Malfunctioning is an underestimation. The laptop screen is literally fragmented into bizarrely-shaped pieces. Yet the owner, an undergraduate student in one of the top-league private universities in Tokyo, does not care. For him cutting-edge information technology does not have to come hand in hand with shiny, chic package which lets that technology functions in a certain manner and eventually makes that product to be, say, a PC.

Is the screen panel too expensive for him to replace? Probably not. He owns a shiny PlayStation Portable and regularly buys new game titles that he plays on it with his schoolmates. Different experiences from products; different attitudes toward them. Raising eyebrows around him certainly would be an added bonus.
By Takashi Sasaki (on-site report and photograph by Kunikazu Amagasa)