we had to go to the post office (which in japan is also a state bank) to open our post/bank accounts. kristin and i stepped out at one point to get some coffee from the vending machines outside. so we are about to go back into the Yuubinkyoku when this lady slides up on her bicycle blocking our path. looking at us with a face of recognition and amusement she asks from whence we come. america, we respond. she then goes on to tell us how much she loves germany and how her son studied economics. oh, and that someone she works with went to MIT and studied psychology? she tells me how well her german teacher speaks japanese, and asks me for 'give and take'. apparently this means that she teaches me japanese and i teach her english, but i suspect that it actually means she talks for hours on end about crazy things and i listen politely. so we escape from that situation and head to the keitai store.
ok so apparently keitai (japanese cell phones) all have TV on them now. however this feature only functions in the larger cities at the moment. so my phone has this huge antennae that may have no function. well that's not important. what IS important is that every technical question i could ask about all the available phones in the au store (au is a mobile phone company) returned with crazy answers. can't be THAT bad, right? check this:
ok so here is one phone that is being advertised for it's large LCD screen. the bullet points also include "3.2 megapikusuru" which is obviously megapixels. great. i know what that means. but i'd like to compare it to another phone. so i ask how many megapikusuru this other, cheaper phone has (mind you i am asking through a translator, so the lack of a good answer is not due to my poor japanese skills). so, how many megapixels does THIS phone's camera have? answer? "this phone doesn't have that technology." apparently the cute but overly made-up (min. 2mm make up on the face and 35 grams of eyeshadow per eye) salesgirl doesn't understand that megapiksuru is a measurement. no.. she thinks it's some sort of unique technology that this particular phone has utilized. whatever. so i point out that all the display phones are just that, displays. none of them are real phones, so you can't actually try them out and see if their features suck. so i ask if there are real models i can play with. nope. nooope. nope. ok... so basically i am being asked to shell out about US$200 on a phone and HOPE it is what i want, based solely on the plastic display models. uuuuuh boy. so i put my chip on the table and spin the wheel, and i'm now the proud, but slightly confused owner of the W51SA. well... it will have TV in december..... :D
then it happens.
HE walks in.
it's "samurai joe" okada! "arguably Japan`s most famous modern day Samurai." well, i guess. anyways we walks in and we are like, who is this crazy dude? then he asks us to be on TV. what is going on here? he gets our phone numbers and gives us some magazine showing him on the david letterman show. so maybe he will call. how exciting. "yeah, i was on japanese tv. doing what? uhmm well... see i walked around looking like a dumb tourist.... and then this guy called samurai joe cut an apple on my head." oh, but his english was great!
1 comment:
yes, thank you
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