I bought the TV in January of this year, but let’s pretend that I actually bought it in September of last year. Now if I was in some other country that I shan’t name (it’s not in Europe) I’d likely have a 1 year warranty, which leaves me stuck having to either pay a large repair bill or buy a new TV. Luckily Japan has a love of warranties almost as great as their love of kanchos (please fear the kancho). What this means in English speak, long warranties. But how long is long? When you have motherfuckers doling out 90 day warranties a 1 year warranty makes it seem like the company is being overly generous. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that a 1 year warranty is long.

A warranty, more or less, is supposed to be a guarantee by the maker that tells you a few things – mostly quality and expectations. However, this isn’t always the case; many countries have warranty laws and some companies pride themselves on having long warranties, but there are many places where you’d be hard pressed to find a warranty longer than a year without paying a hefty fee for an extended warranty. Note: a product with a 1 year warranty doesn’t mean that it’s shoddy nor does it mean that if it happens to last one year without breaking that you should expect it to fall apart soon after. But even if it has good build quality the manufacturer is essentially tell you to shove off if you bought the product more than a year ago. Whether it’s because they’re cheap or that they make products that don’t last long, this makes it seem like the maker doesn’t trust its own creations. In this regard, unfortunately, Japan is very similar to many other countries; a 1 year warranty is usually all you are going to get.

But then something surprising happens. (To take my TV as an example), my manufacturer’s warranty is only for one year but somehow I have a 5 year warranty. I didn’t ask for an extended warranty and I certainly didn’t pay for one so what’s up with this? Big electronics stores. For some reason, the big electronics stores in Japan have decided to use warranties as a battleground to get more customers. This has led to “standard” warranties of 5 years that can easily (and cheaply) be extended up to twice that number.

It even covers battle sword injuries.

Now this is not to say that everyone that works at these stores acts like employees at Best Buy or Radio Shack. They’ll ask you if you want to pay the 3000 yen (or somewhere thereabouts) for the extended warranty and if you say that you’re not interested they’ll never ask again. Actually, one of the few extended warranties I’ve ever bought was one from Japan; when I bought my Xbox 360 I was told that I can get a 5 year Softmap warranty that covers pretty much everything (or at least more than the Microsoft warranty) and it only cost me 2000 yen. Because I was buying a used console this was about 10% of the price; those buying a new console would pay the same price – i.e. a 5 year warranty for less than 10% of the actual product.

It’s sad that manufacturers only give out short warranties here in Japan, but heaven seems to have smiled on the local populace and given them the wondrous gift of strong competition.

By the way, the tv (Toshiba Regza R9000) seems to be a Japanese only model.

So part one was about how the cell phone plans differ. One the whole Japan seems to have a better system than some Western countries since you can save bucket loads of money if you keep the same phone for more than two years (or for one year for those who are on a shorter plan). However, talking about cell phone plans is probably boring unless if you’re an accountant or maybe a real hardcore price comparer(erer). For everyone else, that last one might have been slightly boring; we’re moving on so you have no need to worry about that. Wake up and grab your big foamy hand, it’s time to talk about hardware.

Oh… you’re so big, and pink, and … sparkly.

This article on Japanese cell phones from the dead baby loving communists gives some good insight on the evolution of phones over here, but I’m still going to give you a general overview. Remember back in the day when cell phones were huge? Remember the colossal car phone in the movie “The Chase“? Of course phones were big everywhere back then. Cell phones were generally big boring monochrome (like real life in the 50′s) tools until the beginning of the millenium when scientists decided to make mobile phones cool. This was pretty much how things were in many countries; and, yes, Japan is included. There were some small differences, which band was used (e.g. CDMA in the US, PHS in Japan, and 2G/3G in Europe), but for the most part the differences were minor.

Starting from the time when 24 was cool, many western companies began making phones smaller and sleeker (the RAZR being the prime example). Although much culture is exported from the West to be imported to the East, cell phones usually aren’t included in the list of goods. WIth that, Japanese and Korean companies did different things that fit their market better: an excellent predictive text system, Internet capability, a faster network, barcode scanning, big cameras, etc. The list of features started to grow quite long and this prevented Asian manufacturers from making their phones as small as phones like those in the West. Everyone seemed to be contented with the size and very happy with the new features so no one seemed to care. This commercial/cultural separation led to a growing divide, not in technology, but in preferences and available choices.

I can’t wait for someone to steal my money without the exquisite touch of human contact!

This phone is a good example of how things are different; it has a TV tuner, a huge camera, and a rotating LCD screen. All three of these features are rare/unpopular in more Western countries, but very popular here. Another good example is this one by AU. A recent and very popular new feature, おサイフケイタイ（phone wallet), is paying for things with your phone. On many new models people can use their phones to buy things from convenience stores and vending machines; this feature also lets the phone double as a train pass (take a look at these videos to see how it works).

And although these features (or at least some of them) are valuable to people in Asia, they hold little to no value in many western countries; there are not advertisements that also include a phone-readable barcode, the payment systems aren’t set up in Europe or the Americas, and no good place to watch TV in the States or Canada. This is a time when having many features actually causes a problem, even though all of the features work fine and have a useful function. The decision of whether or not a Western style phone is better than an Eastern style phone, while still dependent on the preferences of the person in question, is very reliant on the environment that the phone is in. Even if you could use a Japanese phone in the States you probably wouldn’t have a big reason to buy one and ship it from overseas, there’s no killer app that Westernized phones don’t have that an Asian phone would have.

