Buying a TV in Japan

This morning my grandmother's TV set just died. OK, it is currently half dead. I can see the bottom half, but can't see the top half.

So I had no choice, but to buy a TV set. I wanted to buy a TV set off this one friend, but he had no idea whether or not he will leave Japan. I thought my grandmother's TV will last for another year, but I was wrong.

The bad sign became when the TV went yellow, then a couple months later I can only see half a screen. I couldn't see the top screen, but I was able to see the bottom. I call it a tease and it was. I realize it was time to buy a new TV set. I wanted to wait, because the flat pannel TVs are currently expensive and I wanted to wait until it gets more affordable. Currently, the cheapest flat screen TV cost around Y200,000 or $2000US and that was for a 20 inch screen.

I wanted at least 25-30 inch and I wanted to spend less than $500US. So I decided to go shopping at Akihabara or any electronic store. Why wasn't I surprised? In Japan, it will be a miracle if you find the old tube screen TV. 95% of the TVs sold in Japan are either LCD, Plasma, Liquid Crystal TVs.

There was no way I plan to spend Y200,000 or $2000US for a 20 inch. So I went shopping all over Akihabara and eventually found a 30 inch TV for less than $500US. My grandmother is happy because she was worried that she might had to spend over $1000US for a new TV set. The tube screen TVs are slowly disappearing like dinosaurs so I was extremely lucky to find a tube screen TV set.

Before I left San Francisco, my sister and her boyfriend bought a 70 inch plasma TV. Can you imagine watching Star Wars on that TV set. I asked my sister to be patient, but I guess she and her boyfriend desperately wanted a giant TV set so they bought it for over $10,000US. I watched USC football game on that TV and it was awesome. I also watched Star Wars and Downfall on that TV screen. In Japan, it's impossible to buy such a big TV set because of the limited space. I guess that's another thing I miss about America.

The TV shows in Japan just sucks. They have the most pathetic ESPN. It's hard to watch anything good in Japan. If you want to watch MLB, you will mostly see a NY Yankees (Hideki Matsui) or Seattle Mariners (Ichiro Suzuki) game. I am a SF Giants fan and it's tough for me to watch any Giants game. I once took the MLB package, but quit afterwards, because 3 of the channels have either the Mariners or Yankees game on 3 different channels. There was no point buying the MLB package. You can forget about watching college football. In Japan, all you see is Sumo wrestling, K1, WWW, Japanese baseball or Yankee/Mariners game.

Not much to choose from...