Cell phones – September 20, 2007

On our day off between training and first day of work, we decided to try to get connected to the world. This meant that we wanted to get cell phones, and an internet connection. We went to one place near our training office where we tried to get an internet service provider. Today, we were trying to find one that was more familiar to us, either listed in the welcome pack, or recommended by someone. There is a cell phone place up the street from our home, so we started there.

To be sure, any place that has a roof sells cell phones. Our trainer, Tony, even told us that our English instruction company got into cell phones for a while (they have since stopped selling cell phones). We wanted to limit our choices to cell phone companies, and since we had heard several people tell us about one company in particular, we decided to try with SoftBank.

However, at the SoftBank branch up the street from our home, there was neither English service, nor did they offer the plan that we wanted, despite the fact that it was offered in the English catalogue that the man at the store gave us. We decided to take the train into Tokyo in order to see all of the choices that we might get.

We found ourselves at the SoftBank flagship store in Shibuya. I think that every service person there spoke English, so it was easy for us to explore the different plans. We ended up getting a prepaid phone plan. I don’t think that any plan would have really given us a better deal, but we had to choose one.

A quick word has to be said about cell phone service in Japan. Just as I remarked before, things are not the same as America, and no matter what, we would have to pay a lot more than we did back home. There are no such plans that give x amount of minutes for a fixed rate. Instead, the different payment plans merely give you lower per minute charge on your phone (the more you pay, the less your calls cost). That means that you pay your monthly fee, and on top of that you pay for each call, too. That is why we decided to just get the prepaid plan, for which we pay even more per minute, but it lasts… for only two months! The lady who sold us the plan, and with whom we discussed our concerns, did not bother to tell us that our prepaid minutes expire after two months. I felt like no matter what we did, we would have gotten screwed, so we just have to take it.

We tried finding other internet service providers, to no avail. Our friends gave us phone numbers to call for English service, but we couldn’t figure that out either. We are hoping that Paola can ask some staff at her office to help us get situated with internet access (we know the people at her office, but I don’t know anyone whom I am working with yet).