| Mobile Phones |
| If you are used to English mobile phones, (like myself) you will be in for a shock in Japan! When I lived in Japan last time, the phones had pretty much the same capabilities as in England - only they were about 3 times smaller! I had one then (and not a particularly good one - it was free!) and yet it was no larger than anything available in the UK now, 3 years later! Now, however, mobile phones (or keitai denwa) have become amazing! My phone looks cool (it is pink and flips open), and I can do so much with it! The screen is about 4cm by 5.5cm, an it isn't one of those green and black ones like in the UK, but is instead a full colour digital screen, just like on a computer. My keitai has internet abilities - I can send and receive emails up to 6000 characters (for the ridiculous price of 100 yen extra a month!) and can also surf most sites on the web - unless they involve logging in or messgaeboards. I can download pictures and sounds - forget your Nokia ringtone sites - I can download most current songs and some oldies too. Not a tinny little bleeping sound, but a proper version of the song, almost! The best bit is the built-in digital camera in my phone - complete with mirror to check your hair!!! All the pics on this site were taken using this. And it is also possible to add things to the pictures - see the one on the 2About Me" page for an example! Another great thing is that I can have different settings for when different friends ring me. I can choose a colour, ringtone and photo. Then, when I receive a call from a number stored in my keitai's memory, it plays that person's individual ringtone, and the outside screen flashes their selected colour! flip open the phone, and there is a picture of the person who is calling you! Cool or what!!? I have also acquired another gadget for my phone - a miniature keyboard that can be plugged into my phone to make emailing a lot easier! All I need now is a flashing aerial and a little dangly thing with a model of Hello Kitty or Winnie the Pooh on it (everyone has these in Japan!), and my keitai will be complete! |
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| ***** In April, James upgraded his phone, and his now makes mine look like a stone-age relic! He can record 10 second movies, or send 5 second movies by e-mail! It also records sound (We have a movie of Garth Crooks saying "This is Garth Crooks, at Kansai Airport, for BBC Sport" as he was so fascinated by our super-phones!) although sound cannot be sent by e-mail. James can also download games such as Tetris from the net, and the whole process of e-mailing and taking photos has been simplified since my phone was made. The screen is also about a million times better than mine - he has downloaded a perfect photo of Captain Becks from the Reuters news website as his new wallpaper! The photos he takes can also be enlarged beyond the miniscule size that my phone takes. Wow!!!!!!! ***** |
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| October 2002: James' super duper phone goes missing. He gets yet another new one - still with movie recording and game downloading capabilities, but also this time with a small full-colour screen on the outside of the phone (as well as the large one on the inside) where your photo comes up when you call him or send him a message! These phones are getting scarily good (and cheaper all the time)! And I want a new one now as well!!! His latest game downloads include WW2 fighter pilot games, golfing games, Tetris and pinball! |