Keitais!
One of things I was most excited to get was my cell phone or keitai as they are called in Japanese. From what I can tell, the population is glued to their cell phones. Everyone seems to be playing with them on the trains and why not? The cell phones her are all fairly technologically advanced. People can send e-mails from them to regular PCs. The designs range from sleek to clunky. Everyone decks out their phone with charms and a variety of decorations. It`s an expression of your personality to some for sure. I still think the coolest function is the infared data exchange between the phones. It makes it so easy to give your number to someone and to share photos and videos between phones.
Anyways, I couldn`t get a cell phone immediately since I needed to have some ID like the foreign registration card or national health insurance card and my banking information. As soon as I got the national health insurance card at the end of August, Mac kindly took me to the local AU shop. There are three major cell phone companies here: AU, DoCoMo and Vodafone. In my area, I had a choice between AU and DoCoMo as they have the best reception. I had heard good things about AU so that was the clear choice. Ok, so now I just had to choose my phone. I decided to get one that has a music function, camera, video camera and an english menu. So, I ended up getting the Sony Ericsson Walkman phone in white. I really like it so far. Also, I ran into Sarah A. and her JTE at the store and wouldn`t you know but she also got the same phone in pink.
Many ALTs said they would go with out a cell phone. Impossible I said. It`s a top priority in my opinion to stay connected. Especially since a lot of us are hardly ever at home. A few people like Parry eventually caved after two months and got one. But, I still know of a few people who have gone two or three years with out one. I still think the coolest function is the infared data exchange between the phones. It makes it so easy to give your number to someone and to share photos and videos between phones.
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