Skype, Kanji and Misc

Being disappointed at mobile prices in Japan, it only occurred to me today to check out how much skyping mobiles costs. According to their website it’s only roughly 17 yen/min, while calling mobile to mobile in Japan will cost me 42 yen/min. This shows that, while technology is superior in Japan, companies try to extort those who want to use it on a daily basis. I’m not even going to go into how much “internet” on mobile phones costs a month.

While researching all this I also realised that there will be a significant time difference, making it an inconvenience to set up skype dates with family and friends. If my parents in Germany want to talk to me after they come home from work ~7pm their time, it will be 2am my time. If I want to talk to them while it’s their morning, it will be ~2pm my time so I have to hope I don’t have class. This basically means that skype calls will be limited to weekend afternoons. Skyping family in the USA is similar, I’m not going to go into anymore detail on that.

After writing my post on how I’m concerned about my kanji illiteracy, I have been doing a bit of studying at work. I’m surprised it’s going actually quite well. I still don’t remember what I did the day before, but it only takes a little bit of refreshing my mind to be able to use them again. Next week is my last week of work, and most likely the last stretch of studying kanji. I will be traveling the week after that, and the week after THAT it’s home time! I’m excited!

Update: Skype will double prices starting 6th of September, but it will still be 9 yen/min cheaper than using a mobile.