While waiting for my flight home, I wandered around Narita Airport. I spied a pair of in-the-ear Sony MDR-NC11 Noise Canceling Fontopia® Ear-Bud Headphones in the shop near my gate. They were reasonably priced at JPY100,000 (about USD$92), so I picked them up. They're quite comfortable, as they have three sizes of silicon covers to fit various sized ear canals. And, best of all, they knock out a good deal of the fan noise in the Deep Freeze, so I can listen to whatever guilty pleasure I desire.
There is a new factory outlet mall on the way to and from work, with a Sony factory store. They offer both factory refurbished and new models of these headphones, although they do not sell parts. I was quite taken aback that the refurbs were sold for more (USD$99) than what I paid for the new ones in Japan. The new ones sold at the outlet store cost USD$149! I was thinking to myself about what a rip-off this place was while making small talk with the sales representative, because I would like to get some spare silicon covers for my headphones before this model is discontinued. Sony seems to discontinue items very quickly, so it's tough to get parts. The motto to this story: Some factory outlet stores do not have any bargains, and Sony seems to be one of them.
If you have a brand-new Sony product, and you're going to Japan, try not to break it. If it's a US-only model, you'll be out of luck. Many stores do not sell parts for Sony equipment, and you may have to go to a Sony specialty store. If it's a US-only model, there may be no way to get only the particular part you need. You may have to buy a kit, if there is a parts kit that is compatible with your model.
For example, last year a classmate of mine had bought a CD Mavica, which records digital pictures onto 3.5in CDs. It is powered by an internal battery and can only be charged by a wall cable. He went on a trip to climb Mt. Fuji. Unfortunately, the cable got wet during the trip and shorted out. My classmate spoke no Japanese so I went with him to translate. After visiting a number of camera shops on the main shopping street, and finding they sold everything but Sony, we finally reached Sony Shop Avic. The parts center in Osaka was quite apologetic and said they couldn't get parts for the camera, as it was a US-only model. However, my classmate was pretty inventive--he checked out the Handycam videocamera display and quickly learned that the wall cables for those were compatible with his CD Mavica. The unfortunate part was that, to get that cable, he also had to buy the battery, the charger, and the wall cable for the charger--all for JPY300,000 (about USD$280). In the US, he would have been able to get the cable only under warranty. But, he needed to be able to use the camera, which would have been a paperweight without the charging cable. Shoganai (it couldn't be helped).
Sony stuff is pretty ordinary in Japan...it's nothing special over there, as far as I can tell, just another brand among many we don't see over here. I would rather go to a big denkiya (electronics store) like Joshin Denki, Ninomiya, or Media Planets and check out the spreads over at those places...there are a lot of interesting things to play with and choose from, why limit yourself to a one-brand store when you don't have to?
