cities where I visited afterward, I had been looking for the interface card for my video camera Sony Ruvi, which I thought broken. After leaving Merida, I received an email from the Japanese maker of the card that the card was not exported and could not be obtained in a foreign country. Then, it had been a useless effort to try to find the card at computer shops in Mexico. I thought they might have the Ruvi at a Sony shop if I visited one. If they had the same camera, I would be able to make a test to know if my card was really out of order or not. I had an idea that I would make it certain and that I would send the card back to Japan to have it fixed.

On the way to the hotel in the downtown of Veracruz, I happened to find the Sony Service Station. I parked the bike and went into the shop. The specialist I talked to was Rafael. He spoke English. He had once stayed in Japan. To my surprise, he said he had the same Ruvi, although he did not have the interface card. He diagnosed there was a possibility that the data cartridge of the Ruvi was broken, not the card. The cartridge is equivalent to a conventional film, but has a complicated structure similar to a disk. I asked him to bring his well-functioning Ruvi with the same cartridge so that I could give a test. He easily accepted my request.

On the following day I visited Rafael again at the Sony. As a result of the test, I found the data cartridge was not out of order. I became confident that the interface card was broken. However, Rafael told me it would hardly possible to find the card even in any Sony shops in Mexico. I was depressed. He then told me he knew a person who had the card and gave me the name card of Billy who assists Sony. I soon made a phone call to him. There was no answer. Three hours later, in the evening, after many calls, I finally had Billy on the phone. He spoke fluent English and talked very friendly to me as if he had known me for a long time, although I called him abruptly and for the first time. As dusk was deepening, I took a taxi and hurried on to his apartment as soon as I got his address. I rang the bell at the entrance of the apartment of Billy. He showed himself on the balcony of the second floor and welcomed me as if I were his old friend. I opened the door and found myself in a spacious living room. I saw two disk-top PC's and audio devices connected to those PC's. The PC's were all composed by him. I showed my broken card to Billy and told that everything must be small for a traveler. Then, he took a video capture device slightly bigger than a package of cigarettes, but not a card. He told me he did not have the same card. I was disappointed a little, but I thought I had to accept that. The device did not work for my PC in the end. Looking at my disappointment from the corner of his eye, Billy next took a device with size of a video cassette. I didn't like the large size, but I thought better than nothing. Anyway, thanks to the device I was able to take a still picture out of the video of my Ruvi into my PC Vaio. Moreover, Billy told me this device could compress the 30-minute video into 500 MB. But, it didn't matter to me. The disk of my PC had a capacity of 12 GB and gave only less than 3 GB available for another data storage. Billy showed me a disk drive with a 40 GB disk that time, and told me the 40-GB disk could be built in my Vaio by chance. This kind of disk with large capacity can store the video data of the next several years of my journey. As the 30-minute video in the data cartridge couldn't be copied to the disk before, I had to take the still pictures out of the video and to put the name of the place and date as a name of each file, otherwise those pictures would be deleted after being overwritten. Because I knew I would be loosing them for ever, I took out more pictures than necessary and I spent lots of time for this job. But, I wouldn't have to do this any more. I would be able to get any picture from the video in the disk necessary for my website or for the records of my journey whenever I need. That was a revolution! To accomplish the system, I needed more time. I told Billy I would move to a hotel close to his apartment. To my surprise, Billy invited me to his apartment. His wife and two lovely daughters were then staying in the parents' house of his wife in San Antonio, Texas of the US. I welcomed the easier situation and I decided to move to his place on the following day.

I went back to Billy's apartment and parked my BMW in front of his rusty car. I was given a room of his daughter. I was able to sleep in the room for eight nights. This sort of thing could rarely happens even in Japan that has kind people and never happens in the US or Canada. The parents of Billy are Palestinians and so, they moved from countries to countries. Billy himself was born in Egypt and lived there for 18 years. Then, he spent a short time in a island in Mediterranean Sea and later he lived in the US for 11 years. It had been 8 years since Billy moved to Mexico and he was then 38 years old. He told me that he wanted to take good care of travelers, because he himself had traveled around the world. I traveled to various countries, yet I had seldom had an experience of being given accommodations at an unknown person's before. According books, the people in Muslim countries, as they themselves live their life as travelers, give even their scarce food to other travelers. I asked Billy if there was some kind of influence of their culture in his invitation of me. He answered me that there might be a factor of that kind, but that there were more personal factors. He had a belief that money is not everything for our life and that it is his pleasure and meaningful to him if he can do something good to others. He told me his belief of this way of thinking was strengthened when he faced to the probable loss of his wife who was seriously injured from a traffic accident one or two months before. He is a person with a warm heart.

With the help of this savior in Varacruz, my PC was given a new life.

Its built-in disk now has the memory of 40 GB. This kind of laptop computer is not sold anywhere in the world at the moment. I will use the original disk of 12 GB to store the backup date of the video as a peripheral device. When the disk is out of available memory, I will make a copy of the video data into CD's and send them to Japan. The only problem left is the insufficient memory of the processor. The Vaio, which I bought two years ago, has the memory of only 64 MB and it often freezes on account of its scarce memory. I have regretted not having added more memory when I bought it. I am now waiting for an additional 128 MB memory to be sent from Billy. However, the most important thing I got from the encounter with Billy is that I will be able to have my PC repaired by or order to Billy easily and rapidly if it is broken. He does his work on the Internet and has his clients like me in many countries of the world. He knows the only dealer in the US who treats the notebook computers with Japanese specification. He also knows the proper procedure how to send without fail to me wherever I will be in the world. With Billy, I won't have to go back all the way to Japan to buy another Vaio, even if my Vaio has a breakdown. Sony told me that I would have to send the Vaio back to Japan in case of breakdown and that it would be impossible to get one in foreign countries. Even Sony, the most reliable Japanese company is irresponsible in this way. Either Sony doesn't understand the reason why the World Giant IBM was beaten by Bill Gates, a young layman.

A defect in the circumstance of PC business in Japan is not only in its poor after-sales service.

The environment of the electronic communications for PC's in Mexico surpasses Japan, including satellite communication. Most Japanese believe that Japan is mostly advanced. The real crisis of Japan exists in this kind of easy self-satisfaction and anachronism that both its organizations and individuals have. It is obvious that the poor situation of Japanese communication is due to NTT, however, we must know its level is under Mexico when we think about the system of charging the communication fee.

I met some friends of Billy in Veracruz. Solin is 27 years old and the business partner of Billy. He often appeared in Billy's apartment abruptly, opened the refrigerator, cooked his own food and then composed music by Billy's computer. Raul, an ear-nose-and-throat doctor, had a data management system of the videos taken by an endoscope and other data. Billy seemed have developed the system. While I was staying in Veracruz, I met these two people almost every day. They are also my good friends. I solicited Billy to sell his video-capture device. He did so and in addition he taught me how to edit video data. As a result I was able to show the short movie on my website. The after-sales service of Billy without doubt surpasses that of Japanese PC makers. Witnessing the full application of a PC by the musician Solin and the doctor Raul, I cannot avoid anxiety over the future of Japan.