Mobile Phones
Posted January 2nd, 2009 in Japan 6 Comments »Every time I go back to Japan there is one thing that I feel inconvenient… Mobile.
Because the mobile service in Japan (and Korea?) is different from its in other countries, Japanese mobiles don’t work in other countries. Same thing, mobiles from other countries don’t work in Japan either. so I can’t use my Australian mobile in Japan. Every time I’m in Japan I have no mobile…. :p
It’s pretty tough not to have mobile phone in this world! Really really inconvenient (>x<) Besides, I won’t get to see lots of public phones in Japan theredays… Very difficult to contact with my friends and family. Last time I was in Japan I had to meet my friend at JR Nagoya station. I wasn’t sure if I was at the right meeting point so I wanted to confirm with her, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t even leave the position to look for a public phone. (if I leave, she won’t be able to find me) I asked few people around “where can I find a public phone?” but no one knew! Surprisingly, even a staff who works at a souvenior shop inside of train station building… :p
I feel like I’m lost in this modern city.
By the way, I always get amused by Japanese mobiles. We could do lots of things with Japanese mobiles from long time ago (since I was in Junior high) like emialing, interneting, GPS, downloading musics and games etc… but now there are more things you can do with mobiles.
Mobile phones with pedometer, calorie counter and cholesterol counter are new to me (Sportio). And collaboration with AQUOS (AQUOS Mobile), with famous accessory brand (4°c Mobiles), with Disney (Disney mobiles) are new too! So cool 🙂
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When I first came to Japan, there was no such thing as 携帯電話 (cell-phones).
And I couldn’t speak or read any Japanese then either.
It’s impossible to live without cell-phones now…but when I was dating my wife, we’d just agree to meet at a certain place and time.
One I went to the wrong train station and waited there by mistake. So our plans were canceled that day. 🙁
Tokyo5
That’s terrible.. :p
How did you find out?? Did you go home and called her house at night or something??
Yes, I called her that night and explained. She figured that I confused the stations since I was new to Japan.
Also, the five of us visited America on holiday about five years ago. We didn’t use any cell-phone there…only payphones.
Payphones in America are not so nice and convenient as pay-phones in Japan. It wasn’t convenient.
No phone cards…we had to use coins, no meter to tell how much time is left, and directory-service in wasn’t helpful.
There are alot less payphones in Japan than there used to be…but they’re still convenient, I think.
Tokyo 5
I didn’t know the public phones are different in Japan and America! I thought everywhere is same…
As you said, maybe Japanese public phones are still good 🙂
In America, there is no pre-paid phone card?
>I didn’t know the public phones are different in Japan and America! I thought everywhere is same…
No, American payphones aren’t as easy to use as Japan’s.
>In America, there is no pre-paid phone card?
Yes, they had them when I was there…but not the same kind as here in Japan. The one’s I saw in America were either for international calls (which we used once to call Tokyo)…or for people who have a home-phone in America (they can use a payphone and the charges go to their home-phone bill).
Neither were good for tourists to use for local calls.
Japan’s phone cards are better.
Tokyo5
>Neither were good for tourists to use for local calls.
True. It’s not really useful if you don’t live in America!
>Japan’s phone cards are better.
I agree now! and you can sometimes get pre-paid phone cards for free in Japan. A petro station near my home used to give pre-paid phone cards to customers for some reason, and I still have those at home. I used them while I was in Japan:)