0004 ~ Preparations - Mobile Phones and Internet ~

Hello everyone! : D

Today's topic: Mobile Phones!


The first time I went to Japan was in 2007. Smartphones were still more like a story from a Science Fiction movie and my cellphone had about the size of a callbox!

Of course it didn't work in Japan - in no way.

Luckily I knew that before and the easiest thing to do back then was to just rent a Japanese cellphone at the airport.
Although it wasn't possible to use the internet I fell in love with this device!
It had a light on top that blinked when I got an incoming call or mail! How cool was that?!

Well~
One year later and thanks to that Japanese cellphone I had bought myself a Motorola RZR V9.
And this phone did work in Japan - unfortunately it worked too well.
I accidentially opened the webbrowser (Yes, my razr had a real browser!) once and two days later my parents called my provider and asked to stop the automatic recharge service.
5 Minutes internet cost me about 200€.
The rest of my trip I decided to only use my phone for emergency calls.

Then in 2010 I finally managed to get a Japanese prepaid phone!
And that's actually the first option you have!

Prepaid Phones

I can only give you information about the phone I got, but I think that didn't change much!

Signing a normal contract is of course possible as well, but like in most contries, those contracts will last for 2 years. If you plan on staying in Japan for less than 2 years you might cancel the contract earlier, but you will have to pay a huge amount for that! It really depends on what you want to use your phone for and if you already own one.

At Softbank they offer prepaid phones that come for about 10.000yen + 3000yen worth of credits.
In order to get one of those you need a Japanese adress and an employee that is willing to sell it to you.
I say this because depending on the person you're talking to you might or might not get a prepaid phone if you are only in possesion of a tourist visa .
I was lucky enough to end up with a guy that was willing to sell it to me and despite my lack of Japanese skills I managed to fill out eveything.
It might help to just play your "gaijin card" and enter the adress of your hostel, pretending that this would be your actual adress.

Once you got the phone you'll be able to call and get the "Mail-Flat" - about 333yen for unlimited mail per month.

Back then I realized how much you could do with only mails.
I got a twitter summary once each day and replies and messages seperatly sent per mail.
I could update my photobucket via mail and of course I could stay in contact with everyone via mail.
It was so much more convinient than sending SMS or MMS!
However, in with the cheap standard phones you won't be able to use the internet in any other way than... sending and receiving email.

So this might be an option for the ones amongst you that really do use their cellphones for phonecalls!

It will probably look like this:

Here you'll find detailed information about their prepaid plan and phones:

http://mb.softbank.jp/en/prepaid_service/prepaid_plan.html

Prepaid-SIM

The only provider of SIM-cards that last at least 30days is
E-Connect!

They offer 1GB internet sim-card (and micro-sims) for 4100yen

According to their website "it expires permanently after 10 days from the day you have used up 1GB or after 40 days from the day you first used it."

You can buy them online and they will be shipped to any adress in Japan and even airport pickup seems to be available!

-> http://www.econnectjapan.com/products/sim

If you are planning to go on holiday only (up to 14 days) B-Mobile might also be an option for you:
-> http://www.bmobile.ne.jp/english/product.html

WiFi-To-Go

I first heard of WiFi to go when friends of mine recently visited Japan.
It's a small device that works as a wifi-hotspot as soon as you turn it on!
The positive point of this is, that more than just one person can connect to it.
The downside is definately its price!

At least for econnect a pocket-wifi will come at the price of about 8.000yen  for one month.

However, if you are in Japan for holiday and traveling with a friend, this might be the right thing for you!


-> http://www.econnectjapan.com/products/wifi



If you have any other tips on this topic, feel free to share!
We all want cheap internet and continue using our smartphones, don't we? : D

Hope that this entry will help you a little bit!


Baibai~
Rina