Technology is EVERYTHING

Japan is known for having Technology before anyone else. I have to admit that the moment I arrived here I understood what they've always been talking about. I've been avoiding writing about it simply because I didn't have the words to describe it.

Before I mentioned that electronics are typically not available in any supermarket, department store or little shop. Sometimes you do find a little camera shop because the Japanese are crazy about cameras. But overall, there is no electronics section in most places that I could name. So for the first couple of weeks I kept asking where all the advanced Tech was... Well within a few weeks, we found it.

Electronics are almost exclusively sold in electronic stores. The biggest one we found is called BIC Camera. They sell everything that is electrical in some way. Air conditioners, hair dryers, fax machines, video games, TVs, stereos etc. Imagine Best Buy or Future Shop compared to a Loblaws or Costco. Basically it's huge.

In Canada and France most electronics you come across are from some unknown company. I suppose, for example, your air conditioner, escalator, or drink machine are probably made by either companies you're not familiar with or companies that only make that product. Here in Japan, from the moment I arrived in Japan, the security camera was made by Toshiba, the drink machines by Hitachi and the scales at the airport were made by Kawasaki. I now know that Mitsubishi ,the Korean electronic company, makes EVERYTHING!

Now when I was saying that BIC Camera was huge, I wasn't lying. This is the section to choose your style of mouse for your computer. Every shape, colour or mold in any pattern you can think of.

There's THREE rows of it. Don't get me started on little add-ons for an MP3. That's just a sea of consumerism.


Here's a video from BIC Camera to give you an idea of what kind of craziness I'm talking about.