I Heart my Keitai. (携帯）

I never used to think I'd ever get into my cellphone. I simply don't use it often enough. I rarely make calls and I generally don't get that many. In the United States most of my friends communicate over the internet and we use Instant Messaging rather than cellphones. We only occasionally actually call each other when one or the other is not located at a computer. This probably just goes to show what computer Geeks, I and most of my friends are.

You might have heard of the Legendary Japanese cell phones before you come here, but you don't realize and can't possibly be prepared the the sheer coolness factor


Japanese cellphone networks are about (from what I've read) at the very least a year and a half ahead of the US. Furthermore, these Japanese cellphones do things that American cellphones probably will NEVER do. I saw a man on the train the other day watching TV on his cellphone. I looked into it the other day, and as it turns out they sell phones here with TV antennas. People pay with their cellphones like we use credit cards in the US. I've friends with cameras so good in their cellphone they don't bother having a digital camera.

I never thought I'd get hooked on messaging on cellphones either, until the last couple months. If I look at my cell phone history it looks something like this:
January: 1~2 messages sent/recieved
February: 5~6
March: 10~12
April: 25~30
May: 50~60

The other day I spent more than an hour looking over my cellphone plan back in the US and the current cellphones in the US and what they can do. Needless to say, I'm getting one of those 'tech' itches I need to scratch. Unfortunately this time I can safely say there is nothing in the US that is going to live up to my expectations.

Furthermore, has anyone ever seen a cellphone in the US which will allow me to do email in Japanese? If I wish do to so I have a sinking feeling that there is no choice but to buy an overpriced bloated PDA phone. Yuck!

It doesn't help that the phone I received through the program I am in now is locked down for children (because I am paying less, I don't get to use those services. I just happens to be implemented with Child Protection). So I can't even do half of what I should be able to do with a Japanese cellphone. Next time I am in Japan I going all out.

There is the iPhone that is going to be coming out. While in the US the iPhone is a large leap in capability, it's not a Japanese phone. It still lacks in some places. I'm sure you can find many an article on the web to tell you, and if the iPhone doesn't allow third parties to develop software for it, well... I'm only mildly interested. I won't deny the beautiful design, but I only imagine it fading with time and fingerprint smudges. And, as I get ready to go home, I can't help but be a bit sad. I'm going to kind of miss my new found friend as I return to my mediocre cell phone back home.