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electronic exotica
1. Extraordinary or unusual electronic devices as applied in this word entry to Japanese exotic cell-phone gadgets.

The term exotic refers to something which is "strikingly unusual and often very colorful and exciting"; suggesting unfamiliar cultures or places and for non-native Japanese, walking through an electronics store in Japan is like going ashore in some lush, unspoiled place, where the local flora and fauna have evolved in isolation for centuries.

2. In Japan, the most conspicuous form of technology indicates an exoticism all its own because there are cell phones which look like chocolate bars; phones whose keypads and screens completely detach from each other; even a phone with perfume, so a lady's desired scent can drift pleasantly from her handset.

Many Japanese cell phones have TV tuners, fingerprint readers for security, ten-megapixel cameras with zoom lenses, and electronic-payment chips which can be used at cash registers.

—Compiled primarily from excerpts located in
"Japan's exceptional electronic exotica" in "Meanwhile" by Dante Ramos;
The Global Edition of The New York Times; June 19-20, 2010; page 9.
This entry is located in the following unit: electro-, electr-, electri- (page 63)