JAPAN has a reputation for being the home of the most futuristic technology in the world.

Robotics advances such as the famous ‘Asimo’ robot who can run, dance and talk have wowed crowds across the world. So, you would expect the day to day life in Japan to reflect this right? Wrong.

Surprisingly, Japan is a bit of a technological backwater when it comes to offices and the like.

When I started work in here, I had to learn how to use a fax machine, something I had never even encountered in my young life. Every kind of documentation sent between schools and head office is done via fax, and then followed up with a phone call to ensure they received it. Email is hardly ever used, despite it being faster and paperless.

In the classrooms, you are lucky to find a DVD player — it’s more likely you’ll be contending once more with a VHS player. This is always great fun when you’re trying to keep three-year-olds entertained with a video and you have to spend half the lesson rewinding and truing to find your place — why did we even invent DVD’s? And, the computers in offices are more likely to be big, cream boxes running last decade's versions of Windows.

There are an abundance of DVD rental places, reminiscent of the days of popping next door to ASDA before it was a car park, and arguing with my parents for them to let me rent Moulin Rouge. Happy days.

Despite this, the country really is at the top of the technology game. They are the home of Canon, Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba, and Nintendo amongst many. Whatever you’re looking for, you can find it here! There are neighbourhoods in all the big cities devoted to buying and selling technology. But, once again, the recent launch of Pokemon Go (owned by Japanese company Nintendo), has brought this to the forefront once again. The first countries to receive the game were the US, Australia, and New Zealand, and at the time of writing, Japan is yet to receive access to the game, despite the company, and the game being born and tested here first!

Personally, I’m hoping that by the time this goes to print, I’ll be well on my way to becoming a Pokemon master myself. But, who knows when it comes to technology and Japan? It really is a bit of a contradiction.