I actually tried to call him on the phone once in the past. His mother answered and wanted to know why I was calling. I spoke to her in Japanese and said "to discuss a CF card adapter." She then told me her son told her I was bugging him about that product via email. I said that was not true and I was only inquiring about performance. (This was prior to the new adapter he as out now.) She told me her son said otherwise and I said in my best diplomatic Japanese that all I wanted to do was briefly speak with Manabu about the product he was selling so I could consider purchasing it. She put me on hold and then came back 30 seconds later to say he refused to speak with me. She was very polite though so it appears that she understood what I said was true (or perhaps she just acted that way to humor me, I don't know). At any rate, that is why I said Manabu Sakai is eccentric.

I feel I got what I paid for on other items I had purchased from in prior to that, which included his expensive TS Adapter. He even loaned me one of his high powered SE/30 power supplies so I could debug an SE/30 too. He trusted me that I wouldn't steal it, and after I was done with it I of course shipped it back to him at my expense. But it was after all that he became what I consider "eccentric" in that he refused to give me specifics about performance of his older version CF adapter. Funny, because now on his new adapter he puts a performance graph up there for all to see. So I guess that was my indirect contribution in all this.