&gt; It&#x27;s like they&#x27;re super-high-tech in everything - except computers, which are very expensive compared to what you can get here in the US.<p>High-tech&#x2F;lo-tech and expensive&#x2F;cheap are different axes.  Everyone in Japan was doing the whole text message thing 15 years ago, back when most of us were just coming to terms with email.  The same can be said about GPS navigation.