I’m vacationing in Japan at the moment, visiting relatives. It is sweltering so we stay mostly indoors, but I have been a couple of trips to akihabara. Initially I only meant to buy a used ic-7100 this year, but then of course I also needed a new psu, so alinco was it. After a couple of days I realize that an brand spanking new ic-7300 was half price compared to home (provided I manage to avoid VAT coming home) so I bought one. And now I of course need a new antenna for all this fancy new equipment… It snowballs.
I know I’ll have to do mars mod on the radios. No trouble. That’s easy.
Actually my main worry is my baggage allotment when flying back home.
If the talking isn’t what you’re interested in:
There’s also digital modes that let your computer do all of the talking through your radio.
Morse code(cw) where you’re not talking so-to-speak, but dit’in and dah’in at someone else.
APRS for geolocation and also a few other messaging services.
Also the fun of building new things.