Brilliant piece. Keep up the great stories OTM

I am reminded of when I bought my first and only "hot" item off the street, a JVC combination radio and tv with a two inch wide screen, back in '77. It had an adapter to plug it in a car cigarette lighter and was meant to sit on your dashboard during crushingly slow rush hour commutes.

For me and my roommate, it was the only tv we could afford and the two inch screen gave an amazingly good picture that provided us with enjoyable entertainment. Apparently these tiny cell phone screens are doing that same job without millions of megapixels!

As a person lives in the Tokyo Metorpolitan area, I say cellphone is a very useful device to use when you commute in a crowded train with your face just a few inches away from the person standing next to you. Cellphone provides you with varieties of information and enjoyment in that tiny screen, which makes your everyday commute a less tormenting one. It has to be small and designed to be operated by one hand. But despite of all these convenient features of cellphone, I personally don't like to to use it as often as many folks around do. Using too much of it is dehumanizing and gives you lots of headache!

Let's not forget that the widespread implementation and usage of cellular phones in Japan and other parts of Asia has to do with the fact that those users pay ONLY for phone usage that they INITIATE. In the US we are being held hostage by the prices we pay for round-trip cellular phone usage (paying to initiate AND receive service).

PLUS our technology is far more limited because our system is far more limited. The US thinks it is a technological leader. Try traveling in Asia!

Like the last one on the egregious kisha club system in Japan, Mr Phillips did an excellent job on cell phone use among Japanese people. The piece includes many interesting comments from a variety of sources. We look forward to more pieces from Japan.

These Japan stories have been quite excellent, this one and the last one about Japanese media. Please keep them coming. Perhaps one about traditional, that is non-machine, tattoos next.