Technology

When I was a teenager in the ’80s, my parents finally got a microwave oven and a VHS VCR…they both seemed so “high-tech” back then.
The microwave could heat food in literally seconds! It seemed so “futuristic”! And the VCR allowed us to program it to record a TV show while we weren’t at home so that we could watch it later! How convenient!
(Never mind that no one could actually understand how to program it…even setting the clock on it was a chore!)

I think every housewife had a copy of this video in the ’80s when VCRs became popular.

Other “new” technology back then were CD players, the “Walkman“, and video games. They were all so popular.

(Click here and read a post I wrote a while back about the Walkman).

In the ’80s, everyone was surprised how “small” this music player was!

A popular TV show when I was in junior high was “Knight Rider“. It was about a vigilante and his “partner”…a super-intelligent Trans-Am that was bullet-proof (even the tires!) and it could do an endless array of unbelievable things. But the three things it did in every episode were: carry on a “witty” conversation with it’s driver and/or whomever else was near it, drive itself and “turbo-boost” over things.
I couldn’t wait for cars like that to become reality!

How often would this really be necessary?

A teacher of mine in the ’80s once told my classmates and me that by the time we were thirty there would be “flying cars”. Obviously that didn’t happen! What a let-down!

I was looking forward to this!

Another “high-tech” item that my family got was I was a kid was a “push-button” telephone with a “re-dial” button. It seems so ordinary now…but it was such a time-saver compared to how telephones had been until then!

Remember these? Yes? Then you must be at least my age. 😉

Now we have a huge variety of technology all around us that we would have never dreamed of even twenty years ago.
For example, when I was dating my wife, one time I misunderstood our meeting place and we couldn’t find each other. That date was lost!
Today’s young people couldn’t imagine such a thing happening because they grew up after cell-phones were invented and became something that everyone carries at all times—like a wallet and keys. If my wife and I had cell-phones when we were dating, my mistake wouldn’t have been an incident at all.

The internet and computers are extremely convenient and useful. They can do so many things and are practical in our daily lives now.
I have had a cell-phone with internet-access for a number of years now…I can barely remember how I used to “kill time” on the train during my daily commute before I had a cell-phone!

Nowadays, nearly everyone uses the phone on the trains in Japan.

But all of this new technology isn’t always good.
When I came to Japan, I had no idea what to expect. There was no internet back then.
And when I got here, everything was different and unusual to me!
But nowadays, most people never travel anywhere without “researching” the destination online first. Nothing’s a surprise! Is that always good?

And there are often stories in the news about people (usually teenagers) bullying others online. It’s regrettable.

I wonder what new technology we’ll see in the future.

Gundam Phone

If you’re a fan of 「ガンダム」 (“Gundam“), there has been many things in Tokyo that you would love…the “life size” Gundam robot, the smallest Gundam, the Gundam Cafe, and now a 「ガンプラケータイ」 (“Gunpla Cell-phone”).

This phone is made by the Japanese electronics maker “Sharp” for the Japanese cellular phone company “Softbank“.
The phone is to commemorate the 30th anniversary of 「ガンプラ」 (“Gunpla”), which stand for “Gundam plastic models“.
This new Gundam cell-phone comes decorated with decals and parts similar to a Gundam robot, Gundam inspired applications, a unique charger and a plastic model of a Gundam robot.

I won’t be buying this phone…I’m not much of a Gundam fan, and my cell-phone is kinda old but it still works so I’m not in the market for a new one.
Anyways, it’s a Softbank phone…I use Japan’s biggest cell-phone service provider—DoCoMo.

How about you? Would you buy this? What type of cell-phone do you have now?

Who is my boss?

On the train today, I noticed a new ad for DoCoMo, one of the main cell-phone service providers in Japan (and probably the biggest).

This poster had a picture of Darth Vader of “Star Wars” pointing and asking “Who is my boss?“.

The ad doesn’t say much more than that, so I was wondering what it was about. Will DoCoMo be releasing a new “Darth Vader” themed phone? And what does it mean by “who is my boss?”?

