Yet another question, this time from dad

[deepbluevibes]

Dad has a self-employed buisness running here in California. He has to manage a ton of jobs, get his employees work etc. etc.

while we're in Japan, he wants to be able to contact them, so obviously he needs a cell phone, and he wants to rent me out one too.

Now, he searched through some companies last night, and he didn't tell me the names of them, but he'll find them out again later tonight.

Here's what he wants though;

-Ability to call back to USA
-Ability to recieve calls from USA
-Ability to call (at least) my cell phone that he's rented while in Tokyo
-Ability to recieve calls from (at least) my cell phone that was rented in Tokyo
-Ability to take pictures with camera, and upload them to computer through USB

The reason for the last one is because he's agreed to let me use the camera most of the time (our Minolta) and he wanted to take pictures, so...

On one website he found a phone that did all that, cheap price, and would be delivered to the hotel.

Here's the catch that bugs him; it doesn't report the individual times/prices of your calls. He's realllly old style of thinking so if anything like that comes up, he's really suspicious. Is this common practice in Tokyo or does this sound shady to you guys also?

[Henjin]

International calls on landlines are expensive... I can't see them being any cheaper on a cell phone... The rental fee may be cheap, but I think those international calls will catch up with you.

[atomiton]

Use Computer with High Speed and SkypeOut... OOORRRR... A POcketPC with Skype using wireless hotspots.

ORR... Get a Mac... use iChat AV for TV Quality Video Conferencing.

[deepbluevibes]

ok... but we just want to rent a phone. we don't want to buy a computer for a 1 week stay in tokyo.

and the site he was on cost 1 dollar (100 yen) a minute for all calls, regardless of if they were outgoing to tokyo or to america. incoming calls were free.

[Scott]

There's internet cafes and stuff.

[PopCulturePooka]

Buy a cheap cell phone and get an international calling card for overseas calls.

I recommend a card called Brastel, can be picked up at most konbinis.

(The phone also makes a nifty souveneir).

[Henjin]

You mean don't rent but buy a phone? How 'cheap' is that?

[deepbluevibes]

to everyone suggesting non-portable methods of contacting people; i dont' think i explained well enough what's going on here.

Dad will get anywhere from 20-40 calls a *day* on his cell phone from contractors, workers, construction workers, machine operators, layout managers, electricians like himself, directors of the job, everything.

These calls come in from 8AM-8AM every day (and that's not a typo). So he needs to be able to recieve the call, whenever and wherever he's at.

[Henjin]

Are you sure his clients are going to want to pay the international calling fees? In either case, you had better warn them ahead of time. lol Otherwise they'll be knocking on your door once their phone bill comes...

[nice gaijin]

and the site he was on cost 1 dollar (100 yen) a minute for all calls, regardless of if they were outgoing to tokyo or to america. incoming calls were free.
Sounds like you're talking about JCR. If you don't have any qualms about getting a shitty phone and possibly not being able to return it to them before you leave the country, sounds like a good idea.

Either way, whoever is calling you will be paying the international rates; it is a japanese number, after all. I say get your office back home and his best clients a prepaid card. You can get a couple hundred minutes for 5 bucks or so, ask around at your local asian supermarket.

[deepbluevibes]

shitty phone? The one we were looking at had USB compatibility for pictures, 1.3million pixel screen, and was only 40 bucks a week @_@

[deepbluevibes]

dad told me finally
the kind of phone is a "vodaphone"
and the company is "www.rentaphonejapan.com"

anyone heard of this?

[nice gaijin]

vodaphones are good phones, even something 3 years old will still beat the pants off American cell-phones. 1+mpx cameraphones have finally started being sold in the states; they've been available in asia for years now.

When I went to Japan my friend's boss rented a phone for him from JCR, which ended up being more hassle than it was worth. I can't remember the brand of the phone, but it was clearly ancient compared to our friend's phones over there. I asked if that was who you were looking into because they were given the same "dollar a minute outgoing, free incoming" pitch. But hey, the phone did it's job aside from all the headaches the company put us through.

[deepbluevibes]

ok, so rentaphonejapan isn't a bad deal, and neither are those phones?

And the whole "we can't tell you what exact charges for each phone call" thing, is that ever normal practice or does that still sound shady?

[Matadon]

ok, so rentaphonejapan isn't a bad deal, and neither are those phones?

And the whole "we can't tell you what exact charges for each phone call" thing, is that ever normal practice or does that still sound shady?

I'm nice_gaigin's friend, the one whose company rented him a cell phone. I would say that "we won't tell you the rates" is indeed quite shady -- I had all the details up front before I placed my order.

