Living in Kyoto City

Mami Shimomura in her home studio in Kyoto

Mami lives in a spacious, modern and neat single-family house with her parents. She works as a piano teacher and shares my wife's love of music and computers. You could immediately tell that she's the kind of person who is simply great with kids and that's who she teaches. She made tea for us as she and my wife chatted. Her small studio contained a baby grand piano, electronic keyboard, Macintosh computer and wide shelves of books, sheet music and CDs. Somehow, she managed to arrange things so it did not feel crowded. Scattered about was her modest but diverse collection of Peanuts memorabilia. The floor was beautifully finished hardwood. The rain occasionally hammered at the window. But after a single, dramatic peal of thunder, it slowly began to let up.

Using my wife as a translator for some of the more difficult questions, I interviewed Mami for an article I was putting together for the summer issue of MacDirectory. She then introduced Kazz to her favorite new piece of software,an e-mail program called PostPet that has become a major fad.

The PostPet phenomenon

In Japan now, e-mail has become extraordinarily popular. However, it is normally sent and received via cell phone rather than computer. (Cell phone technology in Japan is several years ahead of the U.S. and has become the way most people use the Internet.) However, the unbearable cuteness of PostPet has influenced a lot of young women to go out and buy their first computer. The program started life as shareware, but evolved into a low-cost commercial product. But when you buy the program (about $35), you are given a second CD that you can pass along to a friend. Your pet--hamster, rabbit or whatever you've chosen—acts as your mailman. Keep it happy, well-fed and cared for, and it does great work. It will even send you and your friends mail on its own. Don't take good care of it and it can become belligerent and quarrelsome, something that you would not want to have happen to you mail software. Your friends who are also PostPet users can send it treats and give it attention as well. My wife fell in love with the program immediately and my article grew a new sidebar.

After talking for another couple of hours, we headed out for dinner, walking to the train station in the continuing drizzle. Water gushed through the open culverts along the slender street we shared with a few cars and a surprising number of cyclists who did not appear to be the list bit troubled by either the rain or the darkness. We took the train downtown and, weaving through some narrow side streets, stopped at a very small restaurant that had always been one of their favorites. The food was amazingly good, but I couldn't help but wonder how my wife and her friend could have discovered such a small place so far from the main streets. It seemed that nearly every customer than came in was greeted by name after the traditional irashai masai! welcomed them into the shop.

It was fairly late when we got back to the hotel. The following morning, 5:00 AM came and went while we were still ensconced in dreamland.

Next: Day 4 - Shopping!

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