Springtime snow
I have kept my promise so far and done nothing much other than stay indoors and watch DVDs and eat today. I had forgotten to factor eating into my weekend plan, but have had a lovely time eating much more than has been necessary.
The day began with some very odd weather. Ugly black and yellow clouds appeared from nowhere and treated us to a loud and slightly frightening thunderstorm. After the thunderstorm had passed I went outside to find it was snowing. S.N.O.W.I.N.G!
So exciting. Great big snowflakes floating about for thirty minutes at least.
Luckily it stopped after that as apparently everything in Tokyo stops working when it snows a lot.
We went to meet Michael in Shibuya when the snow stopped and spent a nice slow evening drinking coffee then eating at our favourite izakaya franchise.
Michael pointed out something very interesting on his phone, and we discovered Patrick’s has the same function. The phones have built in barcode scanners. So cool. Of course my phone doesn’t have one. I am always missing out.
Phones here can be used for all sorts of things that phones just shouldn’t be able to do. They are navigation systems, interpreters, TVs and payment systems.
Phones can be swiped across special readers and used just like a credit card, in shops, train stations, and god knows where else… Could spending money get much easier?
We spent a half an hour or so pointing the phones at various things and attempting to make them scan, when we eventually managed to read the barcode off my Bic Camera point card we nearly fell off our chairs with excitement.
Patrick’s phone can read the odd little square barcodes I see on everything here. These new barcodes can hold all sorts of information; a link to a website or a map. Even websites themselves have them so you can scan the barcode off the computer screen to download the information to your phone. Too clever for me.
Speaking of confusing electronics… I was trying to find the button to flush the cyber-toilet at the coffee shop when I accidentally pressed the “Flush Sound Effect” button instead.
What is the purpose of the flush sound effect button?
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