LOL @ Japan

[Othello Harrington]

I actually read today that 100 million out of 127 million Japanese have phones.

Oh yeah, it's in the article I posted Totally not being a smartass, just thought of it(had some scotch)

[bbobb]

I got me a new cell phone last night. I love Japanese cell phones.

I went in to make my plan cheaper and came out with a new phone and having cut my bill in half.

I got this beauty: http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/product/f...05i/index.html

It has the uber cool new TV function. I just pull out the antenna and flip the screen and I can watch the local tv channels on my cell phone which is all kinds of awesome. It also has a gps program built in, and the other cool new function of being able to use it as a credit card. I just swipe my phone at convenience stores or at vending machines, enter my pin and it auto charges to my bank account.


Oh and it also came with mobile Monkey Ball.


<3 Japan.

[Grave]

It also has a gps program built in, and the other cool new function of being able to use it as a credit card. I just swipe my phone at convenience stores or at vending machines, enter my pin and it auto charges to my bank account.

That's awesome in terms of convenience, but if it got any easier and quicker to pay for stuff, I could see things getting dangerous very quickly.

[YellerDog]

Thumbprint identification maybe?

[M]

I totally have a softbank one. It's a basic model though. There's this crazy phone (913SH G Type-Char) http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/product/...h_g/index.html
with the charger that looks like a robot head.
When the phone is in it charging, it looks like eyes.
Ridiculously expensive.

[Grave]

Ha! That's really cute, in a creepy, Gundam-obsessed sort of way.

[Master of 7s]

Bbobb, since you live over there and probably have a deeper understanding of the culture than most, would it be a fair assessment to say that not having a phone in Japan is akin to anti-social behavior?

It's always something I wondered about.

[Thief Silver]

It's the equivalent of being a virgin in America.

Oh.. wait.. shit.

[YellerDog]

Are you saying you don't have a phone, Theif?

[bbobb]

Bbobb, since you live over there and probably have a deeper understanding of the culture than most, would it be a fair assessment to say that not having a phone in Japan is akin to anti-social behavior?

It's always something I wondered about.

Oh definitely. Not having a cellphone is a concept that japanese people do not get. If you don't have a cellphone like one person I know, then you're looked upon as being that weird person, some odd outcast.

Everyone has a cellphone, it's flat out expected. You exchange cellphone e-mail addresses with everyone you meet. And cellphone mail is the communication method of choice here.