“Keitai” is the Japanese word for cell phone and I finally got one. I got a Japanese girl (Michi) who I met through my college friend, Andre, to go with me to sort through all the different plans and options. I still don’t completely understand it since it involves not only buying different time periods for talking but also buying “packets” which allow you to do things like send e-mails to other phones, surf the internet, download things, etc. Because it is pretty expensive to actually use your cell phone to talk, e-mailing and c-mailing (another form of text sending) is more popular.
I got a cell phone from the cell phone provider “AU” because they offer a student discount. In Japan, the student discounts for various things are pretty good. For my cell phone plan, my student discount gives me 50% off the monthly rate which means I save about $40-$50 per month.
The cell phone style that’s “in” right now in Japan is blocky. This was sort of surprising since I was used to seeing really sleek phones in the US. Here it’s not uncommon to see large blocky phones that look more like bricks than cell phones. However, the phone I chose doesn’t particularly look like this. It is a bit longer than my cell phone back home but it is much thinner.
For the past few days, I’ve been busy learning the different characters for things like “send”, “reply”, “enter”, “end” and even things like “infrared transfer” so that I can actually understand my cell phone since there is no English option.
You would think that by now American cell phones would be up to speed with Japanese cell phones and I suppose in a way, things like the blackberry are pretty advanced, but as far as standard phones go, I was surprised by the features that my Japanese cell phone has.
For example, my cell phone has a GPS navigation system. So whenever I want, I can just hit a few buttons and it will bring up a map of where I am exactly and a map of everything around me which I can rotate, zoom in and out and move around in. It also shows me the names of various shops and train stops around me on the map. I can also enter in addresses and it will show me the route I need to walk to get there. Additionally, I can send my current position to my friend’s phone and he’ll see exactly where I am and also see the directions for how to get to where I am.
Another handy feature for me is that the phone has an English-Japanese and Japanese-English dictionary. But not only that, it has a feature where you can use the cell phone’s camera to read text. What I mean is, I can place my cell phone’s camera over some Japanese text and it will recognize the written text, display it on its screen and provide the English translation of it. This is pretty handy when I read material or when I’m in a restaurant trying to decipher the menu. A similar feature I noticed in the menu of the phone was that the phone has a bar code reader though I’m unsure why I would need this.
It also has an FM radio so I can plug my headphones into it and listen to radio stations here in Tokyo. It brings up a menu of all the radio stations available and displays their names.
One of the features I really like about my cell phone here in Japan is the infrared transfer (called “sekigaisen”). When people want to exchange their cell phone contact information, all they have to do is select the “infrared transfer” option and then put their cell phones’ infrared sensors together. All of the contact information is automatically transferred and stored in the address book so I don’t have to spend time typing in the person’s name, phone numbers, e-mail address, etc., it’s all done in a couple of seconds automatically!
Because my cell phone is one of the low end ones (since I am using the student discount, they only let me buy the “poorer” phones), there are many features which I don’t have but are available for others. There were many cell phones at the store that let you watch TV on them. I heard from my Japanese friend that his phone allows him to wave it in front of a sensor at convenience stores and the amount of money required to buy his items is automatically deducted from his account so he doesn’t have to wait in line to pay.
Since you all love pictures so much, here are some pics of my new cell phone.
Oh, and here’s something I received my very first day here at the dorm. It’s the “residence rules” given to me by the resident manager to explain the various rules and regulations I have to abide by while staying here. As you can see, it is written in perfect engrish. Almost all of the signs and announcements here in the dorm look like this.
Umm, how the heck did you ever decipher most of those rules? I love how the Control Room sounds like this almighty place and you offer things to it. Your friends cell phone is probably enabled with FeliCa, which is another form of infrared technology for making purchases and self-identification. It sounds like your phone has it somewhat, but that all of the features have not been turned on since it is the cheaper model (you cheapskate!) Does your friend use NTT DoCoMo?
muahahahahaaaa.
“drinking the one and garbage that live and did be desertion in the day”
… what?!!???!?!!?!?
Dude, the reason Japanese phones are so much more advanced than US phones is because they use completely different protocols/networks. This way benefits their own companies:
1. All phones use Japanese technologies, protected by patents.
2. Force the Japanese to use only Japanese phones, because no one else makes phones that can be used with Japanese cell phone technologies.
3. Creates a net efflux of cell phone products. The Japanese companies make standard GMS, GPRS, etc phones as well as their own proprietary phones, but foreign companies only make standard phones.
And as you can guess, the proprietary Japanese cell phone technologies are more advanced than the int’l standards, so our course they have more features. The isolation has more curious side-effects too, such as preferences for blocky phones (yes, Rob, everywhere else in the world, including the rest of East Asia, the trend is preference for slim phones).
Heh… cell phones are such an interesting topic that I couldn’t help but post another comment.
Anyway, the problem with moving America to 3G (3rd-generation) cell phone technology (like what’s happened in Japan, and what’s happening in the rest of the world) is that America is simply too big, and there’s too many cellular service providers in America. Why would providers invest in more powerful technologies when they don’t even have full coverage over all of America? And why invest in such expensive technologies when only a very small percentage of customers would need such services, and when your competitors are offering lower prices for current-gen services?
Anyway, the pictures looks completely different when there’s less land and less competitors. For example, here in Taiwan, all the providers are already phasing out 2G in favor of 2.5G or even 3G. I got a free upgrade to 2.5G when I renewed my contract with my provider this summer. Some other providers even offer incentives to switch to 3G, such as lower monthly fees or less expensive phones. I’m thinking of getting a 3G-capable phone for my next phone, since they don’t cost more than the regular phones, and are compatible with 2.5G services too.