Thirty years ago today, an event that can’t be forgotten and shouldn’t be forgotten occurred in Kobe and its vicinity. Ten years ago, I posted both English and Japanese entries of what I had experienced, witnessed, and thought at that time; you can read them below:
Category: Wireless and Mobile
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The Words of the Year 2023
It’s time to wrap up the words of this year. As I do every year at the end of the year, I’m looking back at what has happened to me and what I have encountered over the past year, and I’m listing them up in a few short words.
The words of 2023 are flight simulation, fitness, TOEIC, and voice recognition.
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Revolution With Revolut
I live in Japan. I have bank accounts in Japan to get a monthly income and make regular payments. Besides, I have bank accounts in the United States and Hong Kong, keeping some of my money in different banks and currencies to minimize risk. I manage my assets in these countries because there are more investment options than in Japan.
A consideration is how to transfer the money you get in Japan to a foreign bank account. Wire transfers at a bank in Japan are expensive. I tried some online international money transfer services. All of these services require at least 2,000 JPY per transaction, so sending tens of thousands of JPY with them is costly.
Having two PayPal accounts can resolve this problem. I got two PayPal accounts with my different email addresses and linked one of the PayPal accounts to a debit card of the bank account in Japan, and the other to the bank account in the US. When money was credited to the Japan bank account, I logged in to the PayPal account linked to the debit card and sent money with the debit card to the PayPal account linked to the US bank account. Then I logged out and logged in to the other PayPal account, and I withdrew money credited to the account to the US bank account linked to the PayPal account. The fee is cheaper as long as you send a small amount of money. Unfortunately, you cannot send money from Japan to Hong Kong because if you live in Japan, your PayPal account doesn’t allow you to link bank accounts in Hong Kong.
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Visiting Maine
I think it’s too late to write this entry, but I visited Portland and Boothbay Harbor, Maine, this September. I watched a musical play, Carousel, at Kokugakuin Tochigi High School, performed by its musical club, a few weeks earlier. Carousel is a musical that features a love story of a young girl and a barker in Maine, filmed in 1956. That inspired me to visit this state and, if I could, eat some lobsters and clambakes.
There were no direct flights from Tokyo to Maine, so I chose flights from Tokyo (Narita) to New York (JFK), and from LaGuardia to Portland (Maine’s largest city). All flights were with Delta Airlines.
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iPhone5
I got an iPhone 5. I kept Sony’s Xperia Android phone, but the iPhone is easier for me to use, and it offers a wider variety of accessories sold worldwide than Sony’s.
I haven’t got a Softbank nano-SIM card, so I went to the nearest DoCoMo shop to get a DoCoMo nano-SIM card for it, but they didn’t have any in stock. I visited other DoCoMo shops to ask for one, but none had it. Without a nano-SIM card, it couldn’t be activated, and it was just a small plate.A DoCoMo shop in Tochigi-shi thankfully said they had a nano-SIM card for iPhone 5, although most DoCoMo shops in Tokyo said they didn’t have any. When I drove to the shop, there were dozens of people waiting in the queue. A shop clerk said I should wait 1.5 hours to be served, but I actually waited about 30 minutes before being served. I managed to get one, put it into my iPhone I had bought before, and had it successfully activated.
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I got BlackBerry!
The nearest DoCoMo Shop had informed me that a new BlackBerry device (BlackBerry 8707h) had arrived, so I went there this Monday and bought it. The handset cost 28,000 Yen. Very reasonable.
Setup is very easy. I keep three of my email addresses (including a BlackBerry-specific one) in this handset. I can catch incoming emails and reply to them, wherever I am. The key strokes are very comfortable. Even if you type long emails, your thumbs won’t get tired.
I’m not saying I’m completely accustomed to this gadget right now, but I will be soon. This must soon become the item that I can’t do without, as many Americans may think.
