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Founded 2023 March 12 |
This site is under construction! Please use the sidebar links to navigate. If you like my website, feel free to use this button! This is my slice of the wired, a passion project where I can keep a collection of all my interests, hobbies, and anything else that I want. If you like this site, please consider leaving me a message in my guest book. LATEST UPDATES 2024.08: New blog enrty and Guest Book! 2024.01: Launched Project Cyber webcomic series! 2024.01: Added Book Off/Hard Off page! 2024.01: Added Sitemap! 2024.01: Added nostalgia page! (still under construction) 2023.11: Added Japan travel diary pics page! |
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Name: Tex
Age: 23
Gender: Female
MBTI: INTJ
Zodiac: Libra
I am a college student studying computer science with a focus in media and artificial intelligence. I currently live in Seoul, South Korea and plan to move to Japan once I graduate from university... eventually......
Likes:
Hobbies:
B1F Junk Shop is a personal project of mine inspired by the aesthetics of the old net (1990~2010). I feel like social media websites these days offer little to no customization, leaving every person's page feeling like the same bland website. I wanted somewhere that I can experiment with styles and store my work and thoughts about life.
When in Japan, I was very intrigued by the different junk shops scattered about Akihabara and I absolutely love the things you can find in there. I love old technology, and there is an endless supply of new and interesting things you can find in these stores. One store that stuck out to me - and is the namesake of this website - is the Hard Off on the back street of Akiba, which features a room filled with junk in blue boxes, stereo and VCR machines lining the back walls, and guitars on the rightmost wall. Lining the walls are posters of the junk shop mascot with "JUNK CORNER", "BUY AND SELL", and "TREASURE HUNT!" written in Japanese in bubbly blue and yellow characters. Things in the blue bins ranged anywhere from old keyboards, wires and connectors, Wii remotes, portable DVD and CD players, camera hardware, monitors, stereos, kitchen utensils, entire computers, and even more. It's a real treasure hunt in there if you can dig through enough.
The internet has been a large part of my life for as long as I can remember. My early memories are filled with sitting in the basement on my family's big CRT monitor computer loaded with Windows XP, playing CD-ROM and flash games until the early hours of the night then sneaking upstairs into my room.
Some of us still hide, whispering in the new dark corners of what we have built. We ruminate about what we didn't know that hurt us, how to start over and create a better world where " reality" would be something in which all those children we aren't or shouldn't be having will revel and explore. We tangle and bond with the mess of wires until they cut us, hoping someone as trapped as we are will taste freedom in what comes out, but most of those dreaming kids are still scattered and alone, unable to bridge our homes in the Wired world with the sensory one. Every once in a while, a few of us find a corner without being followed by those masses who tell us not to touch the rat's nest of connections lest we sever one of the countless, long-dead strands slicing into our ability to live, in the wishful belief that there are still a few thinking people somewhere out there, and send it back in hopes that others will join us in the same way that *we* were liberated.
But no-one answers anymore. Cyberpunk is dead. If you don't believe me, see it for yourself.
Just go outside.
I like a lot of video games.
Games I Own:
Games I Own:
Games I Own:
Games I Love:
Want to Play:
My music taste is weird.
Daft Punk - Discovery
This is it. This is THE album of all time. There is not a single bad second on this album, and I will always listen the entire way through with no skips. Each song in itself is legendary and Daft Punk really outdid themselves with this one. I own the Japanese version of this CD, with the Interstella slip cover on it, I found it at BookOff in Ikebukuro along with Human After All with the original Daft Club card still inside.
검정치마 - Teen Troubles
This album is one of the defining points in my experience living in Korea and Japan. I have so many memories associated with this album. My first Korean friend introduced the album to me because he went to their concert and I instantly fell in love with it. From singing Powder Blue drunk in a music bar in Seoul, to listening to Flying Bobs looking out the train window while crossing the Han River at night, driving through the Japanese countryside on a warm summer day with 어린양 playing through the car speakers, to playing Electra on a drive with my boyfriend, this album has been everywhere in my life in the last year. I feel like this album got me through so many times in my life recently, and I'm really glad I found it.
Macroblank - 痛みの永遠
Jitterin' Jin - 夏祭り
I really like this album ハッピーカムカム by Jitterin' Jin. My boyfriend introduced it to me through playing the CD that his mom passed down to him. I can't find videos of many of the songs on Youtube, but thankfully the full album is on Spotify. These songs give off a really cool and classic Japanese vibe and I like it a lot.
I have watched anime since I was around 5 years old
(This list is unordered except for the top one.)
Fun or cool sites I like or want to save.
http://angelic-trust.net/ (also accessible through wayback machine)
Best Secondhand Stores in Gunma
Hoverable links lead to separate pages!
Why not? I love the old web aesthetic and I miss using tumblr and deviantart as blogs, so I wanted to make a new one I can use and customize to my liking.
Don't. :)
Just kidding. For now please leave me a message in my Guest book!
FOR GENUINE INQUIRIES ONLY:
Please email me at: b1fjunkshop (at) gmail (dot) com.
I got into coding around middle school, I wanted to be a cool hackerman B) kinda person and I had a Tumblr blog that I learned to customize the HTML of. In high school, I moved from more art-focused to science-y when I joined my robotics team. I started to learn Java and I also took a class on Arduino programming. I wasn't very good at coding and things just didn't click with me because I wasn't being taught in a way that worked well for me. Then, I focused on more hardware stuff, so I got into college for electrical engineering and I didn't really think about coding until I took an intro to Python course. The professor was so great and taught in a way that made things click easily for me and I found out that I loved coding. I liked coding so much that I actually changed my major to computer science, and the rest is history. Years later, I now know Java, JavaScript, Python, C, C++, C#, HTML/CSS, and Assembly (although I am not a "master" at any of them).
Things I want to do for the website:
Welcome to my hoard of images! I take no credit for anything on this page.
Here are fan pages I have created. These sites are currently under construction!
If you read my about page, Book Off and Hard Off are part of the inspiration for this website's name and styling. I took inspiration from the logos of these stores because I like the bubbly text, it has a nice feel to it.
Hard Off is the ultimate one-stop-shop for all of your hobby needs! That is, if you want used goods. Although, "used" in Japan usually means near-new condition. Heck, in another store on the back street in Akiba (Surugaya) I found a "junk" PS2 for 2,000 yen that the shop owner told me he doesn't know if it works, but it ran perfect when I started it up at home! The standard for "junk" is pretty high in Japan, lol. These stores are a great place to find "hard"ware for hobbies on the cheap, like if you want to try playing guitar, you can pick up a gently used one for less than 10,000 yen. There is really anything you can think of if you search for long enough, especially in the "junk" section.
Below is a walking tour of the Hard Off in Akihabara's back street:
The feeling when I enter one of these stores is just awesome, I know I'll find some great stuff and I'll never walk out empty-handed.
The farther out into the countryside you go, the larger these stores become. I visited the largest Book Off in Japan in Maebashi, Gunma and it was as big as an entire mall. It was like Book Off, Hard Off, Mode Off, and Hobby Off all combined into one amazing building. They had everything from the traditional books, movies, and games, to figures, to walls of used kimonos, to camping gear, to sports goods, and literally anything else you can imagine. The Hard Off in Akihabara will always be my favorite, but the one in Maebashi is a very close second. They have a huge selection of ski and snowboard gear, and I can't wait to go when I move there.
Manga
Games
Music