Ok, I confess, that title is about a decade too late. These days Japan uses the same smart phones as all of us. But 'twasn't always the case. Behold!
Found these suckers in a second-hand shop. The price tag you see says ¥100, which is about a buck USD. It says omocha keitai on the box, which means toy phone, but they were the real thing. Maybe they didn't work, not sure. But at any rate the store was trying to get something for them rather than just throw them away.
Before smartphones came along and took over our lives, Japan made what were considered the most advanced phones in the world. They had all kinds of features, including cameras, TV reception, internet access, telephone banking, play games, play music, have access to GPS/maps, track steps, do video calls, even make payments. When we expats visited home with our snazzy Japanese phones, everyone was amazed. I remember mine also had a Japanese/English dictionary, which just blew everyone away at the time. Hey, this was a pre-smartphone world; we were all easily impressed by this stuff.
Because none of these phones were compatible with the outside world, they started to be referred to as Galapagos Phones, or gara-kei (gara from Galapagos and kei from keitai, the word for mobile phone). If you know much about Darwin, you will get the reference.
Man, I loved my garakei back in the day. As much as smartphones frustrate me sometimes, I don't think I could even go back, tho.
On the way back from the store, I caught this view.
We don't have much of a skyline here in Okazaki, but I always enjoy this when I cross over this bridge.
