GIANT ENEMY CRAB DOT NET

I mentioned something earlier [giant.enemycrab.net] about a story involving a Casio Exilim G point-and-shoot camera.  Here is that story:

So in July of this past year, my wife and I made the trip back to Japan to visit friends and family.  It had been nearly 3 years since I set foot in the Kansai area so I was pretty excited to be finally making the trip. 

While in Japan, I had left my mobile phone at home as it would be either totally useless and/or prohibitively expensive to even fire it up while overseas.  The trouble is - I use my mobile phone as a surrogate wristwatch, having ceased to wear or carry a traditional watch for well over 2 years. 

Now, in Japan, punctuality is considered a holy tenant of society.  Only dirtbags and people who don't take off their shoes indoors are late for anything.  So, I figured it might be time to go buy myself a wristwatch...

I went in to buy one of these

En route to meet some friends near Umeda, I stopped by Nipponbashi - which is right next to Osaka's Den Den Town - basically a dirtier, micro version of Akihabara, Tokyo's giant nerd archology.  There, I dropped into the local Bic Camera with intent to pick up some cheap, 2,000 yen Timex knockoff.  

The watches and timepieces section of the Nipponbashi Bic Camera [Bic Camera Online] is on the 2nd floor, just as you get off the escalator.  As soon as I set foot on floor 2, I note the huge Casio G-Shock display, accompanied by some young woman barking into a repurposed karaoke machine, going on and on about some new Casio G-Shock product campaign the store was currently hosting.  

The advertising certainly worked on me because my intentions of dropping a handful of yen on the cheapest digital writwatch I could find was turned over to thoughts of the G-Shock product line.  

I've always wanted a G-Shock watch - ever since they were particularly in fashion back in the 1990s.  Something about the big, clunky, rubberized, multi-function watches Casio had made famous nearly 20 years ago still seemed cool to me, even after all of those years.   

At this point, I had drowned out the girl with the karaoke machine, the giant Casio ads and everything else on the 2nd floor (living in Osaka, you learn to filter out all of the high-frequency background noise the city constantly throws at you).  After a few minutes of browsing, I settled on a simple, classic, black G-Shock, priced at 8,000 yen (back in the 90s, watches like this cost nearly 2-3 times this much). 

I told the young man behind the counter I intended to purchase the watch.  He politely wrapped it up, placed it back in its original box and, all the while looking bored to tears, escorted me to the checkout counter.  During this time, the girl at the karaoke machine had been going on and on incessantly, welcoming shoppers to the store and indicating that not only new Casio G-Shock watches were on sale at Bic Camera but also there was a major prize campaign which Casio customers today could participate in.  This I was totally unaware of until later - having filtered out most of the sonic onslaught that assails you when you step into the depths of Bic Camera. 

The bored guy at the counter begins to ring me up.  However before I can drop a handful of yen into the register's plastic payment tray, he informs me that since I was purchasing a Casio G-Shock today, I was eligible to enter the prize drawing that karaoke girl is going on and on about.  I give the man a simple nod as he produces a colorfully decorated cardboard box with a hole cut in the top.  He indicates for me to reach in and draw a plastic chit from the box.

I do so, quickly handing one plastic chit to him, expecting to win nothing and then to get on with buying the Casio.  As soon as the counter guy cracks open the chit, his eyes nearly double in size.  He stands there, staring at the drawn number for a few seconds.  He then turns and yells at the girl standing behind him,

"He won it".

"Won what?", the girl asks.

"It! This guy won the camera!"

"Um... What's going on?", I ask.

The guy turns back and informs me that the Casio promotion the store was hosting had a handfull of prizes they were giving away in their drawing and it looks like I picked the top prize out of the box.

"What's the prize?", I asked, feeling rather non-plussed. 

"A digital camera". 

At this point, the girl accompanying counter guy has produced a small, hexagonally shaped cardboard box and a large, brass hand bell.  She begins ringing the bell loud and proudly, swinging it in this great arc over he head.  It's only then that I notice that karaoke girl is now broadcasting at full volume over her machine that "we have a winner", enthusiastically barking that that honorable, mister foreign customer person has just won the grand prize in Bic Camera's Casio G-Shock campaign and that more prizes are available for many other lucky customers (who happen to also be buying Casio wrist watches today).   The girl with the bell presents me with the hexagonally shaped box.

The entire 2nd floor of Bic Camera is staring at me and I feel a bit strange at this. 

I walked out with one of these

Now, I'm still a little non-plussed about suddenly winning a digital camera and now somewhat embarrassed.  My assumption is that it's probably some low-end Casio-branded point-and-shoot with a high resolution, a really crappy CCD sensor and poor auto whitebalance adjustment capabilities.  When I ask to see the camera, it turns out that no, I have in fact hit the jackpot. 

I ended up winning a red, Casio Exilim G series [Amazon].  Its waterproof up to 7 meters, shock proof and weighs only a few ounces.  It turns out its one of Casio's highest rated cameras and it looks like the belt buckle off of the RX-78 Gundam [Google Images].  Counter guy, who has been snapped out of his boredom informs me that it's basically a G-Shock camera - one that retails for about 28,000 yen.  He enthusiastically shows me some of the camera's many features.  It practically does everything but brew coffee. 

So that's how I went to buy an $80 Japanese watch and ended up with a free, $300 camera.  Counter guy even makes mention of how funny that situation must seem.  I tell him it must be my lucky day.  He thanks me for my patronage and I thank him in return.  We bow and I am head downstairs to look for some memory cards for my new camera.  I bow to Karaoke girl on the way out.