A gentleman set out on a full-day quest in Akihabara with a Japanese friend acting as interpreter ("with a patient and flexible persistence which is the hallmark of your column's advice," he adds) looking for an iMac computer with an English-language operating system installed. The end result: a long list of maybes and perhapses.

Another gentleman asks a related question. For him, the years have slipped by -- 43 of them here in Japan -- and he has never gotten around to owning a computer. Now he finds relationships with his friends are becoming strained because he doesn't have e-mail, and he can see how primitive his typewritten memos and manuscripts look when compared to his friends'. He wants to use the Internet for the many new services it provides as well as for information that would be helpful with his research projects. Instruction manuals should be in English and it should not be too difficult to learn to use it. He asks what would be the best computer to buy.

It's chancy to recommend the best of anything because of the differences in individual tastes and requirements even in such nonessential features as color and style. In some cases, space is a factor. This gentleman must work at his only table, which means he must also eat there. Obviously, he needs a laptop or a computer table on wheels for easy mobility. His computer will never become user-friendly if he must continuously move it and his current project with related books and papers somewhere else.