Means of Collection

Pay up, no matter how they collect 'em. It has been at least a year since phone companies like NTT DoCoMo introduced cell phones that act as debit cards. Working together with East Japan Rail's Suica e-money (JR East's Integrated Circuit card that allowed debit card swiping on an electronic card reader), DoCoMo issued cell phones (called Osaifu-Keitai) that could be swiped over a reader and money debited from them; both were based on a smart-card technology called FeliCa, a contactless IC chip technology that was developed by Sony Corporation.

I have no idea how many people have taken advantage of this technology and convenience. I think one of the factors that would comfort me in owning a cell phone "loaded with money" is that I am in Japan, where I can be rather sure that my cell phone would not be targetted for theft. Imagine what a "debit" cell phone may attract outside of Japan. JR East introduced the Suica IC (integrated circuit) card back in November 2001, and since then, 17 million people had taken advantage of the technology.

Buses in Tokyo will soon use a card reader, too. It is slated to start the service early in 2007. In addition to cash and electronic buss pass, one can now have a card swiped over the reader. Since the bus is not owned by JR, I am not quite sure whether the Tokyo Bus system will adopt something similar to the DoCoMo and Suica technology.

On September 27, 2006, JR East, NTT DoCoMo, JCB Co., and bitWallet Inc. announced a platform that would allow different e-payment to be done (Suica, iD, QUICPay, and Edy, respectively). This makes it easier for customers to use their e-money not only on transportation but also at vendors.

For Women Only

This is certainly not new in Tokyo, but it was the first time that I happened to have my camera ready to catch the decals on such special train cars: for WOMEN ONLY. Ladies, you know how it is in public transportations during rush hours: part of your body being groped by mysterious hands and perverts rubbing their crocthes onto your behinds. When you confront them, some have the gall to reason that the bus or the train's movement had caused it to happen.

Well, at least in Tokyo there are special JR (Japan Rail) train cars and Tokyo Metro subway cars designated for "Women Only" during rush-hour and late-night rides. Ladies are guaranteed safe rides during those hours. Outside of that time frame, the cars are co-ed. Pictured here are shots from the Chuo Rapid Line train car, stopping at Shinjuku.

In Japan, the platforms are marked to match where the train doors would be, so that people waiting can actually start lining up at the right spots. As you can see, the picture at the bottom informs the ladies that the Women Only cars' doors would open in these marked spots.

The Agony of the Feet

I just found this interesting set of photos at Flickr by French photographer Claude Estebe. This portfolio had been exhibited in Japan in 2003, but thank goodness you can still view them HERE. For those of you who had lived or had visited Tokyo, this will be a great reminder of how Tokyo girls and women are daring when it comes to decorating their legs. Enjoy!

No to This, but Yes to That!

Junk Mail. You know 'em. In the U.S., supposedly one is able to write to an authority dealing with this issue, somewhere in Colorado, to request that your name and address be withheld from junk mailing; but despite my doing that more than a decade ago, it never seemed to have worked. Even spam filters work better in keeping the junk mail away.

During my stroll in the city today (in Amsterdam, that is), I saw tiny stickers affixed to people's mail slot. On it are two options: the left one states whether or not you want unaddressed advertising, while the right part gives you the option of whether or not you want catalogs. The home owner gets to choose: Yes or No to either part. As you can see in the pictures above, one house decides it does not want unaddressed advertising mail (Nee or No), but welcomes catalogs (Ja or Yes); while the other house wants neither of the mailing (Nee, Nee, or No, No). It only wants personal mails and bills.

Unfortunately I never found out whether or not the system worked. Any Amsterdamers out there who could verify this?

Honor Scanning

Today I accompanied by aunt grocery shopping and learned a new device in the grocery world of Amsterdam: Personal Handheld Scanner. Who gets to use it, and how does that work? Well, the grocery store gets to offer this privilege to old clients and frequent/repeat customers. And here is how this works: when a customer enters the store, she would go to the scanner kiosk, where, after scanning a special card, she would grab a scanner. And off to shop...

When she picks up an item, she scans the barcode of that item, and the item would be registered within the scanner. Change your mind? Then just re-scan and push a "minus" button and the item disappeared from the scanner register. As she picks up more things, she scans more barcodes, and the scanner will hold all the information. For things that need weighing, she would put the fruits (for example) on the scale, scan the specific item, and the scale would produce a barcode sticker. Then she would scan this sticker and put the items on her cart.

At the end of the grocery shopping, she would go to a separate counter (thus, avoiding the long queue elsewhere) and surrender the scanner to a staff, along with cash or a debit card. The staff would then run the debit card through a machine and deduct the proper amount, and hand back the card plus some shopping bags (but the environmentally conscious Amsterdamers always bring their own canvas grocery bags from home). No muss, no fuss.

This is all done on one's honor. The store does random spot checks (just like they do in buses and trams). If one gets caught "stealing" (not scanning the product), then the person loses privileges. There is no such thing as "Oh, I forgot to scan that." No excuse.

[UPDATE: Jul 10, 2006]
During my recent trip to the U.S., I saw that the same scanning method has been applied to select Target customers. I am surprised that a city like Tokyo with their super-honest citizens has not had any of these floating around, unless I have not been privileged to have the opportunity to use it.