Getting a pre-paid mobile in Japan

Saturday was my one-year anniversary in Japan. Time goes so fast! Finally, I decided I needed to get a mobile phone. I don't like mobile phones, and I got by without one for a year, but with both work and play, it was becoming more and more inconvenient to not have one.

Here, as at home, there are two options for mobiles: contract, or pre-paid (same as PAYG in the UK). I considered getting an iPhone on a two year contract, but it seemed quite expensive (about 6000 yen per month). So instead, what I decided to do was to buy an iPod touch – it does pretty much everything the iPhone can do, but you have to be in range of usable WiFi (which limits its online use to mostly just at home here in Japan; not many free WiFi hotspots here!) – and a pre-paid phone. Because most of my friends have SoftBank phones, I decided to go with SoftBank. On pre-paid it won't make any difference to my call charges, but it can make it cheaper for my friends to call me.

During initial research I found many reports that "you can't get pre-paid cell phones any more in Japan." Not so. You can. What do you need? Well, for SoftBank, you just need your alien registration card (with 90+ days remaining on your stay), a Japanese-speaking friend if you don't speak the language, and about two hours of spare time.

I think the reports stating that you can't get pre-paid phones here perhaps come from the fact that you can't get them in SoftBank shops. From what I read during my research, they just don't keep them in stock. I even stopped in at a specialist mobile phone shop, but they didn't have them either. To us westerners this seems highly illogical; after a year here, I've become used to that kind of thing. (I've also noted how certain places, like Akihabara, have many many shops all with identical stock and identical prices, right next to each other. It doesn't make sense!)

To get a SoftBank pre-paid phone, go to your local Donkihote (ドン・キホーテ). You might not see any cell phones on display, but ask and you shall receive. They didn't have a wide range of models, and the one I got is actually an outdated model, but I didn't care. My specification was simply a 2 mega-pixel camera.

The cost was 12,300 yen over all. This included the phone, a 500 yen charger, and two 3000 yen pre-paid cards (at the time, if I got two cards, I effectively got one free – the explanation was more complicated than that, but the net result was the same), which can be used one after the other (i.e. given that each cards lasts 60 days, I bought 120 days of valid credit, not 60 days of double credit).

How does the SoftBank pre-paid system work?

You have your pre-paid card, right? You scratch the number off and enter the code. This gives you 3000 yen of credit, which lasts 60 days, and the ability to receive calls (for free) for up to a year after the registration of the card (so each card you register, you get a year from that date). You can get top-up cards from convenience stores (so I have read; I haven't tried it yet [Update] I just bought a top-up card from the Lawson Express by my house. They have a machine that you get a receipt from, then you pay at the desk and they give you a print-out with the number. My favourite ten'in helped me. My thanks go to her!).

They also have an unlimited email service (S!Mail), to which you can subscribe for 300 yen per 30 days. After initial set-up, this amount is automatically deducted from your (valid) pre-paid credit every 30 days. I was told that I had to sign up to this. The reason was unclear, but I wanted it anyway. To sign up you call the SoftBank robot from your handset and press a few buttons. To change the robot's language to English, dial 1400, then press 3, then 2, then # to confirm, and then follow the English instructions; or you can find instructions in English here: http://mb.softbank.jp/en/prepaid_service/unlimited_mail.html

Once signed up you can customize your email address (xxx@softbank.ne.jp) via the settings and browser on your handset.

Call charges?

Of course, expensive. At time of writing:

Voice, 90 yen per minute.

Video, 160 yen per minute.

Data, 160 yen per minute.

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

There we go. How to get a pre-paid mobile phone in Japan. Many thanks go to Hiro.

Chronicles of Japan, pt. 1

It's about time for a blog update I think!
I've now been living in Japan for nearly two and half months! I really like it here, even though I live in the city. I'm a country boy; I'm not at all a fan of cities. But it is safe and clean, and being a foreigner in Japan means that, except for on the trains during rush hour (and in women's clothes shops, as I have discovered), people keep their distance a little bit, so one rarely feels too crowded.

