Everything Comes with TV

Last weekend my wife's mother was out of town. Her father came over for dinner and we feasted on chicken nabe with the neighbors and washed it down with Beaujolais nouveau. I'm amazed at how big Beaujolais nouveau has become in Japan. Every supermarket, liquor store, and mom-and-pop grocery seems to be selling the stuff. About a month ago I walked into a supermarket in a small rural town in Shikoku and was greeted by a banner proclaiming, "Only 28 days until Beaujolais nouveau!" Part of the excitement is tied to the time difference meaning that the Japanese are the first in the world to taste the new wine.

The next day we were all up early as we had to take my father-in-law to a Buddhist memorial service downtown. After we dropped him off, my wife, 3 year-old son, and I decided to go out for breakfast. On our way to the restaurant we walked through a cell phone store. AU had cell phones playing TV programs. A monthly fee allows you to turn your cell phone into a TV. These phones had rotating 2.4 inch QVGA LCD screens, 2 megapixel cameras, an FM tuner , 4MB of internal storage and other goodies. I also saw phones that doubled as universal TV and DVD player remote controls. I presume the advantage lies in never again having to search for your remote control.

TV tuners have also become a standard feature on desktop and laptop computers from all the major Japanese manufacturers like Sony, Hitachi, NEC, and Fujitsu. Even Dell Japan runs a lot of promotions for TV-equipped computers. This means you can record TV programs and movies on the hard drive as well as watch your favorite TV show as you go through your email. Next step is feed the audio and video through a wireless network to your big-screen TV and speaker system.