Wired

It’s official: finally, we’re on line, and what a wonderful feeling it is too.

Consider the contrast: on Thursday afternoon I had no internet and no phone (my pre-paid card having run expired dramatically in the middle of a high-tension phone call to the immigration office) and was feeling completely cut off from the world. In addition to having to take the laptop off to the internet cafe (15 mins by car) every day just to check my emails and finish off my work, I had to walk up the road to the local phone box (8 mins by foot) just to make a bleeding phone call. I was pretty grumpy on Thursday.

By last night, I was surfing the internet on a super-fast 100 Mbps optic fibre connection, with the choice of a home phone and the trusty mobile phone to fulfill all my communication needs. (We even have receivers for upstairs and downstairs, so that Eleni can ring me to say, “O honey, your hot cooked meal is ready on the table!”) After the cable guys left, we celebrated by Skyping some friends back in Melbourne and providing them a walking tour of the house via the laptop. I watched the soccer highlights. Ruby spent ages on Facebook. Felix checked out his favourite YouTube bloopers and Eleni shot off a few emails. We called the mobile phone from our shiny new home phone, just because you can. And the internet is unlimited usage in Japan — download limits simply don’t exist here — so over the next two years I plan to become a download junkie.

And next month, we’re going to get optic fibre telly with 22 channels!

Last but not least, the internet provider has the wonderful name Mega Egg (it’s true! If you don’t believe me click here).

Although funnily enough there were actually a couple of advantages of not having the internet on:
1. It stopped me wasting time checking out the soccer highlights and reading the newspapers
2. It got me out of the house at least once a day.

It’s quite possible that with the kids away ten hours a day, Eleni off at work (if/when she gets a job) and unlimited internet and 22 channels at my fingertips, I could well turn into a techno-recluse and lose the ability to relate to people. I guess I’ll just have to schedule regular cakie runs to the nearest 7-11 to keep up my fitness and my social skills.