An emoji is worth a thousand words

I got a prepaid phone to coordinate the final, rushed days of my trip home. It was right after Christmas and the shelves at Walmart were stripped almost clean - the cheapest phones were all gone. Still, at twenty bucks (including ten dollars of air time), Verizon's phone was much less expensive than the lowest Softbank option in Tokyo. This phone was easier (for me) to use than an average Japanese cell phone.  The interface was intuitive and - hallelujah! - English predictive text.

I was at a loss to reply, though, when I got messages saying things like "I'll meet you at 8." Where was my thumbs-up icon and the face that breaks, again and again, into an eye-crinkling smile? And when I was running late, where were the drops of sweat and the frustrated face to show that I was hurrying as fast as I could? What good was writing "Happy new year!" without an animated pop of confetti?

I didn't realize how dependent I'd become on these little "emoji." Some of my friends scatter them willy-nilly as decorations. I use them sparingly, but, I now see, lean on them to convey a lot of what I say.

It was a relief when I got back to be able to send a message explaining exactly how I felt in just one character... an animated string of zzZZs.

The emoji screen grab is from Maho no Kan. There are lots more emoji there, too, and they're animated. Check 'em out.

An emoji survey translated into English at What Japan Thinks found that 72% of cell-phone emoji users were dissatisfied with the number of faces, critters, and pictures available on their phones. There are over 500 on my not-new phone. I wonder what kinds of icons people would still like to see?