I received a bit of cultural education at the CTIA 2009 show today, and I wanted to share it with you.Over at the Fujitsu booth, they were showing off a bunch of stylish, waterproof phones. For some reason, the Japanese love waterproof phones. Sanyo has waterproof phones. Casio, as far as I know, invented the waterproof phone. So why are waterproof phones so popular in Japan?"We like bath time," the Fujitsu guy explained. I later had this story backed up by someone from Casio.Apparently, in Japan, folks spend a lot of time in the bath. Japanese bathtubs are much deeper and larger than American tubs, and they're more conducive to lounging around. Japanese folks swear by the health benefits of long, hot, frequent baths. Also, in a crowded society, the bath is one place you can get perfect privacy, and some peace and quiet.So an entire waterproof offshoot of the consumer-electronics industry has popped up: waterproof TVs, waterproof cell phones, and of course, waterproof cell phones with TV capability. Because why should you have to stop a nice, long soak to answer the phone? Makes perfect sense to me.That isn't the end of the story. Japanese people don't just like baths, they also typically like features. So once water-fastness started appearing on several phones, it became a standard feature whether or not a phone is destined to be dunked, according to the manufacturer reps.Now, this may be old news to you if you know a lot about Japan. But I didn't, and heck - cultural differences are interesting.