In 1999 I most likely would’ve brought my GameBoy with me for entertainment purposes during the long flight and for lonely evenings after work.
But the GameBoy alone won’t do – it also needs Cartridges with games on it to work.
And since no one would want to play one game over and over again you want to bring at least a handful of Cartridges to enjoy some diversification.

In 2009 though, I only brought my PlayStation Portable and iPhone.
I don’t have to care about dragging along multiple discs for games.
I also don’t have to swap batteries every couple of hours like it was necessary with the GameBoy back in the days.
Sony seems to know about the handicap that comes with physical storage media and offers a big library of games through their online store. I only have to bring my gaming device and have all the games that I want to play stored on flash memory.
Even if I decide to get some new software I don’t have to worry about additional weight when doing further traveling.
All that is needed is wireless internet access – and that’s available literally everywhere.

On the iPhone I am able to always carry a huge music collection with me … even movies and eBooks are possible.
On top of that I have a huge digital Japanese dictionary as well as an application full with useful phrases.
And thinking of all the possibilities thanks to other available Applications makes me feel dizzy of excitement.
10 years ago I would’ve needed to buy one of those clunky, hard to use electronic dictionaries or even carry around a dictionary made of paper!
But even while carrying all this with me the possibilities would’ve been much less compared to today.
Somehow a weird feeling if you think about that in our digitalized world of today.

After thinking about how much information we are able to carry with us everyday yet carrying so little physical matter along … it is simply amazing, isn’t it?
Nevertheless I am certain that looking back in 2019 I will also think “How comfortable things are nowadays. How inconvenient things were 10 years ago”.
I will smile, putting back the in 2009 unthinkable device I was blogging my thoughts with by establishing some kind of magic-like connection and continuing my ever so normal everyday life.