The Galapagos Effect.

Day 1. Monday 9^th August  2010. Osaka Japan.

First, let me tell you that its summer here. Hot. 30 Degrees. Humid. Sun shining. Girls in short dresses. Did I mention hot?
 

Anyway....the first thing one needs to do is get hooked up with a mobile phone. Now being somewhat of an international traveller I naturally have a GSM phone. Everywhere I have gone to it has worked fine. UK, USA, Australia, all the pacific islands have been no problem as it is, after all, the world phone standard.  You can either buy a local SIM card or let yourself be raped by Vodafone and their international roaming charges.  Japan is once again unique in that their mobile phones aren’t compatible with the rest of the world. It’s known as the Galapagos effect. An industry which has evolved into a highly advanced state, without any contact with the outside world. Now I know that my phone works on the Japanese networks but I have never tried to get a SIM card for it. Until now.  The company that supports my alien GSM phone goes by the somewhat strange name of SoftBank.  There are plenty of SoftBank stores in Namba so we go to the nearest one and try to buy a prepaid SIM card for my phone.  In theory this is possible. In practice it’s a mythical thing like a dragon or a VTNZ compliance  inspector who knows something about cars.  Everybody has heard of them but no one has actually seen one.

The first place claimed that they don’t sell prepaid SIMs no more. The second shop said they do but that they were out of stock. Another store told us it was impossible and always had been. Yet another one said that they are so popular that they sell-out instantly. When we asked when they would get some more in the answer was a typically Japanese “we don’t know”  This is an item that is so sought after that they sell out instantly but which nobody thinks is important enough to re-order some more.  “Try some SoftBank stores in Kyoto” we were told. “Lots of gaijins there so maybe you can find one there”.  Now remember that this is one company selling a standardised product. The staff in the shops have no clue about what goes on in any of the other shops even when they are just a few metres away from each other.  Clearly more Galapagos shit going on here.
 So I bit the bullet and bought a Jap phone.
 Shizuka had to fill out lots of forms because I, being a foreigner, can’t be trusted with a mobile phone.
 Naturally, I will be using it to sell drugs and make ransom demands.