Cultural Observations: Technology
Technology is weird here. Actually that's not true. The relationship with technology is weird here. In some ways it is like those sci fi books where the people are playing with technology from a previous generation that did something dumb and almost wiped themselves out.
Phones: The first bit of slang we learned was the teenagers cool words for "my lord that is a shitty old phone". They say it is a phone from the Galapagos islands. If we used that phrase whenever we saw an old style phone it would be all we ever said. A significant number of smartphones we do see have broken screens. This is apparently explained by the fact Japan has extraordinarily high taxes on imported technology (I need a new NAS and the one I want is twice the price at amazon.jp compared to amazon.com).
Bah, doesn't even look like me. Which means there is another whacko wandering around. Or the sketch artists are crap.
Robots: I was surprised when Fukushima happened and they didn't have the robots to go in and do stuff until some Americans gave them some. I have always thought of Japan as the Home Of The Robot both culturally and technologically. Apparently this one is explained by political crap; I am lead to believe there were some robots in the next prefecture over but they wouldn't lend them out.
Caution: Fukushima Refugees Crossing.
Automation: I love the shinkansen, it's great, the doors are like ones from small private jet aircraft the way they open and the size. But I don't get why every time it comes in they use a person (in white gloves) to point at the departure board, the door of the train, the drivers as they leave etc. It's like they are doing a checklist of things which could easily be automated (and probably are). No one has really explained this to me yet but I am suspecting it is a combination of keeping people in jobs and not really trusting the robots that much anyway. Or maybe they don't trust their techy people. Given that some bright spark thought the robot suit at the science museum should have Terminator references on it I can understand that distrust.
This was not a museum piece. It controlled souvenir coin manufacturing (or something). I understand having old tech if it works but shiny futuristic souvenirs lose a bit of their cool when they are made by a machine from the eighties. I'd hide it under some tinfoil.
I think after we learn to count (which is our baseline for being able to speak with native skills, everything has a slightly different counting system. Everything) if we can figure out the technology relationship we will be classed doing pretty good for gaijin.
She tried to insist that it was just painted look old. Reality is it was painted to look older, that is one damn old till. It would have been old when I was working bars 20 years ago.
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