Technology rant!

So far I've have seen probably the most elaborate toilet ever conceived. One with 2 types of water sprays(one for girls and one for everyone), heated seats, two types of flushing (big and small. I usually use both, the small as a courtesy half-time flush.), a warm blow dry after the bidet, a remote control stuck to the wall so you can control all of this (temperature and strength of water, flushing, etc.), and my absolute personal favorite so far... a motion sensored lid that opens when you enter the stall. The first time I encountered this however, I was a hair away from not even having to use it anymore, and may have let out a small scream. In addition, the train systems are extremely complex, yet extremely efficient. I have yet to see a train that has arrived 2 minutes late, or left even a minute after it was supposed to. The ticket system is also pretty amazing, especially since I now have a pass in Tokyo which you can just add money to and swipe everytime you go through the gates, which saves you the hassle of using the actual ticket machine and calculating fares.

Despite remarkable leaps and bounds in some technological aspects of society, they still have yet to catch up with the Internet and banking. First off, it is very rare for you to be able to use a creditcard or debit in a store, even major chains. Second, the massive wave on Internet purchasing has not yet caught on here. Although Yahoo has a Japanese auction site, not many people use it or Ebay. In addition, there is no online banking to manage your finances. On top of that, ATMs exist and you can do a lot with them, however they CLOSE(!?!?!?) at 7ish. WTF is the point of an ATM if it closes??? I thought the whole point was to allow people access to their money 24/7 without having to hire staff. Instead it is used as a more efficient way to deal with bank transactions during the day. Not to mention most banks are only open until 3pm so you have to find time out of work to go do anything financial. At least it give you an excuse to get some fresh air! The good (horrible) thing is that the 7-11 which is open 24/7 has an ATM where you can take out money whenever you need it for a nominal fee of $2.

Anyway, I guess you cant have a society where everything makes sense. Where's the fun in that? What's life without pointless inconviniences? We'd have way to much time on our hands if society was completely efficient (if we don't already have too much. The crap you see on youtube as my case and point!).

(I have used a lot of brackets this post, I'll try not to use any in the next few to balance out the bracket-to-post ratio)