Neither of which actually include the areas near me. And it's all available with connecting transfers and arrival/departure times that are so accurate it would bring any Swiss to tears, on your keitai in a matter of seconds. Most of my friends' keitai's hold more pictures on them than I would ever know what to do with, and they're often printable quality. Then there's the text messaging. I know that in North America we're a little behind the times on this point. The Europeans had it down years ago, and we're all waaaay behind Asia. You can send your friend practically a novel worth of information at the click of a button. There are people who spend their whole time on their keitai and very rarely interact with their surroundings. There's even a name. They're called Oyayubizoku, translation: people who won't get off the keitai. Would you believe that this is still sort of digressing from my main point? That little jaunt was to try and explain what a keitai is and why I cannot just call it a cell phone, because it's something very different. My point is actually that the keitai does not match the keitai owner. There are numerous times when I see some fabulously dressed woman in a power suit on the train, probably coming from some high executive power meeting where worlds are being formed and then the little jingle for whatever Hello Kitty-esque cartoon is popular that week comes out of her purse as she fishes around in the bottom of the ever expensive giant Louis Vuitton to finally find the ever elusive ringing keitai. Is it a little cell phone that she pops open and says "Hello, this is Michiko speaking" (only in Japanese and in a confident manner)? No, it is a bright pink contraption with like, 6 bobbles hanging from the top of it, one of which is a stuffed animal larger than anything I would ever allow my child to play with, another bobbles glows pink and purple when it is ringing and she finally pops it open to not actually talk on it but just to look at the screen and jiggle (either a text, or some good photos). The Japanese are big into the keitai decorations. And it's not just the women. I have seen men in power suits walking down the road with a flashy electric blue keitai that they are text messaging on and from the top hangs 4 little bobbles all of kids cartoon fame. Everything here truly is cute. Even the phones. I don't mean to mock it, and I hope it doesn't come across as such. It's just that for a girl who is so anti-cell back home, well, it's a little overwhelming.
Monday, May 9, 2005
May 9, 2005
Did you know that Keitai owners don't match their phones. Unlike dogs. Keitai are cell phones. But not just any old mobiles. I am yet to meet someone here who can actually manage to call a keitai a cell phone. They really two completely different entities. A cell phone, you talk on it, the odd one you take photos on. I know many people who are quite attached to their mobile. It's not the same. I do believe that a keitai could could possibly have enough controls to power a nuclear sub-station (not that I know what a nuclear sub-station is but it sounded good and like something that would need some serious tech behind it to run it). Your whole life can be on a keitai, and again, it's different from say, Doug, who I believe would go into catatonic shock if ever he were left cell-less (Doug, I love you, not that that's a band-aid, but more of me saying that I don't mean anything negative by the comment, just calling it like it is). I had a girl whip out her keitai in the middle of class tonight to look up the word "punk" cause they weren't following what I was saying. Yes I called a kid a punk today, long story and I digress. The point is that she looked up the word "punk" on her keitai in the matter of about 10 seconds and it gave her a full translation of the word into Japanese. You can get the entire Tokyo subway and JR systems. The subway system consists of a kazillion different lines and the JR system looks more complicated than heart surgery. You doubt me? See the picture beside. 
Neither of which actually include the areas near me. And it's all available with connecting transfers and arrival/departure times that are so accurate it would bring any Swiss to tears, on your keitai in a matter of seconds. Most of my friends' keitai's hold more pictures on them than I would ever know what to do with, and they're often printable quality. Then there's the text messaging. I know that in North America we're a little behind the times on this point. The Europeans had it down years ago, and we're all waaaay behind Asia. You can send your friend practically a novel worth of information at the click of a button. There are people who spend their whole time on their keitai and very rarely interact with their surroundings. There's even a name. They're called Oyayubizoku, translation: people who won't get off the keitai. Would you believe that this is still sort of digressing from my main point? That little jaunt was to try and explain what a keitai is and why I cannot just call it a cell phone, because it's something very different. My point is actually that the keitai does not match the keitai owner. There are numerous times when I see some fabulously dressed woman in a power suit on the train, probably coming from some high executive power meeting where worlds are being formed and then the little jingle for whatever Hello Kitty-esque cartoon is popular that week comes out of her purse as she fishes around in the bottom of the ever expensive giant Louis Vuitton to finally find the ever elusive ringing keitai. Is it a little cell phone that she pops open and says "Hello, this is Michiko speaking" (only in Japanese and in a confident manner)? No, it is a bright pink contraption with like, 6 bobbles hanging from the top of it, one of which is a stuffed animal larger than anything I would ever allow my child to play with, another bobbles glows pink and purple when it is ringing and she finally pops it open to not actually talk on it but just to look at the screen and jiggle (either a text, or some good photos). The Japanese are big into the keitai decorations. And it's not just the women. I have seen men in power suits walking down the road with a flashy electric blue keitai that they are text messaging on and from the top hangs 4 little bobbles all of kids cartoon fame. Everything here truly is cute. Even the phones. I don't mean to mock it, and I hope it doesn't come across as such. It's just that for a girl who is so anti-cell back home, well, it's a little overwhelming.
Neither of which actually include the areas near me. And it's all available with connecting transfers and arrival/departure times that are so accurate it would bring any Swiss to tears, on your keitai in a matter of seconds. Most of my friends' keitai's hold more pictures on them than I would ever know what to do with, and they're often printable quality. Then there's the text messaging. I know that in North America we're a little behind the times on this point. The Europeans had it down years ago, and we're all waaaay behind Asia. You can send your friend practically a novel worth of information at the click of a button. There are people who spend their whole time on their keitai and very rarely interact with their surroundings. There's even a name. They're called Oyayubizoku, translation: people who won't get off the keitai. Would you believe that this is still sort of digressing from my main point? That little jaunt was to try and explain what a keitai is and why I cannot just call it a cell phone, because it's something very different. My point is actually that the keitai does not match the keitai owner. There are numerous times when I see some fabulously dressed woman in a power suit on the train, probably coming from some high executive power meeting where worlds are being formed and then the little jingle for whatever Hello Kitty-esque cartoon is popular that week comes out of her purse as she fishes around in the bottom of the ever expensive giant Louis Vuitton to finally find the ever elusive ringing keitai. Is it a little cell phone that she pops open and says "Hello, this is Michiko speaking" (only in Japanese and in a confident manner)? No, it is a bright pink contraption with like, 6 bobbles hanging from the top of it, one of which is a stuffed animal larger than anything I would ever allow my child to play with, another bobbles glows pink and purple when it is ringing and she finally pops it open to not actually talk on it but just to look at the screen and jiggle (either a text, or some good photos). The Japanese are big into the keitai decorations. And it's not just the women. I have seen men in power suits walking down the road with a flashy electric blue keitai that they are text messaging on and from the top hangs 4 little bobbles all of kids cartoon fame. Everything here truly is cute. Even the phones. I don't mean to mock it, and I hope it doesn't come across as such. It's just that for a girl who is so anti-cell back home, well, it's a little overwhelming.
