6th Nov 2006

Monday 6th November
If in doubt, add an O on the end of a word and the japanese are more likely to understand you… this only really applies to words which end with a consonant which isn't M or N. I discovered this whilst trying to buy a large piece of dowel which I wanted to have cut in half.

Why was I buying dowel?

Well I decided that my speakers needed speaker stands (the ones at the back any way) and I couldn't find any to buy so I thought I'd make them…found some pre-cut circles of wood and some thinner hexagonal along with 4 pole ends…the screws which came with them were a little too long for the hexagons so I bought some smaller screws too…then the getting the connecting pole was interesting because the ones by the pole ends that I bought were all too heavy…walking around I eventually found some wooden dowel (slightly wrong diameter…but that's ok). I went to the desk to get it cut…much to the confusion of the staff…it only costs 30yen for a cut! Anyway trying to explain I wanted the thing cut in half was interesting…but 'cutto ban' seemed to work because I came back and there were the two halves of wood waiting for me.

So I get the stuff back home and make my stands…but I needed to wedge the pole in because they were 2mm thinner than the holders..so used some left over felt…seemed to work. But I don't think it will be very safe in an earthquake…definitely just topple over with the speaker on…oh well. I'm sure it will cope.