Things I love about Japan

Fast fiberoptic internet speeds, and lightning quick to content in Japan:




Things are about "normal" cable speeds when watching YouTube videos, say, back in the United States.. but it does have to go 7000 miles! :)

Things I don't like about Japan

Streaming videos from the USA are blocked:

All the major websites think they're SOOO smart and give me the Japanese version of their website:

Kanji...those little symbols that you can't even sound out... what's it all mean? This is the air conditioning remote control... I feel like a 99-year-old grandma trying to run a VCR... Argh!!!

Augmented Reality programs for iPhone

Overlay of personal Identification (video)

Overlay of stores, views, restaurants (video)

Starting to look a bit more like the 21st century we all were thinking about back in the 1980's....( the iPhone as Star Trek Tricorder, really...)

"Augmented Reality"...you'd better figure out quick what it is, and how it will change how you interact with EVERYTHING: travel, entertainment, shopping, gaming, business...

Geek out,
Matt

Cars in Japan we need in America

With rising emphasis on fuel economy, and new fuel efficiency standards from the government, why isn't America allowing more Japanese car models into America? During my stay on Okinawa, Japan, I've seen dozens of great little cars that would make great college cars, commuter cars, and small family cars.

There are a lot of great Japanese models from familiar companies that are sold worldwide, but not in America. Take a look and see what a great selection of neat little, economical cars they sell here. Most get 35+ MPG.

Toyota IQ



Suzuki Splash



Suzuki Alto



Subaru R1



Subaru R2




Nissan Micra Convertible



Mitsubishi i



Mazda Demio



Honda Life




Daihatsu Move



Daihatsu Move Latte



Daihatsu Mira



Daihatsu Mira Gino



Daihatsu Mira Custom

Can't google figure out I want my login page in ENGLISH???

Okay, I get that I've moved to Japan. I get that google's servers are so smart, and they know my IP address is somewhere on Okinawa, Japan. But heaven help that it doesn't know that for the past three years I've logged on using English, and that would be a nice thing to continue doing, thank you very much.

Look at the screen. Could you even guess which Kanji symbols to actually click? Fortunately, I tried to click-by-memory, and after a few bad attempts, got it to look like the same graphical layout I was used to.

Sheesh! Smart is getting it right, stupid is assuming 100% of everyone on Okinawa reads Kanji symbols.

And everytime I do a google.com search, it assumes I want google.co.jp ... WRONG AGAIN GOOGLE. If I gosh-darn type "www.google.com" into the box, I gosh darn want google.com, not google.co.jp!!!! Give me a break!!!!

The only way is to go to igoogle.com, or hope you can read Kanji symbols again to set your preference for google for English only pages, but still everything gets messed up if you delete cookies.

Google... you need to get even smarter!