JCR was okay, not great, not bad, and they did have the nice addition of having a wireless modem option along with the phone. Pay phones are not very common anymore, so you are going to need a cellphone if you require any sort of connectivity, and it's useful to be able to call a friend and say, "Help, I'm lost! I thought I was going to Shibuya, but all I can see is this sign that says 'Fukuoka'..."

[Kustom]

Wait a minute, if your dad only want to receive calls, he can rent a phone at the vodafone shop in Narita and not pay anything for receiving calls. No charge. I know because I saw the offer there a week ago. You can use a phone card like brastel to actually call. This sounds much less dodgy than the rentaphonejapan thing, unless it is a direct subsidiary of Vodafone (a reputable company).

Besides, it is irrelevant how many million pixels the camera can take, my phone had a state of the art camera in it but I was still unable to hear anything callers were saying. I would have loved a phone that actually allowed me to make calls with decent sound quality, but that's the only thing Japanese cellphones do not do... :(

[Invictus]

I hear ya there, Kustom. My brand-spankin'-new Vodafone V903SH can take 3.2 megapixel pictures, but when somebody calls, I can't hear a darn thing they say. :P It's probably because here in Japan, calls are so expensive that everyone texts each other...

[deepbluevibes]

he needs to call people too though to make deals, specifically me also, for contact.

so the deal then is shady? grr... i dont know where to go then ;_;

[Kustom]

You can make calls with the vodafone deal too, it might be more expensive than the deal you found, but then getting a phone card like brastel will save you money.

Basically, all you need to do is:
1) Show up at the vodafone shop at the airport and get the phone
2) Buy a brastel card also at the airport

and you're off. On your last day, give back the phone at the airport shop. How easy is that?

Look at how many rental shops there are in Narita:
http://www.narita-airport.jp/en/guide/service/list/svc_19.html

Now check this out:
http://www.vodafone-rental.jp/inbound/eng/

Rate to call the US is 210 yens per minute. This is expensive. Now check this out:

http://www.brastel.com/Pages/eng/home/

Am I not nice?

[nice gaijin]

one more piece of advice regarding the airport, since I'm not sure if you've heard this yet: don't take a cab to Tokyo, you'll pay through the nose (30,000 yen or more). Check out the trains; the narita express has much fewer stops than any local train (which really saves on time), and although it's not as cheap as the local trains, it'll get you there much faster, and you won't have to transfer trains at all (which will probably be good for you with your luggage). If you have much more than a couple suitcases, a cab will be the most convenient method of transportation, but expect to pay as much as ten times what it would cost to take an express train.

[deepbluevibes]

i'd say we'll have about three suitcases each. not all big ones; only one or two total will be like.. 2.5 feet tall and about 2.5 feet wide. the rest are much smaller. is that too much or?

and i thought the narita express was all reserved seats?

[nice gaijin]

Seats are also reserved on the ordinary trains on the express, but there are also standing tickets that can be had for about 500 yen less when there are no more seats available. This would probably be a bad time to squeeze both yourselves and your luggage on the train.

The Green car is also reserved seating, and is also much more expensive than ordinary seats: http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/nex/fares.html On normal trains you can expect to pay about 1,200 to 1,500 yen to get to your destination, and it will take anywhere from 30 minutes to a full hour longer to get there than the express. Finding seats on the normal trains is also a crapshoot, and if the trains are crowded don't expect much room for your luggage. My recommendation would be to try and get on the Narita Express ordinary car, and if that fails maybe try the limousine bus (about the same price). As I said, a cab would be the most convenient and would surely accomodate you and your luggage, but I'd rather spend 30 bucks to get to my destination than 300.

the Narita Express is specifically for coming and going to the airport, so it should be able to accomodate your luggage. My friend and I had huge luggage that we dragged all through the normal trains (timing is everything), on Shinkansen (finding seats in the back) and the Odakyuu Romance Car (just lucky there weren't many other travellers)... I think you should be alright.

Here's an english site for the Narita Express: http://www.jreast.co.jp/e/nex/
There's a pdf map of JR East's lines in english at the bottom of the page, a Japanese version of the same map can be found here: http://www.jreast.co.jp/map/pdf/map_tokyo.pdf

[deepbluevibes]

ok... that was confusing.

I went to the site, and it says on the Narita Express trains that "all seats must be reserved". Standing as you said would be hard to get all my luggage on, so... ???

Are you talking about the Airport Narita train?

[stsparky]

ok... that was confusing. I went to the site, and it says on the Narita Express trains that "all seats must be reserved". Standing as you said would be hard to get all my luggage on, so... ??? Are you talking about the Airport Narita train?

Yes he is. It goes to Shinjuku. You'll be able to handle all your luggage. Have fun.

[deepbluevibes]

Ah, ok. thanks :D