How to make a home theater in Japan on a budget

So you're in Japan teaching English, and making do with hand-me-down furniture and appliances from the last teacher. You really wish you could get a big screen TV, but they cost a fortune, and besides, you may not even be in the country for more than a year, and you'd just have to give it away anyway. What to do?

One thing I've learned about technology in the past few years is that a little extra money goes a long way. The bicycle is a good example. The standard, gearless model in Japan is 10,000 yen, or 100 dollars. If you go up to 350-500, you can see enormous improvements, including front wheel suspension, gears, and a much lighter weight. These additions improve your bike by 100%. The next step up is to over 100,000 yen or $1000, where you can get a lighter frame and disc breaks...which are nice, but don't add anywhere near as much value relatively when you consider that the price just doubled. Finally, when you double the price again to over 200,000 yen or $2000, you find yourself reduced to miniscule improvements, like using a titanium alloy to reduce the weight by an extra 5% or so.

The moral is that while the very best thing may cost a heap of money, the next best thing, or even merely the next next best thing, delivers nearly as much quality for a fraction of the price. And the law applies to home theater as much as anything else.

So here's what you do-

1. Buy this Acer DLP projector currently on sale at Yodobashi camera for 45,000 yen, or about $450. Despite its powerful 2000 lumen, 4000-hour bulb, Its small, lightweight, portable, and comes with a carrying case, so you can take it over to a friend's place to watch a movie or play some video games, and of course, take it home with you if you leave. It's designed for use with computers to give power point presentations and the like, but its about as good as you could possibly need it, and delivers a very crisp and bright picture up to 300", even in the middle of the day. When I show people pictures of the image they can't even tell its a projection not a normal television. You can use an old VCR, which all have TV tuners, to see standard TV. And you can hook it up to your laptop and use it as a separate monitor. You can watch The Daily Show via the free online stream on the big screen, and keep on using the original screen to surf the net, like I'm doing in the photo above. In this photo the screen is 60" wide, with the picture taken on the other side of the room, about 3 meters away. The picture looks grainy due to the quality of the net stream, but TV and DVDs look much better.

If you go online, you'll see home theater aficionados turning their noses up at this because its not every bit as good as 10,000 dollar plasma TVs that give a picture the same size, or high-end, 130,000 to 300,000 yen projectors specifically designed for 1080p HDTV. But the resolution rate is still well beyond what a standard TV signal or DVD requires, and will display all those shows you download with as high a resolution as you can possibly see them in. It can show HDTV too, though scaled down. If you upgrade a step to the 65,000 yen model, you can get a resolution rate very close to the HDTV format American broadcasters use for shows like Lost and 24.

Remember, just 6 or 7 years ago, projectors with far worse specs were considered near top of the line, and sold for $4000 dollars. Today, when the same thing is twice as bright with 5 times the contrast for nearly a tenth the price, the Home theater critics that review this projector turn their nose up at it a bit for not being every bit as good as the brand new $5000-10,000 systems, but concede that, "for someone who just wants a projector to invite people over to see the odd DVD or sports game, this should certainly be adequate." Be that guy! Use the extra 950,000 yen you save to spend time out of your darkened TV room enjoying Japan.

2. While you're down in the basement computer section of Yodobashi Camera, pick up a computer speaker system that has tweeters and a subwoofer for around 3000 yen. Again, not as good as a home stereo system for 50,000 yen plus. But very good for the money.

3. Need a screen? Most cost 10,000-50,000 yen, all for what essentially amounts to an expanse of flat white material. To hell with that- Go to an art supply store or bookstore and get some sheets of white A3 poster paper. Duct-tape about 8 sheets together, keeping the edges as tight together as possible. Now reverse sheets to the clean side, and thumbtack it to the wall. If you squint when the color on the screen is white, you may be able to detect thin lines between the sheets. Other than that its essentially no different from a commercial screen.

4. Like I said, the screen is surprisingly bright even in the day (we're watching it now), but to get full quality, go to Muji Ryushi . This store is getting popular overseas and considered a stylish, Japanese answer to Ikea. But don't be fooled by the appearance- it can be surprisingly cheap. You can pick up some expensive-looking curtains that block 99.7% of all sunlight (literally, according to the specs) for just 1300 yen each.

And that's it. Enjoy!