So I checked the website and it doesn’t tell much either.
But the site has an interesting application…you can enter your name on the site (but it must be entered in Japanese カタカナ (katakana)) and then it will show a movie of Darth Vader walking around Tokyo saying how he’s searching for his “boss” and then he encounters billboards and flyers with a picture of himself and the name you entered on it (but the name is shown written in alphabet letters even though it requires you enter your name is Japanese characters).
And then Darth Vader will say your name and then tell you that you’re not his boss.
When I did it, it said that I wasn’t his boss and that his boss is more 「美しい」 (“beautiful”) than me!

At the end it has a countdown til 2010 May 11 (Japan time) which is the day that Darth Vader’s “boss” will be revealed.

Darth Vader searching for his "boss" in Tokyo

Darth Vader saw a billboard that said that I ("Tokyo Five") am his boss!

On 2010 May 11, DoCoMo will reveal who Darth Vader's boss is.

Read my other “Darth Vader in Japan”-related posts:
The “Star Wars Convention Japan”,
Star Wars chopsticks,
the Star Wars Pachinko machine, and
my Star Wars postal stamps.

Pepsi Samurai

Pepsi-Cola Japan is has a new campaign.

Last summer, they gave away Snoopy cell-phone straps with bottles of Pepsi NEX.
Click here to read my post about that.

Now they are giving away Samurai cell-phone straps (well, one of them is Matthew Perry. Click here to read what I wrote about him.)

If you buy a bottle of Pepsi‘s “zero calorie” NEX cola at a convenience store or supermarket in Japan during this campaign period, it will come with a Samurai cell-phone strap.

(click to enlarge)

Personally, I don’t drink much cola…and I never drink “zero calorie” or diet drinks (they taste terrible).
Also, although I think 「侍」 (samurai) are cool, I don’t really need any more cell-phone straps (I have one on my phone that looks like a skull and I’m happy with it).

How about you? Would you buy this? Do you like “zero calorie” Pepsi?
What type of cell-phone strap do you have? (Does your country have straps on the phones like in Japan?)

Japanese barcodes

The original barcode was invented in America. But the technology was improved in Japan.

For example…do they use the “Quick Response (QR) Barcode” in your country?

QR Code for "Wikipedia Japan" website's URL

The QR Barcode was invented in Japan and it can be read by cell-phones in Japan.
If you use your (Japanese) cell-phone to scan the code, you can access the website without typing the URL manually.

Can cell-phones in your country do this? Or is this used in Japan only? (The only cell-phones I’ve ever used were my phones here in Japan).

And also the “regular” barcode that is found on all sorts of consumer products has been improved by a Japanese company.

They proved that the barcode doesn’t have to be limited to the simple straight lines and numerals design that we’re all used to.

Here are a few examples of their work:

“Tara-chan”

Last November 12 was the Emperor of Japan’s 20th anniversary on the throne (I mentioned it on this post).

A special ceremony was held to mark the occasion. The Emperor gave a speech at the ceremony…he said, among other things, that he hopes that the younger generations won’t forget the horrors of WW2 and repeat the mistakes.

The Japanese Emperor & Empress at the ceremony to mark the Emperor's 20th anniversary on the throne.

And U.S. President Obama was in Tokyo yesterday and today. He met with Japan’s Prime Minister and also with the Emperor of Japan.

U.S. President Obama meeting the Emperor of Japan.

If you’re in Japan this weekend, you may notice children who are three, five and seven years old dressed in kimono and visiting shrines with their families.

That’s because it’s now the time of the 「七五三」 (“7-5-3 Festival“).

As I wrote on my main website’s FAQ page, on or around November 15, girls aged 3 and 7 and boys aged 5 are dressed up (girls in kimono, boys in kimono or suit) and go to a shrine with their families for blessings for a long healthy life.
Afterwards, they are given special candies and are often brought by their parents to a photo studio to have their portrait taken.

And also, Quintin Tarantino and Brad Pitt were in Tokyo together recently to promote their new movie “Inglourious Basterds“.

Brad Pitt and Quintin Tarintino promoting "Inglourious Basterds" in Tokyo.

This movie will premiere in Tokyo on 20 November…the same time that the new TV commercial for the Japanese cell-phone company “Softbank” will air.
Quintin Tarintino will appear in this new commercial.

