FreeStuff Japan

How Safe is Second-Hand Stuff?

Shaney — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 13:02:00 +0000

One of our members forwarded this link to the list, so I thought I would post it on our website for future reference.

Recycling Mobile Phones in Japan

Shaney — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 03:10:50 +0000

Question: I have 2 old mobile phones that I don’t know what to do with. One is an old Vodafone so I could probably take it to Softbank, but the other is a Tu-ka which is no longer in business. Does anyone know what to do with these phones?

Answer 1: I have seen boxes in Yodobashi Camera for you to drop off old mobile phones for recycling. Also, I don’t know where you are located, but in Kanto some am-pm stores have mobile recycling drop off boxes. This page has a photo in the upper right showing what they look like.

Answer 2: I know that AU will accept old phones to be recycled, but I am not sure about the other carriers. Cellphones actually contain quite a bit of valuable metal (including gold), so I think Softbank may agree to take the phones anyway.

Free Books in Japan

Shaney — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 07:00:13 +0000

There are a number of ways to access books for free in Japan.

Depending on the number of foreign people in your community, you may find that your local library stocks books in foreign languages. The Tsukuba Public Library, for example, has books in English, French, Russian, Chinese, and Korean.

If you are not lucky enough to live in a foreign hub, you can also try using Book Crossing and Library Thing to satisfy your inner bookworm.

See for example:

A final way to find books in Japan is to raid the shelves of other foreign people in your community. Your friends may not be willing to part with the books permanently, but they may be able to lend them out long enough for you to read them and return them (preferably within a reasonable amount of time and in the pristine state in which you received them — booklovers are a very particular bunch).

If you know of any other way to access books for free in Japan, please let us know in the comments.

Other Places to Get Free Stuff in Japan

Shaney — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:22:47 +0000

If you can’t find/give away stuff through FreeStuff Japan, you can also try joining one of the three locally active freecycle groups in Japan.

Misawa (Air Base) Freecycle: 450 members, active since about 2006
Okinawa Japan Freecycle: 234 members, just became active two months ago after two years of inactivity
Tokyo Freecyle: 929 members, active since about 2006

There are two other groups that we know of, but they are not active.

Freecycle Kumamoto: 31 members, 2 posts in 2008
Freecycle Niigata: 16 members, 1 post in 2008

Another place to look for free stuff is the Classified ads in Metropolis Magazine.

If you know of any other ways to get free stuff in Japan, please let us know in the comments.

Welcome to FreeStuff Japan!

Shaney — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 02:01:03 +0000

Freecycle Japan has been changed to FreeStuff Japan, effective immediately. (Please see the note below.)

Also, there is a new website for the group available at
http://freestuffjapan.wordpress.com/

Please update your links/address book and forward this information to other lists or individuals who might be affected by this change.

The moderator of the freecyclejapan group has changed the group’s name. This means that both the group’s email address and the group home page location have changed.

The group email address:
freestuffjapan[AT]yahoogroups.com

The group home page location:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freestuffjapan

If you have links which point to this group or an address book entry for the group, you should update them, as the old addresses will no longer work.