Cell Phones, Maps, and Staying Out

I figured out the easy and quick way to embed the videos, so I'll start doing that again.  Of course the videos with music in the background I can't because of the copyright stuff.  If I feel like it, I'll go fix the older posts too.


Youtube link to video (It's in HD!!)

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Japanese cell phones are a bit more advanced than America's.  One thing that is really awesome about phones here, is the infrared feature.  Phones here have a little infrared receiver on the side or back, and what you do is tell your phone to send or receive information.  Using this feature, you transfer all your contact info without needing to typing anything in yourself.  Your name, phone number, email address, and any other info you've put for yourself will be transferred.  The email address is an actual address for your phone; the SMS texting feature that we use in America is available to use here, but most people send messages using the phone's email because there is no character limit.  Just something I found really cool about cell phones here.

One thing that is absolutely essential in Japan, is utilizing and getting familiar with maps of where you are.  Larger roads here all have names, however, there are almost NO street signs used here.  The only way to get around is to know landmarks or just know the way already.  That makes memorizing the locations of things you can use to get around essential.  I have memorized the locations of a couple stores and 7-11s that I know I can get either home or to campus from.  I still have some more work to do in order to be confident in getting around the center city area.  After spending a very unfortunate amount of hours lost so far, I'm see really how important it is to know the maps.  The school provided us with a couple maps that work nicely, and a couple that don't help at all.

The importance of knowing your way around becomes much more apparent once you start doing what is popular here.  And that is, staying out past the time the busses and trains stop running.  That seems to be incredibly popular to do here.  On weekend nights, people here like to go to an izakaya (a sort of restaurant/bar) for something to eat and possibly a nomihodai (all you can drink from a menu for a certain amount of time) for a couple drinks.  After you're done eating, you go to a karaoke place and rent out a room, which you get to keep till 6AM.  Around 6AM is when the busses and trains start running again.  So, your options are either to stay and do karaoke for the entire night or you need to walk home.  This is what many people do on Friday nights here, and sometimes both Friday and Saturday nights, if you can afford it.  So, if you don't want to stay out all night, you need to know your way home on foot.