Two Important Purchases

Yesterday, I finally bought two gadgets that I should have gotten shortly after my arrival. Better late than never, I suppose.

First: a cell phone! Since I'm here for such a short time, prepay was the best option. I went with a couple other I-House II students who speak much more Japanese than I do. Julien was such a huge help--I would have been completely lost if I went alone!

SoftBank only has 3 models for prepay, and two of them were out of stock. So by default, I got this model (although I probably would have chosen it anyway).

The phone was just under $70, and I prepaid about $30, which will give me around 30 minutes of talk time. Those minutes expire after 60 days. The rates for voice calling are outrageous, but I plan to use it mainly for text and e-mail (unlimited for less than $3/month). Oh yeah, and I got to make up the last 4 digits of my phone number, and create my own e-mail address for my phone.

I'm still figuring out how to work everything on it, but I'm pretty pleased with my lovely new phone.

My other big purchase was a denshi jisho from Taniyama Musen, an electronics shop downtown. It's going to make doing all of my Japanese homework SO much easier!

(Once I figure how to use it, of course. Luckily a few of my friends have a similar model, and they've offered to show me the ropes.)

I really wanted the pink one, but the only pink one they had was the floor model...so I got a 2,000 yen discount and the color I wanted. I owe a big thanks to Julien for that bit as well. I should probably buy the man a case of beer for his help.

And it might be cuteness overkill, but I got a pink case for it, too.