Internet Cafe vs Net connection at a hotel

After starting my homepage, I check the access number and BBS everyday. Usually, I open my PC between 8 and eleven o'clock at night to check the number and respond to any messages. Even during the trip, I want to know the number. "How many people visited today?", or "Is there any message in my BBS?", and so on.
In 2002, I went to an Internet cafe near the hotel almost every day and checked the access number.
When I'm in Japan, it is usual to read and write Japanese. However, when I'm abroad, I can't because common computers abroad don't have Japanese fonts, so Japanese characters aren't displayed on the screen ; every character shows up in a strange way. I don't know the system, but when I entered a Japanese homepage address abroad, a message such as "Install software which allows you to read Japanese?" appeared. When I clicked "Yes", a few minutes later, Japanese characters appeared on the screen. However, this convenient tool had limitations. I couldn't enter Japanese using this system.
Moreover, I don't know why, but although I could read all the pages on my homepage, I couldn't read Japanese on my BBS at all. Therefore, I wrote "Please write any message in English or in Romaji." in my BBS and I too wrote the comments in English or in Romaji.
In 2003, I decided to travel England with Tsukasa, my high school classmate. She is a freelance translator, so she wanted to check e-mails for her work and said that she would probably have to work a little. Therefore, she planed to bring her personal computer to England. Wow!! I asked her if I could use it.
She is a highly organised methodical person, so she set up an access point to use her PC in England. Then, she rightly thought that the shape of computer point may be different from the ones in Japan. Therefore, she sent e-mail to Mr. K, our hight school classmate, living in England on business to ask him about the matter. However, he didn't reply. She brought a Japanese modular cable to England without confirmation, but as she had expected, English people use a different computer point from the ones in Japan. Oh, no!
Therefore, a few days after we arrived in England, she and I accessed the Internet by our host family's PC. In other words, we couldn't enter Japanese characters, so I wrote on my BBS, "Please write any message in English or in Romaji.
During the trip, Tsukasa and I met John M., who often visits my HP. He found out we couldn't use Tsukasa's PC when he read my comments on my BBS, so he presented Tsukasa an adaptor which allowed us to connect Tsukasa's PC to an English telephone point. Writing some comments in Japanese felt very convenient after not being able to use Japanese initially.
Therefore, on my trip in 2004, I began to want to bring my PC to England. I really wanted to try what I had never previously tried by myself.
In the trip, my parents and I used a package tour with flight and hotels in London, but the fare of the tour was cheap, so I didn't know which hotel we were going to stay at until about a week before we were due to depart. I checked the tour company's hotel information pamphlet in order to see which hotel we mignt stay at. Most hotels seemed to have a computer point in each room, so I almost made up my mind to bring my PC. However, unfortunately, our hotel didn't have a computer point in each room. How unlucky!
Nevertheless, I didn't give up. I looked for our hotel's HP to request a room with a computer point. However, it was likely that the hotel didn't have its own e-mail address, so I sent e-mail to the hotel chain. Soon, I received a reply.
They said that they have a few triple rooms with computer points, so they noted my request but they could not guarantee such a room. Moreover, if I wanted to know the connection charge, I had better telephone directly to the hotel we were assigned.
"Telephone…", I thought. I wasn't confident about telling them my request on the phone, and understanding what they were saying. Especially, I wasn't sure how to deal with the numbers such as the connection charge. At a time like this, I usually rely on Tsukasa, so I asked her, "Please telephone the hotel."
And…
Tsukasa said, "According to the hotel employee, there weren't any triple rooms with computer points, but there was a room where we could connect to the Internet in the hotel."
I had thought if I brought my PC and I couldn't connect to the Internet because there weren't any computer points, it would be waste of labour. However, they were sure that there was a place where I could connect my PC to the Internet, so I decided to take my PC to England.
I was still anxious. Concerning the PC, I was noncomittal. Even in Japan, I couldn't connect to the Internet easily and sometimes telephoned the provider to ask what I should do.
"If I can't connect my PC to the Internet in England, I can't call the provider in Japan from England. If it happens, it will be the truely miserable!"


We arrived in London safely.
That night, after taking a bath, I found something just beside a socket. It looked like a telephone points. "It might be...I think I can connect my PC using this."
I took Tsukasa's adaptor out of my bag and tried to insert it into the point. The adaptor fitted into it. Wow! I thought, "Didn't they say that there weren't any triple rooms with computer points?", but it was surely a telephone point, or computer point. Lucky!!

The next day, I tried to connect to my CP.
Pi, po, pa!
"Wow! I did it!"
Thus, I started to use my PC in our hotel room. It was that easy.
Firstly, I checked my e-mails. Then, I checked my HP access number and saw if any comments were in my BBS. Moreover, I looked at the BBC's weather forecast. During this trip, two natural disasters, a big typhoon and the Chuetsu Earthquake, occured. My PC was very useful to confirm all information. Yes!! The Internet was so convinient.

There are some differences between providers, but what you should do firstly, before leaving Japan, is to set up an access point to use your PC in England looking at the connecting procedure which your provider gives. Secondly, you should get an adaptor which fits into the English computer points. Finally, after arriving in England, you connect your PC into the Internet by dial-up access in the same way as when you are in Japan.
Incidentally, the charge which I paid to the hotel for five days was nineteen pounds thirty eight pence, or about four thousands yen. When I used an Internet cafe in 2002, the charge was different depending on the time of day. When I used it at before eight o'clock, it was fifty pence, about one hundred yen, per two hours. When I used it at night, it was fifty pence per thirty minutes. In other words, using the Internet at your room in the hotel was extremely expensive, However, even so, I will choose the surroundings which allow me to use the Internet in Japanese within the comfort of my room. Don't you agree?

(2005.2.5)

Yokobruce, I'm a traveller. TOP

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