Japan now has an ID card system for buying cigarettes from vending machines called Taspo. Basically it is some kind of RFID card required as ID to prevent purchases by minors. The card is free and I thought it was interesting even though I don’t smoke. Turned out it was good Japanese practice for me to talk with the people at the Taspo office and fill out the forms. And while waiting for my card there was a problem which they called me on my phone to take care of which I managed to handle without a problem which I was happy about.

Japan is all about saving space and being efficient and that includes their parking as well. Lots of the apartment complexes have these cool parking elevators which hide underground. Caught this one in action as somebody was pulling their car into the lowest slot. I guess it would be nice to have the top spot and be able to pull into it like a regular space, but then you would lose out on the fun of using this gadget to hide your car underground like inspector gadget.

My iPhone experienced a devastating accident today. I have dropped my iPhone many times before with no problems, But for some reason today my iPhone fell to the floor in its case while wrapped in clothing on a relatively soft gym floor and suffered this terrible shattered screen. I highly doubt this damage will be covered by the warranty which really blows. The LCD and touch is actually completely intact and it seems that only the glass was damaged but I would probably shred my thumbs if i actually try and use it like this. I am very very sad.

Saw the Tokyo game show with Katsuo on Sunday. I guess I am just not as much of a super geek as I thought I was cause it turned out to be pretty disappointing. I just wasn’t willing to wait on hour long lines to try some game for 10 minutes which will probably be released in 3 months anyway. Anyway here are a few shots including some Japanese booth girls.

The long painful not so patient wait for an iPhone has finally come to an end. I sat by in disdain while almost all my friends where getting iPhones on June 29, 2007 unable to join in due to my departure to Japan only 2.5 months away. So many people have said to me, ” but Japan has such advanced phones”. It is true they have some features like digital TV, video conferencing and electronic wallets, but their phones suffer the same problem most phones have… atrocious user interfaces. Now I can finally enjoy a handheld device with a smart simple to use interface and eliminate a clunky item cluttering my pockets.

I have already installed many apps, but please send me any sggestions on great must have apps any of you are using (free or paid).

The Oimachi Subway station has these little interet stations you can pay to use. I can’t imagine this lasting more than aabout 30 seconds in NY without being damaged or stolen.

It was just announced that the iPhone will be coming to Japan via the carrier SoftBank which makes me very happy since they are my carrier here. I have been sadly yearning to own an iPhone for nearly a year now which can clearly be seen in this picture from Janeen showing my sadness because I couldn’t have one. Lets hope it is coming soon.

Ok so this was a first for me. The bathroom at this Ramen shop has a little button you can press to make a flushing sound effect. Apparently the point of this is to mask any bodily noises while in the bathroom.

Saw this creepy little bank in Akihabara today. Its basically just a piggy bank but when you get your hand near the mouth it starts moving. It was really weird.