Last year, Brad Pitt was in the Tv commercials for Softbank…but then Softbank began making a commercial “series” that showed the adventures of the “White Family“.

The father in the “White Family” is a dog! The son is an African-American. The wife and daughter are regular Japanese though.

They’re kinda funny commercials.

And now in the newest Softbank commercial, Quintin Tarintino will play the White Family’s uncle, “Tara-chan“!

Still from the new "Softbank" commercial featuring Quintin Tarntino.

Tom Cruise was Japanese, U.S. may get Japanese phones, and a feline station-master…

Have you heard about any of these news stories in Japan?

◎ The wife of the Japanese Prime-Minister-elect, Miyuki Hatoyama, seems to be a bit eccentric.
She has been quoted as saying that she was abducted by aliens and taken into their triangular UFO for a trip to the planet Venus…which she described as rich with green foliage!
She also said that she and her husband eat some of the sun every morning for energy!
And that she met the famous American actor Tom Cruise in another life when he was Japanese!

◎ DoCoMo, the most prominent cellular-phone provider in Japan (and the one that my family uses), plans to begin selling their cell-phones in America. As well as offering many of the services that they provide in Japan, such as their “I-mode” internet service. It’s not clear yet if they plan to offer their cell-phone wallet service which is extremely popular in Japan to pay for everything from vending machines to groceries to fast-food to train fares.

The key-pad of a Japanese "DoCoMo" cell-phone.

◎ A small train line in a small town near Osaka, Japan was in danger of closing down until the media in Japan reported that a cat that had been hanging around the area was “hired” as the new 駅長 (station master).
The cat’s name is 「たま」 (Tama) and she gets paid with cat-food by the train line.
I remember when this story was on TV here about two years ago.
It’s seems that the tactic worked…people are coming from all over Japan to ride the train and see 「たま」 (Tama), the 駅長 (station master).
All the new customers are good for business and have kept the train line from closing down…but it created a new problem—where to put the cars from all the customers that drive to the station from around Japan.
The train station that the cat works at, 喜志駅 (Kishi Station), doesn’t have any car parking spaces near it.

Tama the feline station-master

携帯電話

Last Sunday we (my wife and I) bought our oldest daughter a 携帯電話 (cellular phone).

Of course, all three of my daughters really want a 携帯電話 (cellular phone)…but we decided not to get them one until they start 高等学校 (high school).

In Japan, most kids who are in public 小学校 (Elementary School) or 中学校 (Junior High School) can walk to school…but once they start 高等学校 (High School) they usually have to take the train to school.

My youngest two daughters are in 中学校 (Junior High School) and they walk to school. But beginning in early April, my oldest will start 高等学校 (High School) and she’ll ride the train with her friends to school every day.

So, my wife and I decided to get her a 携帯電話 (cellular phone).
Most important to us, her phone has email and GPS tracking (in an emergency, we can track her location on our 携帯電話 (cellular phones))…but her phone has every function available on Japanese 携帯電話 (cellular phones)—email, internet, 「おさいふケータイ」 (cell-phone wallet), GPS, TV, radio, MP3 player, etc, etc.!

Her phone is much better than my wife or my 携帯電話 (cellular phones).

Of course, her sisters are jealous! But, next year my second daughter will begin high school and I’ll have to buy her one…and then the youngest daughter when she starts high school too!
(*_*)

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Speaking of  携帯電話 (cellular phones), I recently learned that a cell-phone called “Blackberry” is popular in America.
Do you use this phone? Do you like it?

It looks like this:

I’ve never used a “Blackberry” so I can only speculate…but it looks much less convenient, handy, and cool than the average 携帯電話 (cellular phone) in Japan.

First of all, it looks like a pocket calculator.
And it has a really wide keyboard with one key for each of the 26 letters of the English alphabet…like a computer keyboard. (The letters are arranged in the typewriter “QWERTY” order, too.).

It looks like you’d need both hands to type an email. Is that right?
Seems slow and inconvenient.

The numbers on it are also on ten keys on the left side (presumably they’re the keys you’d use to dial a phone number).

