Rant: Walked into a camera shop in Tokyo and saw a guy fixing a shutter with chopsticks

I was in Shinjuku last week visiting this small repair shop I heard about. The old guy behind the counter had a Nikon F2 open on his bench and he was using actual wooden chopsticks to hold a tiny screw in place. No tweezers or anything fancy. He just shrugged and said it worked fine. Has anyone else run into weird improvised tools like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

kelly_rivera11d ago

That old guy with chopsticks sounds exactly like the kind of repair person I love finding. I saw something similar in Osaka a few years back a guy was using a paperclip bent into a little hook to pull out a stuck film advance lever spring. He said he learned it from his teacher who used a sewing needle back in the 70s. The whole place smelled like old camera leather and cigarettes and he had a tiny TV playing sumo in the corner. I think these guys just figure out what works with what they have on hand and they don't care if it looks weird.

the_john11d ago

That Osaka place sounds incredible, I found a guy in Tokyo who fixed a shutter with a toothpick.

kai_ramirez3811d ago

Paperclips and toothpicks are the real tools of the trade. That sounds like a genuine craftsman right there.