Number portability has begun today in Japan. This is the rule that took effect in the U.S. too about three years ago that allows you, the customer, to take your phone number with you when you switch service providers. The rule is supposed to make it easier for unhappy customers to leave their existing services, thereby increasing competition. Japanese operators have been preparing for this for the last two years.

I wrote about this in the U.S. three years ago, and while I was in Japan by the time the rule actually took effect, I heard complaints that the entire transaction took days initially partly because operators weren’t keen on making it easy for customers to leave. By that standard, changing services is super-speedy in Japan, where it’s unthinkable to disobey a rule. I just saw a television program in which they measured how long it would take to switch services. The verdict 1 hour and 40 minutes. AND they were complaining.

Hold music can say a lot about a company sometimes. I was calling the Minstry of Internal Affairs and Telecommunications (Japan’s FCC and other stuff) for work today and they put me on hold. The music? London Bridges(you know the one that goes “London Bridges falling down, falling down, falling down…”).

We came across these new-fangled bus-stops in Kanazawa. They let you know which bus is coming next. We’ve all read about these things, but this is the first time I’ve actually seen it. Pretty cool.

Of course, the bus that we needed was a cheap tourist bus that wasn’t on the list. And it was 30 minutes late. So much for Japanese punctuality.

The Japanese fixation with mobile phones is pretty well known, but I had to laugh today when I saw a teenager on the train, who had fallen completely asleep… with an open cell phone in her hand. Her finger was on the key pad. On the way home after visiting my grandparents, I saw an older woman as well, also asleep, also with an open cell phone in her hand. Funnier still was a young woman, who was sending an SMS even as she was falling asleep.

That’s true devotion in my opinion.