I used to let my cellphone batteries drain completely before charging them. I was told the last time I bought a cellphone that that is not necessary anymore, but I continued to do it anyway, just to be safe. I figured it couldn’t hurt.

Well, apparently, it CAN hurt!

This source says that lithium-ion batteries should *not* be discharged fully on a regular basis.

Avoid frequent full discharges because this puts additional strain on the battery. Several partial discharges with frequent recharges are better for lithium-ion than one deep one. Recharging a partially charged lithium-ion does not cause harm because there is no memory. (In this respect, lithium-ion differs from nickel-based batteries.) Short battery life in a laptop is mainly cause by heat rather than charge/discharge patterns.

Source: http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm

So, it seems that I probably contributed to the short life of my last two batteries (not including the defective one) by following the same rules as for nickel-based batteries. From now on, I will not let the battery run out completely before charging it. Also, I will try not to leave my cellphone in a place where it will get too hot. Let’s hope that leads to a more reasonable lifespan for my cellphone
batteries from now on!

Frugal Hive says:

Answer 1

Here are some ideas for fun and frugal stuff to do. Sorry, I don’t have the exact details off the top of my head but they can be easily found by searching.

1. Wandering through the small streets of Harajuku and Shibuya is free and fun, and people-watching is great there. And Yoyogi Park is just there as well.

2. There is a free 1-hour guided tour of Asakusa once a week and Ueno twice a week given by Tokyo Goodwill Guides. See: http://www.japanvisitor.com/index.php?cID=357&pID=1067

3. Pick up a copy of the Tokyo Metropolitan Guide Book (orange in colour). Available at Tokyo Metropolitan tourism info counters and major stations. It has coupons for all the major museums, parks, and some theme parks.

4. Odaiba is good for a day of strolling. There’s the miniature Statue of Liberty there.

5. Rent a bicycle from the Asakusa bicycle-rent place and cycle along the Sumida River.

6. Visit the Metropolis magazine events listing for matsuri (local festivals) and free exhibitions.

Answer 2

Walk Akihabara. Haven’t spent time there in years; used to be all tech stuff, but I understand it’s more of a pop culture mecca now.

Walk from Omote-Sando, through Harajuku, to Meiji Shrine, maybe Yoyogi Park.

Head to the top of the Tokyo government building; last I checked, the observation deck is free. Same view as Tokyo Tower, without the ridiculous fee. (And Tokyo Tower is pretty inconvenient to get to, too.) Lots of electronics shops on the way, on the west side of Shinjuku Station.

Do a Gin-bura (walk around Ginza): traditional craft shops, dept stores, Apple Store… Nearby in Yurakucho, the huge Bic Camera electronics shop and smoky yakitori joints under the tracks, with
Hibiya Park and Imperial Palace not far away… Don’t know whether that’s all of interest to a teen, though. (And I don’t think there’s much to see at the Palace – mostly moat.)

Shibuya is fun for people-watching, but massively crowded. Some tourists love the Tokyu Hands store – pretty fun. (Ikebukuro has one too; also a small one in Takashimaya shopping center at Shinjuku south exit.)

Don’t plan the traditional tour of the Tsukiji fish market; I heard that they finally stopped letting the tourists disrupt work. (Anyone know the truth of that?)

Answer 3

Free guided tours in Tokyo. The guides speak English and are really nice. I sent my parents on a few of these when they were visiting and they enjoyed them a lot

See: http://www.tourism.metro.tokyo.jp/english/tourists/guideservice/guideservice/index.html

Frugal Hive questions and answers are taken from the Frugal Japan mailing list. If you have a question about living frugally in Japan, subscribe to our list and ask the Frugal Hive!

What you need to do to accomplish this goal is to head down to Akihabara and find yourself an old IBM Thinkpad laptop with no operating system. I was able to find one the other day for about 22,000 yen. Mine is an X31 and it has 512MB of RAM and a 40GB hard drive. Since I am using it as a second computer, not my main beast, I don’t mind slightly low specs. I also had to pony up 8000 yen for the base so I could have a DVD drive. Other kinds of computers may work, but I have been told that IBM Thinkpads interface well with the kind of operating system we are going to use here (Ubuntu, based on Debian GNU/Linux, a popular Linux distribution), so if you aren’t sure what kind of computer to buy, go with the Thinkpad.

(Linux is a free Unix-type operating system originally created by Linus Torvalds. There are many different flavours of Linux, but if you are not already familiar with Linux/Unix, you should probably stick with Ubuntu for now. You can always try other distributions later.)

Once you have your new-used computer, go to the Ubuntu website, download the latest stable version of Ubuntu and follow the instructions for burning an ISO image onto the disk.

You can also get a free Ubuntu disk sent to you, but that will take quite a few weeks, so if you have a decently fast connection to the internet and you are able to burn a CD, it will be faster just to make one yourself.

At this stage, if you have not done an Ubuntu installation before, I would recommend that you order some pizza and invite your geekiest friend over to walk you through the installation and basic setup. It is quite an easy process, but you will appreciate having a helping hand to walk you through some of the options if you don’t know your bits from your bytes. That said, since you are dealing with a computer with no operating system installed, if you want to give it a try by yourself, you can’t really do much harm. Then you can resort to the pizza bait trick if you find yourself in trouble. Just stick the installation disk in and start answering the questions. The whole installation will probably take less than half an hour.

Once you have your operating system up and running, and you have hopefully managed to connect your new-used computer to the internet without any problems (and have downloaded and installed all the updates), you can go online to find out how to make your DVD player spin disks from any region or how to input Japanese characters, amongst a myriad of other things. You will probably find free open-source software that will allow you to do everything on your Ubuntu machine that you are about to do on your main machine. Just remember to install the Linux version of the software on your Ubuntu system, not the Windows or Mac version!