I arrived in Japan on March 20th. I'm on a working holiday visa currently, which means I can stay for up to a year.
Initially I had to stay in a dormitory in Harajuku (south-west Tokyo) because the guesthouse I was scheduled to move into wasn't ready yet. The dormitory was newly opened – for the first four days I was the only person living there. It is located just off a famous and fashionable shopping street called Takeshita Street; the sort of place many young people visit. It was unbelievably crowded! A definite baptism of fire for me. At busy times it could easily take five or more minutes to get to the convenience store (when not so busy, it'd take a few tens of seconds).
It was possible to escape the crowds, though, as just by the train station is the large Meiji-Jingumae temple. It has gardens and woods around it. A nice place to relax a little and forget you're in a megalopolis for a while. I watched a crow perched nearby on a branch over a stream from a humped bridge. It felt so totally Japanese!

Harajuku was pretty noisy, but interesting in a 'glad I'm not staying here too long' sort of way.
After the first four days on my own, a Japanese guy moved into the dormitory. He was a really good guy. We spent many times talking as best we could until the early hours. We also went out to eat a few times – he often very generously paid for me. We had tonkatsu (battered pork) at a nice place on Takeshita Street, we went for burgers at a famous place in Shibuya (I lost their business card though), and we also went for ramen, which is always good (well, nearly always).
Two people in that dormitory was enough, but it can sleep four. After about a week another Japanese guy moved in. I didn't really see anything of him at all. A few days later, I moved on to the next place. I'm glad I didn't have to deal with more people in that room than there was. It was too small for four, and it wouldn't have been fun for me at all!

On the 2nd of April I moved to north (kita) Ikebukuro (north-west Tokyo), to a brand new guesthouse in a quiet residential area (quiet but for the fact that it is right by the train line).
It was very difficult at first, because all of the amenities which had been so close in Harajuku were suddenly much further away, and the house itself had only the very very basics – no internet, no TV, no kettle(!). At this point I had already been suffering through not having the internet whilst in Harajuku too.
I wasn't at all happy.
Thankfully those problems were corrected fairly quickly. I was definitely relieved to have internet access again!
There I lived with an American guy, a Japanese guy, and a Chinese guy – as it was a new house it wasn't by any means full. I didn't see a lot of the Japanese guy as he was a typical Japanese worker, so he was working all the time. I saw plenty of the American guy :p He was hoping to get work in Japan and be able to stay for a long time. Unfortunately it didn't work out for him, and he had to go home.
The Chinese guy was a young guy studying Japanese in preparation to enter the Japanese university system. He gave me lots of strange food. I ate duck's tongue! Yeah, it's about as pleasant an experience as you'd expect. Imagine French kissing a duck and you should have a pretty good idea. I learnt something though: ducks have bones in their tongue! Amazing.

I went into the centre of Ikebukuro a few times. I didn't like it much. It's like a big city, and for me high-rise buldings etc. are very intimidating. I preferred it out in the narrow streets of Kita-Ikebukuro.
While I was there I met with one of my Japanese friends from the internet, and her husband. That was really great! Wonderful people. We went and had dinner and drinks at an izakaya, which is a place similar to a pub, but where food is eaten very casually and shared, and then we went to a whisky bar.
One of the days my housemates and I went to the local ramen shop for lunch. It was a strange place. The stove was covered in really thick, burnt-on crud. None of us could read the menu, so we just chose randomly. The American guy had something that turned out to be really hot. It knocked him sideways. He slept right through the whole of the rest of the day. I had something that was pretty mild (I had the same thing at a different ramen shop last night in fact, but I can't remember what it's called . . . ), and the following day, I could barely stay awake. I spent most of the day sleeping and feeling generally terrible. Then I got symptoms of having a stomach bug for a few days. I think that ramen shop wasn't a good place to eat. I never went back.

On May 1st I finally moved to the guesthouse I'm in currently – the place where I wanted to live from the beginning. I have a very good friend who lives very nearby, and I wanted to be close to her. Unfortunately, since she met me at the airport, I've not been able to see her again, as she has injured her back. I'm very worried about her, because it has been a long time since I heard from her; it must be pretty serious . . .
So this guesthouse is to the east of Tokyo, just outside the main part of the city, in a place called Ichikawa. I was initially very nervous about moving here, as it was the first established place I was moving to, and I was concerned about fitting in with the people and the lifestyle. But I needn't have worried. To a person, everybody here is fantastic. It's like a big family!
Most of my housemates here are Japanese, which is great – I specifically chose this company because they don't have a 'foreigners only' policy like some other places do. After all, I'm not in Japan to spend all my time with other foreigners!

