It's Been a Long Time.............Again~

So it's been almost a month since my last post. Amazing how time flies. I've been so busy the past month, I haven't had much time to do anything. My room is a mess, my table is a mess, and I can't find important documents, let alone take the time to read them.

Funny thing happened last Wednesday. I tried to use my cellphone, but it wouldn't work. I wondered what had happened. I remember receiving a bunch of mails from softbank, but since I was so consumed with other things, I just threw them on the table, thinking I'd have time to open them "later". Well it turns out "later" turned into "never", and I was in for a big shock.

Since the beginning of September, people have been texting me constantly. When I first heard about Japanese "texting culture" - that they constantly send each other text mails rather than using their phones to make calls, I thought it was extremely weird, and that if I were in their positions, I would never become that crazy. How wrong I was. Since getting my cellphone, meeting some people in my area, and exchanging numbers and addresses, I've been receiving texts constantly, day and night. At one point I found myself probably writing and sending upwards of 20 messages a day, and that's just a rough estimate. My hand started hurting. I realized that Japanese people almost never make phone calls. There's good reason for this as well, it's freaking expensive! On my softbank plan, I have to pay 21 cents per half a minute, which means I'd be paying around 40 cents a minute to call someone. Insanity. Text messages on the other hand cost only around 3 cents per message, and you can cram a lot into one message.

A Japanese cellphone is more like a small portable computer. You can access the internet from anywhere, and you can send mail to other phones, or to email addresses which is pretty darn convenient. You can also receive email from anywhere in the world directly on your cellphone. It was incomprehensible to me at first, and it still kind of amazes me now.

Naturally, I thought maybe I had overused my cellphone, with texts, phone calls, internet, etc. I talked to one of my teachers at school and asked him what might have happened. I was pretty sure it wasn't money, cause when we he helped me sign up for the contract, I chose the option where softbank would automatically deduct the monthy charges from my bank account. He called softbank for me, and eventually, we got an English speaking operator to speak to me. Apparently, it really was money problems after all. For the first payment of the contract, I was supposed to go in and make the payment myself. I had no idea at all. She told me that softbank had probably sent me various mails etc. concerning this fact.

The good thing about Japan is that convenience is of the upmost importance. You can pay your bills and whatever else at the local convenience store. For me, it was Seven Eleven (yes there are Seven Eleven's in Japan. In fact, there are so many Seven Eleven's I practically see them everywhere I go). Around 6 hours later, my phone service was back to normal again. Gotta love Japanese service - quick and efficient.

Now, it's time to get back to cleaning the room. Hopefully I didn't miss any other important mails.