More Computer Stuff

So, I finally got around to ordering my computer.  It was great fun since the website is all in Japanese and it took me a while to complete the ordering process.  The Chrome browser from Google offers really nice in place translation (basically for a page, a popup info box appears asking whether you want to translate this page) and it works for https sites too since it just translates the internals.  Google translate works with URLs but does not work with https sites.  However, Chrome also has bugs and it doesn't work very well with sites where you can't use the back button, etc.  So refreshing a page might just kill the whole thing you are working on (which happened to me a few times).

I finally managed to order my computer.  I'm not sure how fast it will get delivered and when but we'll see. I had a choice of a few payment methods so I selected back transfer.  Then I spent another hour or so on my online banking website setting up the payment.  But that went rather smoothly - basically identical procedure as for Canadian banks just all in Japanese :P.

With the monitor and speakers already in place and the box coming soon, I needed input devices.  So yesterday I went to the OSU market to the 5 or so computer stores that are basically on one street block over there and I looked around at what I can get.  Sadly, about 90% of the keyboards they had were wireless which I didn't want (basically due to the hassle of recharging batteries constantly).  So finally I bought a really cheap (around $17) keyboard from Logicool (Media Keyboard K200).  I also got a simple yet comfortable corded mouse (MX 518 for around $30).  It is rather similar to the gaming mouse I had in Canada.  I bought the two at different stores since the cheap store that had the mouse (where I also got my speakers from) didn't have a very good keyboard selection.

As you might be wondering - hey... I know this logo, it's Logitech!  Yes, yes it is.  It seems that in Japan, Logitech is called Logicool (strange!).

Looking at the keyboard layout, you might notice some differences.  Yes, I got a Japanese keyboard since it is quite difficult to get a US layout keyboard here and I need to learn to use the Japanese one.  The letter keys are in the same place (luckily!).  Some symbols are in a different location so that will take getting used to.  I use one at school so I'm starting to get a hang of it.  The largest difference that you might notice is the tiny space bar.  Well, Japanese writing doesn't have spaces so there is limited use for a spacebar!  However, this one is big enough that I can hit it with both of my thumbs (some of the ones I tried I could only use one thumb which was annoying).  You might also notice a few extra keys at the bottom - those switch between the input method (i.e., katakana, hiragana, romaji).  They are excellent since you don't have to take your hands off the keyboard to switch between typing Japanese and English.  Many of the keys also have Japanese syllables on them but I haven't used that yet as an input method - it is much easier/faster for me to actually type in the one, two or three letters of each syllable.