This guesthouse is in a nice quiet residential area, with lots of amenities nearby. It's a really nice house too. There are three floors, with a total of nine rooms. I live on the top floor, where there are two other rooms. I live next to a lovely Japanese girl, H-san, who is just about the most splendid neighbour one could ask for. She helps me a lot, and I've been fortunate enough to be able to help her with a few things too. Across the hall lives a half-German, half-American guy, F, who is a good guy. He's doing the same thing I am, being here on a working holiday visa.
Of the others, there are five Japanese, one Canadian, and a Brazilian (who is of Japanese descent, so I totally assumed she was Japanese . . . I only found out the other night she's not. Oops!)
We often have parties, which are really good fun! Simple affairs: food, drink, and (usually highly amusing) conversation. It's not at all 'studenty' here, which was one of my fears. It's a much more mature environment than I remember from my shared-house days at university. I'm glad, because, although I enjoyed it, I wouldn't want to repeat it.

A few weeks ago I went shopping with H-san. She, er, didn't tell me beforehand that it was women's clothes shopping . . . I really didn't mind at all, though. Who would? She's excellent company, and I learnt a little about Japanese culture too. (Women shopping in Japan seem to be just as ruthless as women shopping in the west! And yes, Japanese women also appear to be compelled to go around every shop twice, change their mind uncountable times, and end up buying what they wanted from the very first shop they went to^^) I also found that in Japan, Ikea sells cheese! Most easily available cheese in Japan seems to be both expensive and rubbish. If Ikea weren't so far, it'd definitely be where I'd satisfy my need for cheese!

An interesting note: The other night Spirited Away was on TV. It was the third time I've seen it, but this time all of the things that seemed so foreign and exotic before felt astonishingly familiar. It is interesting, though, how before coming to Japan I thought it was going to be entirely alien here, but it's not really so different. Most of the things you see on TV about Japan are more the extremes. Life here feels remarkably ordinary to me.
Or, perhaps I've just got used to it . . .

The Switchback Aussie by Bailey

I love hats. I've had a really nice Akubra hat ("The Boss") for a few years. It is excellent quality rabbit fur felt in very dark brown. I've never taken to wearing it all that often though, because the dark colour always seems rather formal.
Recently I've also been growing my hair long, so now unfortunately my Akubra binds really hard. So I decided it was time to buy a new hat!

I have a cheap wool felt fedora I got from Marks & Spencer ages ago, and I've mistreated it loads, but it still holds its shape remarkably well, so I decided I'd go for the cheaper crushable wool felt option this time (although not too cheap, no point buying rubbish!).
After a bit of searching I found the Switchback Aussie @ Village Hats. For my face shape (fairly long) I need a low crown and a mid to wide brim (at 3¼” this is quite wide), and this time I definitely wanted a lighter colour. This hat ticked all the boxes!
I ordered it Tuesday, and thanks to the fantastic service of the guys at Village Hats (and Royal Mail, it has to be said), it arrived yesterday morning, nicely protected in a big box.

The hat is a very nice hat for £34. The felt seems to be good quality, although time will tell. It is about the same thickness as my Akubra – perhaps ever so slightly thinner – although, as one would expect, not nearly as stiff.
The shape is good. It has the Aussie-style dipped front and back, with the US-style rolled up sides (a fairly gentle roll; not nearly as pronounced as my Akubra was before I reshaped it). Some people might not like the roll, as it gives it a bit of a cowboy feel, but on this hat, I quite like it.
The inside is unlined, with a "Dri-Lex" sweatband, which feels lovely, it has to be said.
The leather hatband is nice enough. It's attached with nylon thread, and not glue, so it can be replaced if so desired.

Now, let's talk colour – that which is so hard to judge over the internet.
The name of the colour is "Pecan", which tells you a sum total of nothing. Obviously, it is brown; a mid-shade, not overly dark, not overly light; it is fairly muted in colour.
I know it is an unpopular word these days, but if I were to choose a colour name, it'd have to be 'beige'. But it is a nice colour, I think.

Overall, on initial reaction, I'm very pleased with this hat. It seems to be a hat well worth even the £40 is was reduced from, and it certainly seems that it will take some abuse.
I wore it all day yesterday and most of today, and have been in perfect comfort.

Here are some photos of yours truly wearing the Switchback (sorry the picture quality is rubbish; I'm making do with an old mobile phone atm):

Not bad, don't you think?
(Oh, and if you noticed and were wondering, I'm wearing a Buff underneath it, covering my hair – I'm wearing it just as a tube there, with all my hair inside it, but bandanna-style works too . . .)