The far east

So I've spent almost another week at RIKEN, Wako, in Saitama prefecture, Japan. Or Tokyo, if you prefer. Went on a little shopping trip in Ginza and Shinjuku today. No, not clothes or shoes, I bought two Platinum 3776 Century pens, and some lovely 15x15 cm2 origami paper. I'm very new to the fountain pen "scene", I decided only recently to improve my handwriting. Fortunately, Tokyo has a remarkable selection of fountain pens, and I spent quite some time oogling through panes of glass at every price range (3,200,000 JPY was the max I believe). I tested the one model I bought, the Sailor 1911 standard, and the Pilot Custom 74. Very similar and they look very much the same. My recommendation for other confused newcomers is to just throw the die and grab one, and enjoy actually writing. (My choice was based on a huge set of forums posts, which on average said that the Pilot is the most difficult when brand new, the Sailor is the scratchiest (confirmed), and the Platinum has the most reliable flow even after a very long time of no use). I also looked at calligraphy tools for copperplate, but that seems to be more comfortable to get online since it's really cheap stuff.

The food and drinks are lovely too of course, still my favorite.

That was my nerdy weekend in Tokyo, time to work properly again tomorrow!

EDIT (2015-08-22): Finally I tried karaoke in Japan! It all started with dinner like it always does, quite a few drinks, then a casual question related to karaoke, and things went bad (in a good way) very quickly. I still don't know how, after all the food, beers, shochu and sake, I managed to down that last pint of beer in one go in ~6 s that someone else could not finish after we figured that we should have left the room a minute earlier. Ran and waddled around town to find cash at a 7-11 and get back to RIKEN, and then pack, change accommodation, and work the morning after with a hangover and a constant feeling of sick... Oh well, some say I'm still young, seems like they're right. But I should probably not do this too much...

Bandai Perfect Grade Unicorn RX-0 + LED unit. Or Astray Red Frame. I want both :p