A Japanese 携帯電話 (cellular phone), on the other hand, simply has the ten number digits keys (1-9 and 0) which double as both the English alphabet keys (in alphabetical order) with each key used for three to four letters.
The “1” key is usually symbols such as “@, ., -, _, etc”, the “2” key is used for the letters “A-C” (both upper and lowercase), “3” is used for “D-F”, etc.

That’s in “English” mode.

In “Japanese” mode, the same number keys are used for the Japanese “alphabet“.
“1” is 「あいうえお」 in ひらがな (hiragana), and the corresponding 「アイウエオ」 in カタカナ (katakana),
“2” is used for 「さしすせそ」 (and, of course, 「サシスセソ」)), and so on for the keys 3-9 and 0.
Of course, to get 漢字 (kanji characters), you’d simply type out the phonetic spelling in ひらがな and the possible 漢字 (kanji characters) choices appear.

That may not make sense to you if you don’t know about the Japanese writing system…but, believe me, it’s quite easy.

Better than the Blackberry, Japanese 携帯電話 (cellular phones) are slim. So, everyone in Japan types out cell-phone emails using one hand…actually just the thumb on one hand is used to type the whole mail!

Another thing about Japanese 携帯電話 (cellular phones) that make typing emails easy is the “predict” function.

Once you type the first ひらがな character in a common word or phrase (and also in a word or phrase that you have typed out before), the phone will offer you that word or phrase again and you can easily insert it into your email.

For example, I often email my wife while I’m on the train heading home after work and ask her 「今日の夕食は？」 (which means: “What’s for dinner today?”).

If I typed that out in English, it’s twenty-four characters. In Japanese, it’s only eleven…but with my 携帯電話 (cellular phone)’s “predict” function, I only need to type one character (「き」) and the phrase 「今日の夕食は？」 appears.

Convenient!

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Which reminds me of another subject…

In America (and maybe other countries too), businesses will often advertise their telephone number not with the numerical digits…but using the corresponding letters that are on the keys of a telephone.
To make their phone number easier to remember.

So, for example, a car dealer in America might have a phone number like 555-2277 but would write their phone number as 555-CARS.

In Japan, cell-phones have the English alphabet on the keys (as I just mentioned above)…but most home phones don’t.

So Japanese companies don’t use English letters to make their phone numbers easy to remember…but they use alternative pronunciations of the numbers to make clever expressions.

For example, I saw an ad for a pawn shop the other day. Their phone number is 78-2840.
In Japanese, that would normally be pronounced “nana-hachi-ni-hachi-yon-zero“…but the pawn shop had ふりがな over the numbers that showed the reading as 「しちやにはしれい」 (shichi-ya-ni-ha-shi-rei) which is an alternative reading of those numbers—but it also means 「質屋に走れい」 (“Run to the pawn shop”).

Many companies in Japan write the phone numbers with clever play-on-words like that.

Quarter Pounder

When I came to Japan, McDonalds Japan had quite a different menu from the McDonalds® in America. It’s still different…but it seems to be becoming more and more similar.

In the 1990’s, McDonalds® in Japan didn’t have any really large burgers, drinks or fries. The food was sold in smaller sizes…a “large cola”, for example, at McDonalds® Japan seemed to about the size of a “medium” at the U.S. McDonalds®. Japanese people who visited America often would be surprised at the size of the food portions at restaurants there.

Also, McDonalds® here has always had some items on the menu that are unique to Japan…some of which are seasonal (such as the “Lettuce Pepper Burger” and the 月見バーガー (“Tsukimi Burger” *) and others are always on the menu (such as the 「てりやきマック・バーガー」 (“Teriyaki Mac Burger“)).

(* The 月見バーガー (“Tsukimi Burger“) is available every Autumn at McDonalds® in Japan. 月見 (Tsukimi) is a traditional Autumn moon festival. (Click here to visit “McDonalds Japan’s Tsukimi Burger page).)

But recently, McDonalds® Japan has added some larger “American style” burgers to their menu. First, was the 「メガマック (“Mega-Mac“)…with four beef patties!

.

