In the land of the technologically advanced, dust-off still wows.

Am I really in the land of the technologically advanced?

My co-worker/desk neighbor, just pulled out a can of "dust-off" and sprayed the canned air over his keyboard to clean it. I, along with many a people, have done this to clean the dusk and grit off our computers. Granted, in a quiet office the noise can be startling at most, but the reaction to simple cleaning was incredible. It drew in 3 people, with "ooohhhs" and "aaahhhhs" trying to figure out what he was doing and what that spray could be.

If you have ever used this magical air-spray, maybe you'll know how fun and theraputic it can feel to intensely clean your keyboard so quickly. So I give a simple side nod to how exciting it can be, but these people were acting as if he had pulled out a magic wand and turned his computer into gold.

My neighbor was delighted with the inquiries and simply explained (in Japanese of course - which I was surprised I could understand) "This is good stuff".

I had it in mind to ask to use some, but we're not that well acquainted and I was happy enough to know that it existed in this part of the country.

After spending 10 months (wow almost 11) in this country, I am beginning to wonder if their reaction was genuine or a polite staged act to respond to something with an attention getting volume. Or maybe that is just what I am hoping. Otherwise, this act is one of many reminding me, I live in a really small town in Japan.