TheBuzz
TheBuzz
From a dream to walking
Waikiki on the WebIn the coming week, a dream will come true for Akihide Takenoshita, literally and figuratively.
He literally got the idea for his business in a dream: "I'm Japanese coming to the United States and all the computers are in English. All over the digital world is English," he said. He changed Windows 98 to Japanese using Japanese software.
"In Japan they have so many cell phones using Japanese characters for mail," Takenoshita said, figuring if he can offer Japanese visitors the ability to use a cell phone for calling, surfing the Internet and e-mail messaging from Hawaii, "it's a great idea, right?"
He was looking for it to happen.
He knows from his background in the tour-transportation business that Japanese visitors rent cellular phones while in the islands. He also knows they frequent Internet cafes.
"So last year I got the idea to change a device. If I could change the device to the Japanese language from English I could succeed," he said.
He worked with software companies and incorporated some of his own blood, sweat and tears to convert palm-top computers for a service he calls "Mail on the Beach."
Takenoshita established Exilim Net Inc., hooked up with JCB Plaza officials for a Waikiki Shopping Plaza rental desk and struck an agreement for a Hawaii guidebook and up-to-the-moment information with Japanese Web site www.mo-hawaii.
This week Exilim will begin offering rentals of 20 palm-top Handspring Trio communicators to JCB customers. He hopes demand will grow to be such that he'll have to increase the inventory to 100 or 200 units.
"I think we made the first one. I don't think there are any competitors," Takenoshita said.
The computer is small for portability with an e-mail- and Net-surfing-friendly screen that is also programmed to display times around the world. The latter feature shows users if it's really a good idea to use the Handspring to call obaasan (grandmother) in Japan at this very moment.
Daily rental of Exilim's bi-lingual equipment is $7 plus $3 insurance; calls are $1.25 per minute in the United States and $3.25 a minute to Japan. Internet usage is billed per kilobyte.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com