The Phone Thread! read if u traveling to Japan
 

This will be my 7th time back to Japan. I arrived June 1st and currently staying in Takanawa.

Every time i come i rent a phone for hundreds of dollars! Bills get pretty expensive.
Docomo Wants up to 300 for 2 months and other companies are around 120-130 a month.
But this time i went with a Skype/ Softbank combo.
Ill explain.

There is softbanks all over Tokyo, the one i went to was in Roppongi across from the Almonds in the crossing.
They speak Very fluent english and will set you up with a phone within a hour.
TO buy a prepaid phone its 70 dollars you can pick from 2 models and 2 colors for each. *black, blue, and white and black*

This phone you can keep for ever, no need to return or mail back, its Yours.
All you need to do is buy a top up card for 3k Yen or 5k yen.
Its 90 yen per minute but its free incomming.
So you can call some one hang up and they can call you back and you get free incomming calls.

Text msging is 15 yen per text and free incomming.
They also set you up with a free soft bank email account
*yourname* @Softbank.ne.jp
mine is Housetek @softbank.ne.jp

okay so heres where the Skype part comes in
I like to keep in contact with all of my friends and family from the states and i want them to call me freely when ever they want.
So on skype for 12 dollars i bought a US number for 3 months in the area code all my friends and family live in.
its a PA/NJ number.

Then i put call forwarding on, and have all my calls from my skype from the US
forwarded to my japanese Prepaid Cell.

So my friends and family can call me ANY time they want with out being charged international rates and all of their phone calls go directly to my skype which then forwards them to my Prepaid in which i get Free incoming calls.

Pretty nifty.
So if your looking for a phone in japan, instead of buying one at the airport you can try my method.

Which will cost you 70$ for the start up phone which you can use forever, 12$ for 3 months of Skype number i also put 25 dollars into Skype credit but i always have skype credit on it just in case i want to call internationally back home. and then the Prepaid top up is 3k yen for 60 days.

my last phone which i got from Narita airport cost me 150 dollars for one month
and a previous one cost me 150 for 2 weeks!

so i believe this way will save a lot more money. also its very convenient cuz once you have the phone and you want to Top up next time you come back to japan you can buy a topup card at Any AMPM, lawsons or Sunkus.

so if your traveling to Japan soon and need a phone and need more instructions how to acquire one, just pm me or mail me.

-Htek

yes, the best option is get a softbank/vodafone prepaid fone, rather than international roaming or phone rentals.

this are the current models that you can choose from

Prepaid Mobile Model Lineup Pre-SoftBank Models | SoftBank

O Ty for the phone links =)

i got the V403, but in blue... not that crazy rainbow haha.

does it comes with a camera? most of the old model don't have.

by the way, the prepaid card is good for 3 months, so be sure to consume the load within that span of time :D

yes it has a camera on it =)

the person at soft bank told me it would last 60 days.

the only thing that i spend money on is Text msgs, otherwise i jus call and hang up on people =P

well if your friends are also softbank user, just let them be the one to call you, if they are using postpaid. Softbank to Softbank call are free till 9 pM, then after 9pm, it still free for around 200 m minutes.

SMS and MMS are also free, but since you are using prepaid, you are charge :D

Prepaid phones are a pretty good deal, but didn't they pass a new law that requires customers to present valid identification as a Japanese citizen or their Alien Registration card in order to buy one?

Its supposed to prevent illegal cell use.

all you need is a passport and the address of where you are staying

Lol my mate wanted one, but I remember standing outside of the softbank store in Roppongi Hills, the one you were talking about, we were too scared to go up and ask if they know english, lol.

they do, all you have to say is Sumimasen, Eego De Daijobu Desu ka?

Excuse me is english okay? and they'll get a english speaking representative.

Good advice. And you can recharge the phones online at the Softbank website!

I like so much this goo idea, cause im from italy and in september im gonna go to japan, i wonna a mobile phone to use there and here!

Wow. Housetek thanks for this info. I'm going in September for a year, and the skype combo sounds like the best bet. I will definitely try that out so I can keep in contact with my close friends back home. Thanks a lot for this.

thank you, this will be very useful! :)

how much money is 100yen in the us?

