turingMachine

Many years back I spend 3 months in Japan. At the time, there was no google maps. Instead I had to use a Nokia N800 tablet and an external GPS with downloaded maps (and of course, no online information). It was good enough.

I still remember facing the washing machine for the first time, having no idea what each label said, nor how to search for it on the Internet. One never realizes how hard the world is to the illiterate until one becomes one. Today I can at least read and write like a 10 year old. Anybody can use the phone and get instant voice translation!!

One issue that has always troubled me is the choice paralysis I face every time I need to find a place to eat in Japan. Tokyo appears to have one restaurant per 100 residents.

Online rankings can be misleading. The origin of the reviewers biases online ratings: tourists evaluate restaurants different than locals and age plays a role on what people like (and are willing to pay for).

chatGPT has been amazing at helping me find places to eat. It is starting to know my taste, my ability to deal with non-English menus and my location. And I can guide it to use only information from Japanese sources (like the https://tabelog.com/) Today I ended having a great Kanto style unagi lunch, in a tiny secluded restaurant out of the touristic path called Unagi Yoneyama. It was just few minutes from the university. By the time I left, the restaurant was full. I could not have done better myself.

P.S. I still remember using my N800 in a bus in Vancouver and hearing the people next to me: "that is an iPhone" (the iPhone had just been announced). Nokia blew it.