This solution works well if you already have one computer that has a Windows or Mac operating system and you just need another computer for odd jobs (like watching DVDs from other regions or checking email in the morning before work). You can use proprietary software like MS Office on your main computer and then put Open Office on your secondary computer for when you just need a quick and dirty word processor to get the job done.

If and when you find yourself in trouble, just do a search for whatever ails you and you will be sure to find that someone else has dealt with the problem and was kind enough to write up instructions for how to fix it. I have found that sometimes the first few hits in the search engines show me really complicated ways to fix the problem, but that if I dig a bit deeper, I can usually find a simpler answer. Don’t despair if you find some answer that doesn’t even seem like English because of all the computer jargon. Go back to your search results and see if someone else was kind enough to give it to you in language you can understand.

(If you have never worked with Unix/Linux/Ubuntu or anything similar before, you may find the
Ubuntu Pocket Guide useful.)

This has happened to me a few times now so I generally just put up with it. However, I found out today that I probably shouldn’t have been quite so stoic this time. I brought my cellphone to the au shop to find out whether it would be cheaper to change the battery or change phones, but when I showed my cellphone (41SA) to the clerk, she told me that it might be possible to have my battery replaced for free. She gave me a number to call, and lo and behold, a new battery will be sent to me next week for free.

This probably won’t work for everyone, but I just thought I would write about it in case anyone else is being unnecessarily stoic with a defective battery. It seems that the battery in my cellphone was recalled at some point. I received my current phone from a friend who was leaving Japan, so it is possible that she got a notice about the recall but didn’t bother doing anything about it because she wasn’t staying for very long.

So, if your cellphone battery seems not to be able to hold a charge even though the phone/battery is quite new, it might be worth asking your cellphone provider if you qualify for a new battery. It’s a long-shot, but you might just luck out.

Ted Talks: Benjamin Zander

However, I watched the video a few weeks ago and I have found that his words have resonated with me in a number of different contexts. In particular, I like how he described the progression of a person learning to play the piano. The difference between a beginner and a virtuoso is practice, of course, but also learning not to give in to every urge.

Frugalites, too, need to learn the art of resisting impulses in order to progress into advanced frugalosity. One way to train yourself to reflect on rather than react to your impulses is to implement a rule of waiting a certain number of days before buying something, depending on the price of the purchase. For example, if you want to buy something that is 3000 yen, you should think about it for three days before handing over the cash. If you want to buy something that is 7000 yen, you should wait for seven days. A computer worth 200,000 yen, therefore, would entail a 20 day wait. If you want to be even stricter with yourself, you could multiply by a factor of two (a 3000 yen purchase would require 6 days) or even change the “days” to “weeks” if you really want to stave off any potentially impulsive purchases that won’t stand the test of time.

The “Waiting Game” could be applied to all purchases, or you could just enforce it in areas where you tend to buy stuff that you later end up not using (I bet a few of you have some exercise equipment in this category).

You may find that after waiting for a certain amount of time, your urge to buy a particular item gets overshadowed by something else that you have decided you can’t live without, or you just lose the initial excitement and decide that you can, after all, live without the item in question. If, on the contrary, you find that you still want the item after the requisite time has passed, then perhaps it is something that you really need and you can, therefore, justify the expense of purchasing it. If so, go ahead and do it with the knowledge that you are now spending your money like a virtuoso instead of a beginner.

The website is:
http://www.coldwatercreek.com/

Use offer code: WXH6419 when prompted at checkout to get the 50% off your total. The sale is until 12/28.

Happy shopping!

Recommended by SS on the Frugal Japan mailing list.

The next time you are thinking about buying a new piece of exercise equipment (or joining a gym), try to think about how you are going to fit that new equipment/membership into your life. If you think you will use it after work, then before you spend any money, try to go for a walk (or a run, or do some other sort of exercise that doesn’t require you to buy any new equipment) after work ten times in one month before you let yourself buy it.

If you easily pass the ten-times test, then go ahead and buy it because you have already set yourself up for success by putting yourself in the habit of exercising at that time.

If you don’t pass the test, ask yourself why. Was it because you don’t really have time after work? If so, then do another ten-times feasibility study in another part of the day so you can determine the best time to introduce this new piece of equipment into your life. No sense having it if you don’t have time to use it. Or do you have the time, but not the motivation? In that case, how much motivation will the new piece of equipment buy you? Be honest with yourself — and take points off for every other piece of equipment that you have ever bought and not used more than 10 times.

Giving yourself a rational basis for the decision-making process when it comes to buying exercise equipment can save you a whole lot of money in the long run, if you tend to buy stuff and then not use it. Try to notice this sort of behaviour and do not give in to your urge to buy until you have proven to yourself that, not only do you really NEED this fabulous new piece of equipment, but that you have actually collected evidence that you will be able to fit it into your life.

We also used it to heat up our futon before going to bed. We have a wool-like fluffy mat under our sheet, a top sheet, then another futon. As it gets colder, we add a blanket or two to the mix. We would heat up the futon for about 10 minutes, then get in. I rarely suffered from sinus problems and sore throats, last year. So, the couple of yen we spend to heat up the futon every night helps me save on doctor and pharmaceutical bills.

I had a look on Rakuten the other day and the cheapest ones go for around 4.500 yen. There might be other bargains out there. Well worth the investment.

Recommended by GB on the Frugal Japan mailing list.

I found the following website talking about Yutanpo :
http://nihonhacks.com/in-the-home/keep-yourself-warm-with-yutampo/

By the way, the Nihon Hacks website has a lot of frugal ideas that i like.

Recommended by H on the Frugal Japan mailing list.