1983 Akihabara Japan Cassette2go aka James Pierce took pic's of stuff he could not afford

1983 Akihabara Japan Cassette2go aka James Pierce took pic's of stuff he could not afford While serving in the US Navy from 1982-1984 & Only One picture of me from the Army served 1977-1980

 

and James still managed to get a Radio Cassette in the photo !

 

great pictures @Cassette2go , Wish I could go back in time and visit this place

 

Great photos of an amazing place that I hope to visit one-day. All that technology there, I'd never be out of shops like that!

 

Has anyone been there recently ?
I expect it would be all mobile phones, laptops, and Bluetooth Speakers.
In the 1980s Edgware Road in London used to be quite similar, with lots of shops selling equipment you would never see in your local Dixon's.
https://www.allinlondon.co.uk/directory/audio-visual-sales/10119-edgware-hi-fi-centre
Before then Tottenham Court Road was famous for its Radio Shops, although I am too young to remember that
https://fitzrovianews.com/2015/05/21/tottenham-court-road-before-central-cross/#prettyPhoto

 

Yep, they did
and really strange those are almost only ones of this Mecca,
maybe there are others but nobody shared yet.

Awesome photos!

 

While serving aboard the - thanks to the internet - On 4 January 1983,,, but on 3 Jan 83 I boarded and on the 4th I request to go and get some stuff out of my car ( 1975 Toyota corrola ) that was on base but they told me that the boat was already underway, so well I am not saying anymore about that, I lived in TEXAS and I had! nuff said. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Acadia The Navy boat I served one its entire story here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Acadia Long story short due to the boredom of being onboard and lousy with playing cards using payday stakes I didnt have much money!

 

in 1983 when we went on our Seven month west-pac cruise, there was about 400 women and 1100 men onboard, I wasnt lucky enough go get any of those pregnant, nor did I desire to do so at that time I served on that boat for about 14 months and then i exited the navy yaaay as I was so tired of the games and the quota's that they played and had at that time. I went up for 'rate' Four time and I was denied 4 time because I was not ( a female or filipino ) as those were the only ones allowed to go up the ranks so I got the hell out of the navy.

 

There are a lot of models I haven't seen before

 

Building my Time Machine Now !!! XD

 

Yes. If you think things like an iPhone 12 Pro Max is expensive, then taking into account inflation the decent equipment was similarly priced back then.
The cheap stuff like a bottom of the range Toshiba Boombox costs less £s today than it did back then.

Regarding the $29000 JVC M90 that people were taking about recently https://www.ebay.com/itm/224567174429?hash=item34493f251d:g:XTkAAOSwKNJhEpsF
I have a better idea. When you finish your Time Machine, instead of buying one of these new spend the money on Apple shares. Then today you would be able to afford three ! Of course hindsight is 20-20 vision and all that. Back in the day a company like Enron would have probably looked to be a better investment.

 

We went through all this recently. The closest we could find was http://stereo2go.com/forums/threads...ble-audio-and-you-can-take-them-with-you.870/
As for where they were sold, I've seen the Sharp VZ2000 listed in a normal retailers flyer, but have never seen an M90 or GF777 so can't answer that. I'm sure you could have got one on Edgeware Road, London, where haggling was definitely advisable.

 

Techmoan found the Sony FH7 in the Boots (a chain of shops which had a large store in most cities) Audio Catalogue.

We also had Sony Centres in most cities. They must have been popular and nowadays you could find a working one on eBay for less £ than the cost back then.

Thinking about this is suspect that in the U.K. anyone who could have afforded an M90 wouldn't have wanted one. The FH7 would have appealed to a wide demographic from Yuppie to Pensioner; people who might otherwise have thought about Bang and Olufsen. In contrast I suspect that the M90 and GF777 would have mainly appealed to teenagers who would have been unlikely to have been able to afford one.

 

Interesting photos. As a 13yr old in 83 I would have been salivating.
But the first thing you could have bought there was a good camera with decent exposure and focus control!

 

The problem was that you could have bought a nice personal stereo for the same money.

We are lucky that James took his camera with him.
There is an old saying that "The best camera is the one you actually have with you".