Are Japanese phones superiour to phones from other countries? In a way, yes, but not really. It all depends on where you are.

Before you go (and even though you might not understand), watch this. It will enlighten you about … something.

Sometimes something simple surprises sensibilities. Cellular phones can be deceptively different is may ways. The majority of people stay put (to some degree or another) in one area so the chances of knowing how cell phones (or the contract you would enter) differ. You might not think that cell phones would be so varied as to warrant a poorly written article, but since you are Rear Admiral Wrongy Wrongerson I must show you the error of your ways.

I don’t want to my time discussing differences that everyone (should) know: North Americans talk more since texting is insanely expensive, everyone else texts more since calling is costly, etc etc. Since Japan is included in not North America people don’t call their friends that often, they text. There is no factor in the Japanese phone system that changes this oft stated, and quite correct, assertion. Given the well-known nature of this, I’m not going to spend anymore time talking about it.

I feel sorry for all those dumb bastards not in Freedom land who don’t have companies competing for our hard-earned dollars.

When buying a cellphone in a country such as the great US of A, your phone is usually either free or greatly discounted. This is made possible by making everyone pay more for minutes and text messages; i.e. gouging everyone. Now if you made the awesome and #1 conclusion that this is how everyone else does things, here’s a hat for you. Here in the country of giant-balled racoons we do things a little differently; the big three cell phone companies in Japan (DoCoMo, SoftBank, and AU) don’t usually subsidize their phone in anyway (the iPhone is a current exception to this rule). What they do is charge you a fee every month so that after 24 months of paying this fee you have a phone that is yours; if you decide to continue the contract without getting a new phone then your phone bill drops to just the services that you use. For the budget conscious, this way of doing things is vastly superiour to the American system, you can save money at first by buying a cheaper phone and then you can save even more money if you don’t get a super awesome phone that will give you hugs.

The above picture of an AU phone gives you an example of this. The amounts in the bottom right of the orange ringed box (top of the picture) show you how much you’d pay each month for either a 24 month contract or a 12 month contract, 2,055 and 4,110 yen respectively. The red number above those monthly figures is the retail price of the phone (49,320円 in this case) and the big red numbers are how much you have to pay upfront. These numbers vary depending on the phone you’re looking at, but unless if you’re here and you’re looking to buy a prepaid phone you’re going to see these numbers pop up again and again. And remember that none of these amounts are taking into consideration the price of the plan.

This way of paying for cell phones, albeit quite different than what many might be used to, is a good system. It doesn’t adversely affect the penny pinchers while still having monthly bills that would be competitive in many different markets.

Begin quivering in expectation for part 2 where Nancy Drew finds Mrs. Nickersons’s secret passage and gets caught in a stick situation.

Anyways, Den Den is great. Osaka has always been known as a trading hub so many places in Den Den have lots of used stuff, unlike Akihabara. They also have an entire building dedicated completely to everything Gundam… if you’re into that kinda stuff.

Notice the sign that says “No Pictures”. Whoops!

I don’t think any of you really like Gundam; we can forget about that store if you like. There are plenty of other places to go, like this place over here. They have tons of action figures: Dragon Quest, Super Mario, Gundam, Dragonball Z, and…… ummmmm….. well, look for yourself.

Sometimes I think that Japan is really, really fucked up.

If there are any of you who likes little figurines of Japanese girls stripping, then Den Den (and Japan) is the place to visit. Of course all of the shops aren’t like this shop, just some.

The range of normal shops goes from: hardware stores (?), light stores, a store full of watches, media stores (CDs, DVDs, Tapes, MDs, etc), game stores, and regular electronic stores.

You’ve probably guessed that I’m going to talk about some of these stores. There a couple of stores that are really great.

First, Super Potato. It’s a game store that sells a combination of used and new games. There are two levels. The ground floor is full of games of newer games (PS2, Cube, DS). Upstairs is nostalgialand; almost any game (or game system) that you can think of can be found is little places such as the second floor of Super Potato. However, it’s quite cramped and there are many times when you have to duck down really low. I don’t have any pictures of Super Potato right now, but I’ll get some.

Next, Wanpaku. It’s another game store. They deal mostly with new games, but they do have a small section of older games. Their prices are very competitive (they had the lowest price on a PS2) and they usually have the game you want in stock.

Our next sure is PC Ones. This is the place to go when you need a computer part. They have 3 floors of computer parts and some other things as well. At PC Ones is where I got my flash card to play English Nintendo DS games of questionable legality.

Finally, Sofmap. This is the Best Buy of Japan and they have 3 stores just in Den Den, one game store and two computer stores. Sofmap is also the benchmark for prices in the Den Den area. They might not have the best price, but they will never rip you off.

Being Japan, there are also many crazy things, like this.

Who is this crazy about Gundam?

Lastly, there’s also maid cafes in Den Den. What is a maid cafe? Well, it’s like a regular cafe, but there are waitresses and they dress like maids. Sometimes they hand out flyers in their maid costume. I WILL get a picture, it’s just a matter of when.