living in the future

On Japanese cell phone plans, instead of texting you send emails from phone-to-phone or from computer-phone, phone-computer. It's convenient, but it means everyone has not just a number, but a メール (mail) address, so exchanging contact information can take a while. Thankfully, Japan is about 5 years ahead of the US in technology and you can transmit information from one phone to another using INFRA-RED WAVES. See the little black rectangle on the side of my phone? That's my infra-red receiver/sender. You have to hold your little black rectangle close to the other phone's little black rectangle and then take turns sending and receiving. The infra-red box is in different spots on different phones, so it's always fun to see the different positions you can get the phones into. For me, it's the little things like this that make living in an unfamiliar country exciting.