Cellphone cameras: The good, the bad, and the uncalled for

As many of you know, or at least assume through stereotype, technology in Japan is better than that in North America. Now that I’m here, I’m not sure that it’s entirely true. Having a larger, electronics savvy market I think results in some advances, but globalization is decreasing the gap. My North American bought (but it’s a Sony) digital camera doesn’t put me to any particular shame here, but I will say that cellphones in Japan are far superior to their North American counterparts (iPhone excluded).

Cellphones here are pushed ever forward by highly demanding market forces. Japanese people, it seems, don’t believe in owning anything over a year old, and buy new cellphones more often than I buy new underwear (which in my defense, is not that infrequent). Unfortunately, the technology isn’t transferable, so I’ll have to buy some Motorola piece of crap when I get home, but for now here’s a picture of my baby in all of it’s 103 x 49 x 11.4 mm glory:

(mine's the red one)

It turns out that one of the more useful functions of a cellphone in a land where you don’t speak the language is the camera. This allows people I can barely communicate with to show me a picture of their dog/child/sister’s new baby so I can squeal kawaii (cute) in my best nasal Japanese girly voice, and we can both feel satisfied that we shared a moment of sorts.

I’m generally comfortable with this arrangement, but today it went a step too far. I was at the local international center when a Korean woman walked in with her 1 year old son. He was covered in lotion covered dots, and it turns out that he had chicken pox. Some smaller than small talk was exchanged, and then the woman pointed to the kids crotch and said what I can only assume was Japanese for “itchy”. She then proceeded to pull out her cellphone and show me a picture of that which the diaper is meant to cover. This woman was specifically, dare I say purposefully, carrying around a picture in her cellphone, of her son’s be speckled privates, just incase random strangers were curious. Really, there’s nothing quite like childhood herpes on baby junk to make a real show and tell event.