Char-rin!

Mrs. Ochiai came over yesterday and spent a couple hours showing me what my new cell phone can do. We also resolved a couple of my computer problems. It is so nice to have a computer and electronic literate friend.

落合さん！　ありがとう！

（I just said thank you to Mrs. Ochiai. She is one of my friends who just visits my blog for the pictures. ）

So... I have relearned how to back up my blog. Mrs. Ochiai has taught me how to do this before but I forgot. And I have checked my computer for a bluetooth device which we determined it doesn't have. Not that I've missed it in the past two years...

And I registered my cellphone on-line and now can use the cellphone-wallet application. Japan's stores abound with little disks at the cash registers where you place your compatible cell phone and can pay for purchases without opening your wallet. Whether this is necessary or not I don't know but I wanted to have fun with my cellphone right? So now I can do this.

After on-line registering, Mrs. Ochiai and I went down to the nearest convenience store and with her leading me by the hand (not really) she proceeded to direct me on how to "charge" my cellphone with money and buy something.

To the convenience store clerk,

"I want to charge 1000 yen (about $10) to my cellphone."

Place it on the disk and hand the clerk money. Push a couple buttons on the screen.

"Char-rin!" (the sound of coins "dropping" into your cell phone.)

Now what to buy... two soft drinks. One for Mrs. Ochiai, one for myself. Back to the same clerk.

"I want to pay for my purchases with my cellphone."

Place it on the disk and another "Char-rin!"

Purchase made. The clerk was laughing at me while I was anxiously checking my cell phone to see if I'd really used the money that I'd just put in. Sure enough... some 700 yen left!

Mrs. Ochiai warned me not to keep too much money in my cell phone just in case I lost it...

Sometimes I feel like a dinosaur in a digital world...

(picture from the Internet)