Then and Now, Here and There

I have been giving the the contents of this post some thought for a long time. Most of you will know that I lived in Toyota City, Japan for a period of seven months, a number of years ago. This stay in Shanghai will therefore represent the second time that I have been away from the North American continent for an extended period of time. Since I have always liked to do contrast and compare analyses, it seemed only logical to apply it to this as well, especially since I do it in my head (as I think we all do) almost every day. The following are a few headings, with my observations.



Phones-

Then: The cost of using the telephone was horrendous; even local calls in Japan were pricey. I recall spending very little time on the phone, and often under the watchful eye of my Japanese father. I did resort to using pay phones for some calls- red phones for local calls, yellow for medium distance, and green phones for long distance calls. Overseas, could be made on public phones with either coins or calling cards. I think that they have done away with this system; the last time I was in Tokyo, I don't recall seeing different colored public phones. In total, I might have made five calls over the seven month period that I lived there.

Now: I have a cell phone and communication is much more frequent, spontaneous and lengthier. I can make lots of local calls, and I can even text message friends locally. I make long distance calls with impunity. The plan I have gives me inexpensive calls, as long as I am in Shanghai. If I calculate the time difference correctly, I can even make two or more overseas calls in one day for a fraction of what it used to cost!



Correspondence-

Then: I would often sit at the counter in the sushi restaurant and write one letter per day. I probably received two or three letters a week. And although it may have been tedious to repeat the same things over again, the reward was worth it. I have always enjoyed receiving correspondence from friends and family (I had numerous pen pals as a child). I have a box at home of the carefully preserved letters and cards that I received while in Japan. Given the high cost of calls, this was the only way to keep in touch with friends and family; it was a little less instant, but could be re-read endlessly.

Now: The post box is empty on most days, except for the ever present monthly bills (water, gas and internet) and the once monthly newsletter from In-SHUCK-ch (thank you Jessica), and some indecipherable advertisement for products. People are more likely to use the internet and dash off a line or two. I have friends that write e-mails like letters: long and full of their personalities. Most people only find the time to write a line or two, and this method of correspondence facilitates that and makes it easy to communicate. I know that it is an overall world trend, that fewer people write letters- and given the slow rate of postal delivery, I understand some of that trend. However, to me this represents a loss.

Movies

Then: I remember that the one of the big excitement for us (a couple of foreign students) was going to a current movie- an American Holllywood movie. These movies were in English and dubbed in Japanese. I specifically remember one occasion when we had collected a few girls and headed off on the train, to the next largest city, to catch the "latest" movie to hit the Japanese movie scene. I think that it was a relatively current movie then, but had probably been delayed for a month or two since its release on the North American market. I don't remember the title, but it was a Sylvester Stallone movie about arm wrestling (hold your laughter please). What a thrill it was! The alternative was watching old Linda Blair B movies on my bedroom television.

Now: I am an avid movie fan, so for me, the present day is much more to my liking. Now I either watch the movies on HBO (at 7,9,11,1,3,5,7,9 o'clock), or I step out to our friendly neighbourhood DVD store, and purchase a few movies for my viewing pleasure. Some of those movies are still in the theaters in North America when I see them. If I time it really well, because we are on the other side of the international date line, I actually get to purchase and see the movie before it hits the theaters near you. I know that there are issues with the legality of these products, but I am a low grade addict, and it feeds my need. We can also go to the movie theatre and see a relatively recent movie on the large screen, but since the price is about three times what we pay for the DVD's, there is really very little incentive to go and see them.



Visitors/Travel:

then: None. All of my friends were students. My parents could not come, since my younger brothers were still in school and too young to leave alone. The price of flights to Japan were also a bit prohibitive (and perhaps also in comparison to today), and it was also an expensive country to travel to.

now: Like telephone communication, the prices for international travel have decreased in the intervening years. As a result, last year we had plenty of visitors(almost one set per month) and this year we have a few "bookings" for the spring and fall. Every guest who has come has given me the opportunity to check out new places in China, so it has been an adventure for all of us.


There are many other things that could be compared, but I am leery of attaching a value judgment, so for now, I will leave it as is.