idiocracies

After my failed attempt to get a prepaid phone at Shibuya yesterday, I've decided to try my luck at Harajuku today. It was a fruitful day as i finally got my phone! It was soooooo slow, but in the nice way. I swear- Only the Japanese can make buying a phone a spa-like experience. They made me take a number, that was fine. I was directed to some bar seats armed with ipads and i had way too much time fiddling with it. Nice display anyway.

So finally some sweet service staff came to pick me up, guided me downstairs and showed me TWO prepaid handsets available. One cost 3 times more than the other and the only significant feature difference was that the more expensive one included TV. I asked to see the sample models of both phones, so she promptly took me around the store in search of them both, but nopes. No sample models. So eventually I told her i'll take the cheaper one as I don't need the TV. I chose white (it looks somewhat like sally's phone with the missing buttons! haha) Next, came the form-filling phase... I gave them my passport (5 times!!!) and other documents and I signed all sorts of forms. I was asked to choose between the 3000 or 5000 yen prepaid card; I can set my own PIN number; choose the last 4 digits of my phone number everything. Everything is so painstakingly personalised, I'm overwhelmed. She then went to get the handset and get everything sorted out. She pointed to the vending machine in the corner and said, "it will take a while, so please help yourself to the free drinks at the vending machine over there." Thus, i had no choice but to help myself to a cup of milky ice mocha. (Fortunately, today was nicely warm enough for me to enjoy iced drinks!!! Oh the luxury!!!) So after 5mins of idling around, i was back at the counter when her supervisor was yakking to her in Japanese about something. She then turned to me to ask if i'll make calls often. If so, I should consider a post-paid contract plan as non-contract calls made in Japan are rather expensive. I was like err. no it's fine! She's like hai, hai... Eventually all my particulars are doubled & tripled confirmed before putting the final contract into the ultra sleek scanner machine. The beautiful ordeal is still not over yet. I had to scratch the prepaid card and then phone the number to set up the registration. The service staff is so pretty and polite, I don't feel upset at the utter waste of time. I'm just so amazed at how long the entire procedure took.

Talking about personalisation, the Japanese really takes it to the extreme... While i was setting my bank account at Shinsei bank, I could choose which COLOUR i want my bank card to be. It's not even simply a choice of say, 5 basic colours. It was a mind-blowing array of about 30 colours??? I like it and i chose a "grasshopper" green - but I'm just awed beyond words.

One more weird manifestation in my city - they are extremely particular about sorting the rubbish out. I have more than 20 bins in my house to sort out my trash. e.g. toothbrushes, magazines, newspapers, bottle caps, batteries, CDs, tins, metal caps, milk cartons, glass bottles, plastic PET bottles, plastic PET bottle caps, plastic (light) e.g. bags, plastic containers (food), plastic (heavy), organic waste, burnable waste ETC ETC ETC. respect.