouldn’t need much more than what they are and their price.

There may be holes in the listings. I hope not when it goes properly ‘live’ but I fear there will and I am not going to lose (any more) sleep over it.

There may or may not be SSL for logging in and things like that. I am going to get that going now, but it might not be functional for a little while depending on how much trouble it gives me.

There will be hiccups as I change things about. Don’t worry about it, just teething troubles and not much more.

It will go live on June 1.

I decided that if I put it off any longer to get it ‘just right’ I will be getting dangerously close to ‘analysis paralysis’ and the thing will never be going. I figured it was better to get up what I can ASAP and then see what happens.

At the moment, please try to avoid telling everyone you know about this. I need to get a few orders from folks that at least know me and have some understanding that things might not go smoothly before really pulling the trigger and promoting the heck out of it, within reason. We also need to see how much trouble we kick up with this, because I can say with reasonable certainty that some folks are going to be ‘extremely upset’ to put it mildy and in kid-friendly terms. Reason being that for some items we are line ball with what’s already out there price wise. Most things, we are cheaper by varying percentages. On some things, we are orders of magnitude cheaper than what’s already being peddled out there.

And that’s in terms of ‘on your doorstep’, not listed prices.

I better keep at it I guess.

(Oh yeah, if you need to look right now, simply add /store/ after .com and keep it to yourself. Please. :) )

Stu.