And more recently, McDonalds® Japan has brought the 「クォーターパウンダー」 (“Quarter-Pounder“)…and even the 「ダブルクォーターパウンダー」 (“Double Quarter-Pounder“) from America and added them to their menus here! (Japan doesn’t use the American system of measure…so noone here knows that the name “Quarter-Pounder” means that the burger is a ¼ pound of beef (about 114 grams)).

In addition to adding the 「クォーターパウンダー」 (“Quarter-Pounder“) to their menu in Japan. McDonalds® Japan has opened two Quarter Pounder Shops in Tokyo. These are McDonalds® owned…but the famous McDonalds® logo is nowhere on or in the stores! And the menu at these Quarter Pounder Shops consist of only two items: the 「クォーターパウンダー」 (“Quarter-Pounder“) and the 「ダブルクォーターパウンダー」 (“Double Quarter-Pounder“).
Click here to see the Quarter Pounder Shop website (日本語 (Japanese) only).

Due to McDonalds® success with these bigger burgers, other fast-food restaurants in Japan have also begun to include larger burgers in their menus now, too.
I think Japanese people should eat less fast-food and more tradional Japanese food.

I do like McDonalds® also, though…but we don’t eat any of those giant burgers. When we go to McDonalds®, it’s just for a regular size burger and coffee (cola or tea for the kids).
McDonalds® Japan has a “¥100” menu (about US $1.05*) with things like coffee, ice cream, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, McPork burger, etc all for ¥100. (Recently, some items on this menu, such as the cheeseburger and McPork, have gone up in price to ¥120 (about US $1.26*)).
(* The U.S. Dollar has weakened against the Japanese Yen recently).

If you want to see McDonalds® Japan’s menu…click here (it’s all in 日本語 (Japanese)).

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What type of 携帯電話 (cellular phone) do you use? Does it have alot of functions?
I use the most popular company in Japan: NTT DoCoMo.
My phone’s kinda old…so it doesn’t have the latest functions. But I don’t care. All I need is Email, Internet and the phone.
Like most people here, I mainly use my 携帯電話 (cellular phone) to send and receive emails. But I also use a website on it to check the train schedules.
My 携帯電話 (cellular phone) also has a photo camera and video camera that I occasionally use…and GPS that I never use.

Nowadays, people in Japan use their phone as a “wallet” (make purchases, including train fare, like a debit card), to watch TV, and like an I-pod®…in addition to email and internet.
Those functions are popular in Japan now.

This isn’t my 携帯電話 (cellular phone)…but it’s a popular style now:

Nokia, the Finnish cell-phone company, seems to be make very popular cell-phones in every country…except Japan.

Nokia came to Japan a couple of years ago with big plans to take over the lucrative Japanese market. But the Japanese were unimpressed with Nokia‘s products and design. I guess Nokia didn’t do enough market research before coming here and they didn’t offer what is popular here.
They just announced that they’re leaving Japan.
Vodafone, the large English cell-phone company, had a similar experience a few years ago. This company also, it seems, is quite popular overseas…so they came to Japan with high-hopes.
Two years ago, Vodafone Japan was bought out by a Japanese company called Softbank…and is currently the number two 携帯電話 (cellular phone) provider in Japan (NTT DoCoMo, the company I use, is number one here).

I-phone

Do you know the I-phone by Apple Inc.? Do you have one?

Well, the I-phone just went on sale in Japan today? On TV, I saw that there was a line of people waiting to buy one.

I think they just bought it for the the novelty of having a foreign cellular phone. Because Japanese 携帯電話 (cell-phones) can do everything that the I-phone can…plus much more!

For example, with a Japanese cell-phone, you can download music like a I-pod, take photos and video, surf the internet, and send and receive email like the I-phone…but unlike the I-phone, with a Japanese cell-phone you can also watch TV, make purchases like a credit card, pay for public transportation, buy a drink from a vending machine, and prevent other people from using your phone with a fingerprint scanner.

Personally though, I don’t need any of those fancy extras…I only use my cell-phone to send and receive emails and the internet to check the train schedule. Like most people in Japan, I seldom use the telephone function of my cell-phone.

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My oldest daughter had a 漢字 (Japanese Kanji character) test today.

She said it was difficult. I’m sure she did well.

And on Sunday, she will have an English oral exam. I’m sure she’ll do well on this, too!