Technology and culture

Today I got my new mobile. It has a 1.3 mega pixel digital camera, connects to the tv for 3-d computer games, has karaoke systems that connect to the telly, does my washing, cooking and cleaning and is working a solution to third world poverty. And all for a large fee. But I'm a millionaire, so who cares (who said a millionaire in yen means nothing? Jealousy, that's all).

Buying the bloody thing was an epic. First they didn't have the one I wanted, and then it took an hour to complete paperwork and service options. Then we had to wait 30 minutes for them to process details. Then, finally, I could pay for my phone and we left. The best thing is the phone's instruction manual. It's really detailed, and is over 200 pages long. Only 6 of them are in English. Oops.

It has been a night of culture as well. There was a play at the town hall where I am currently working (teaching starts next week). We all helped to set up the stage equipment, and I asked what was going on. My supervisor explained and when I asked if he was going to the play, he said yeas, and said I could come too (which seemed to become 'you are coming too'). Apparently the actors are very famous in Japan.

It was a very good play, very sad. It was about a female goat with a white handbag who met a wolf dressed as a red indian from a 1970's drama series. They jumped about a lot and lay down a bit while a Worzel-Gummidge-a-like played keyboards and sang a song or two. I felt like a schizophrenic stroke sufferer until I remembered that they were speaking and singing in Japanese. At the end of it all, he ran off hollering and she lay on the floor with a spotlight on her. She then shouted again. Very cultural.