Other things about Tokyo
1. I just heard my FIRST police/ambulance siren in three days. This city is so well behaved/organised!
2. Japanese schoolgirls' uniforms really do have shorty short little skirts. Very odd.
3. No-one wears wedding rings.
4. No-one speaks on their mobiles on the tube, even though mobiles work everywhere it seems (I haven't worked out whether the tube goes underground and has a signal booster, or whether it's tunnelled overground) - everyone is texting or browsing quietly though.
5. Japanese men are perfectly happy to have a pale pink or lime green phone, and many have phone charms too. I love this, it looks great.
6. Some bloke blew his nose mightily after some hot ramen in a restaurant yesterday, so I'm unsure now if you're allowed to blow your nose in public yet. As I've got a bit of a cold, it's been a struggle these past few days ;)
Right. Off for breakfast, then the hour or so's journey across town and out into Chiba. I've just realised that there will be tons of booth babes there (I keep forgetting this is a show and not a conference), so I'll be doing a Japan version of my booth boys trawl. Wahoo! Let's see if it's any better than E3...
I'm not 100% sure, but I'm PRETTY sure it's illegal to talk on your cell phones in the subways, which explains the texting/etc.
Posted by: PizzaMan | September 15, 2005 at 23:58
Not only is there an offical ban on talking on your mobile on the tube in Tokyo - it's rude, and that's far worse. If you do see somebody talking on their mobile, it will be in a whisper, with the person's mouth covered by their hand, and it's probably an emergency.
The entire Tokyo tube system has underground signal repeaters for the mobile phone networks. What looks like feverish texting is use of mobile technology a generation or two in advance of ours. Those people are emailing from their mobiles, engaged in real-time chat, using pictographic messaging, reading comics, using mobile photo dating services, shopping, and playing multiplayer puzzle games.
As for blowing your nose, just do it. You're gaijin, and it's expected that you'll make the odd cultural faux-pas. Just be polite about it, and if you can go into a bathroom to do it.
Posted by: Seb Potter | September 16, 2005 at 01:05
Catholic schoolgirls in Toronto also appear to be required to wear ubershort skirts. Curiously, I was largely ignorant of this in high school because I walked home and back instead of taking mass transit and seeing students from other schools.:P
Posted by: Leons Petrazickis | September 16, 2005 at 04:40
"Those people are emailing from their mobiles, engaged in real-time chat, using pictographic messaging, reading comics, using mobile photo dating services, shopping, and playing multiplayer puzzle games."
That all sounds very cool - I wonder how much trends like that are to do with the culture and how much it helped having a smaller area to setup coverage for (though of course there are other factors).
Posted by: Pete | September 16, 2005 at 13:32
Actually it depends what network you are on - you can buy special mobiles that work on the subway (which is underground) or you can do what I had to do and compose your texts between stations ready to hit send as soon as the train stops. Or find the URL you want ready for a swift download.
(As for the skirts: look closely at their waistbands. They are normal-length skirts rolled over. And over, and over.)
Posted by: Lisa | September 16, 2005 at 19:45
Actually it depends what network you are on - you can buy special mobiles that work on the subway (which is underground) or you can do what I had to do and compose your texts between stations ready to hit send as soon as the train stops. Or find the URL you want ready for a swift download.
(As for the skirts: look closely at their waistbands. They are normal-length skirts rolled over. And over, and over.)
Posted by: Lisa | September 16, 2005 at 19:45
lol
Posted by: | February 05, 2006 at 17:56
lol
Posted by: | February 05, 2006 at 17:56