Yes, I know the Mamiya C330, I have the C33 but do not use it too often because it is much too heavy to carry around--and certainly not a good travel camera. I often take my wife's Nikon T-35 when traveling as I can put easily put it in my shirt or jacket pocket and it is a high quality, but limited camera. I keep looking for the ideal travel camera but have not settled on one. The Contax G2 is one that I keep coming back to though.

I too have a several old cameras sitting on my shelves as I just can't bring myself to part with them. Two of the cameras I bought while in Japan many years ago.

Sorry to say I have not been back to Japan for four years. The last time there we went to Osaka and Kyoto. We enjoyed walking around Osaka and especially enjoyed the street vendors selling all kinds of food. One street I recall was lined with these vendors selling food. We stopped for the grilled chicken which was quite good. Kyoto is stunningly beautiful and certainly is a must see for the traveller.

Most of the visits to Japan, however, were to Tokyo. On Sundays I always looked forward to going to Akihabara to window shop and look for new things for my audio/video system. I found it fascinating that some American equipment sold for three times the price there than it did in New York City.

One of the things I enjoyed doing while in Tokyo was getting on the subway--any subway--and riding for 15 or 20 minutes then getting off anywhere the train stopped. Then just walked around wherever the train let me off and when I got tired, I hailed a cab, showed the driver the matchbook from my hotel and the cab would take me back to it. This was great fun and an interesting way to see the city and since Japan is so safe there is never a problem doing such things.

I look forward to returning to Japan before too long.

Peter