WOW thats some good advice! I needs to get me one asap- in Japan with no friends suck :P I miss my home and buds, but I gotta check this out. Any other good tips you have?

lol at the English speaking scardey-cats.
I did the same thing too ^^;;
When I finally got the courage they showed my rental plans, but they didn't sound as cheap as this ^_^

as of now one U.S. Dollar is equal to 115 Yen

yea definitely take a look into the skype thing, its nice to have your friends and family be able to call you on your Japaneses cell phone at any time

also it can be done in reverse where you can set up another skype account and call a japanese number to be forwarded to a friends number

and you can change the forwarding number at any time as long as you have a internet account or a way to access your skype account.

unfortunately it only lets you forward to one constant number at a time.

but still worth it in my book

Nah, I'll just make my cheap ass folks and friends get phone cards and phone me- NYC has like 2 hours for $5. Beats KDDI's 1110 yen for 37 minutes :cool:
[Such a rip! I'm like "hey, que pasa? uh huh. huh. okies, byetalktoyoulater!" w/each call]

sounds cool, but i got a question

dont you get charged by skype for the forwarding? like, who pays for the call to go from skype to japan :confused:

If its free then thank you for the advice.. you'll be saving me me $$$$$$$$$$

you do not get charged for forwarding.

the person who is calling your Local number in the states or where ever you are from will get charged local calling fee's Not long distance.

so it would be like if they were calling your cell phone at home or some one local.

I can see how this is very useful for long term stays in Japan, but what about a holiday of say a week or two? Traveling in other countries I found getting my phone working pretty useful, as members of our group ended up splitting up in shopping districts etc., and someone always inevitably gets lost or is late for whatever reason. I'd probably mostly be using my phone for short 'where are you?' type messages/calls to other people I'm traveling with rather than calls home, so shouldn't rack up too much of a bill.

For a short holiday would renting a phone be a better option? Sorry if this is a dumb question =P

just enable the international roaming on your local phone, i don't think you need to buy another one here. For more details contact your local phone provider :D

Really? I thought phones from other countries don't really work there? Mine isn't 3G...

you have to get a phone that is enable to go internationally

but its not worth it.

my uncle was in vietnam, and used 54 some minutes on his black berry to call back home.

he throught few hundred bucks for the bill..

end up being 750 somthing dollars.

ridiculous, i just bring my mylo with me and find a hotspot.

Another great Tip is
if you DO have a mylo or a skype phone (mylos like 250 skype phone is 100)

you can pretty much go into any wifi place and make a call..

i dont really have to say, that japan has tons of wifi areas.

esp in fast food places and star bucks.

Myeah, my phone is quite old-school and I don't think it will have cool features like that... in China and Vietnam I got a local prepaid sim card, but it doesn't look like it will work with the ones in Japan. Looks like I'll have to rent one then.

Ok, i still have some questions to it.
Wouldn´t it be cheaper to just buy a used phone for some bucks and than buy a prepaid card?

Second: i dont quite understand how you managed that you friends can call you for free (or local tarif) on your phone.
Now i get this local number. The homepage from Skype says that then my friends could call me for the local price on my skype. But now we are still on my computer, so i would have to be online to take calls (wich is free when they use skype). If i understand right you forwarded you skype account to you japanese mobile phone, so that if you are not online all the calls will got to you phone. And theres my problem. When i want to forward my skype to any mobile, I will have to pay for every minute. How did u manage that? Is there a trick?
Wouldnt it be easier to just let your friends and family call you through their skype on their homecomputer? So you would be the only one paying around 30 cent per minute, but it would be free for your friends.

Thanks in advance
Dennis

Is it Japan that has tons of wifi places, or Tokyo? I never saw a Starbucks when I was in Japan, but I'm sure there are more now. But are they only in Tokyo or can you find tons of hotspots in smaller towns and cities too? Would the Mos Burger in some inaka town, for instance, theoretically also be wifi-equipped?

In my experience, when it comes to certain things like that, Tokyo sometimes follows 1 set of rules, the rest of Japan another. And if I ever return to Japan for a visit, it would be exclusively to the Kansai area, I probably would never set foot in Tokyo.

I have a question.. If I sign up for the prepaid service.. Do I have to pay for the handset too? Or can I use the ones that I have been using until now.. it is Nokia 6600 which is not 3G by the way..