Type A

There is a man sitting next to me. In front of him lies a bunch of circuit boards with small chips and components soldered into it. He has little white gloves on, a bottle of compressed air, some oil, and some other small tools. He has been sitting since lunch time (about 4 hours ago) taking small pieces out of this machine and cleaning them. It took me until now to realize what this machine was. Not because I'd never seen one before, but because I had never seen one in a million pieces layed out all over a desk before. It is a typewriter. Not an old classy author-typing-away-furiously-in-a-large-wood-paneled-office-with-a-cigarette-handing-from-their-mouth type of typewriter. It's one of the just-before-the-computer typewriters. The kind that now falls into the big closet of embarrasing dated gadgets. A clost that includes enormous 1989 cellphones, walkmans (or do you say walkmen?), gameboys, carphones, an 8 track cassette player and maybe an early laptop that is larger than most desktops now.

The man is working furiously at cleaning it and slowly putting it back together. I feel a large amount of sadness looking at this take place. I want to say "That machine doesn't need to be fixed. It doesn't WANT to be fixed." It's probably true. There are 10 computers in this office, all brand new. Why on earth did this school pay this man to come for hours to repair a typewriter that probably hasn't been used in 10 years. Is he the jobless typewriter cleaning Uncle of a teacher who badly needed a job because the typewriter business has gone under? Did the purchase the typewriter off of Yahoo Auctions (they don't use ebay here) just so this Uncle could have a job to do? Does he think there is still a market for a typewriter cleaner or has he convinced himself infrequent calls to the office are a result of the bad economy... no one can afford getting their typewriters fixed.


UPDATE: The man noticed me staring at him. I asked if that was a typewriter. "Yes," he said, "I haven't touched one of these in about 12 years! They asked me to fix it for some reason..." Apparently he's one of the science teachers here, either that or a man lying about being a science teacher here. He tells me he majored in electronic engineering in college and now gets his kicks fixing random machines like this... I minored in Microelectronics... I really hope my future isn't full of fixing typewriters. If it's depressing to be in one's 60s fixing a typewriter in 2009... then to be in one's 60s in 2050 fixing a typewriter...

Japan has me down today. I can't wait for my next vacation.

I will update you with info on my Nagoya vacation soon as well as my Mexican food fiesta!