B-Mobile was the recent winner of the Best Travel sim for Japan OzBargain poll. It normally costs 3480 yen ($39 AUD) but Amazon have the nano sim variety on sale for $33 AUD. Delivery is free to anywhere in Japan so just order it to the first hotel you are staying at.
CamelCamelCamel.
If it is your first time, just do Tokyo. 7 days is not enough. It is a good preview to the country.
I did Osaka, Kyoto, Hemiji and Nara this year. Looking to do Tokyo for next yr. Absolutely love Japan.
I did 3 days tokyo, 2 days kyoto and 1 day Osaka.
Loved Kyoto and Osaka.
Note that rail travel will be cost Inefficient unless you are flying into one and out of another.
Or squeeze in Hiroshima and buy a JR pass.
Also: buy this sim for 7days. It's really easy to burn through 1GB. Or consider the 100MB/day sims (with shaping). Or the sim2fly in the poll looks good.
Is there a lot to see in Hiroshima? I might fly from there to Tokyo instead of taking the Shinkasen as we don't have much time there.
I felt I didn't have time for Hiroshima, so I left it for next trip.
Catching a plane doesn't particularly save a large amount of time (getting to the airport early, security, baggage/etc), but it would save money with discount fares.
If you're flying deomestically within Japan the security check is ok. I tossed up between 5 hours train ride vs 1 hour flight. So yeah.
Also: buy this sim for 7days. It's really easy to burn through 1GB
Standing in line at Disneyland really burned through my data. There's not much you can do when you're standing there all alone. Not like I could strike up a conversation with anyone because no-one around me spoke English.
If it was my first time and I had 7 days, I would spend 4 in Tokyo and 3 in Osaka. They are both huge cities and you cannot do them justice in that time frame but it is good to see more than just Tokyo. As a foodie I think it is definitely worth hitting up Osaka on your first trip.
Sounds like you had a good time - you should try Sapporo too - I am heading there for the first time later this year, I have heard good things!
Dontonbori. I only spent 3 hours there. I need to go back.
Also, Nara. Go get abused by the deer. Great fun.
Yeah those deer were ferocious.
Is it possible to get these SIMs sent to Australia before travel dates? Also, what is required to activate these SIM cards?
+1 to this. i used to use ebay's yokoso sim store which has changed now for this exact reason - sim before you leave.pop it in at touch down rather than worrying about it arriving at your hotel.
I used travelsimsdirect on my trip to Japan last December. They shipping the sim to my place in Aus. They do say not to put it in your phone/tablet before arriving in Japan so it must be an automatic activation.
They weren't cheap but they have unlimited sim. Most travel sims have reasonable limits but I didn't want to risk running out.
I also used my vodafone roaming which worked flawlessly in Japan. I probably didn't end up using the travel sim much so this year I'll get a travel sim at the airport since I don't think I'll use more than 100mb/day on the 2nd phone/tablet.
the yokososim are now a simple j-mobile japan prepaid sim card:
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/JP-Mobile-Prepaid-Travel-Data-SI…
and yes the reason for not putting it into your phone is it activates upon sim being entered. so i put it in only on touchdown to be safe - after all it isn't that hard to wait to put the sim while you're mid way through a flight tbh.
I’ve used yokosim eBay as well on my past few trips and was planning to again next year.
When you say it’s changed, do you have any negative experience to share?
it changed name. I haven't used it since it changed from yokoso sim but my future father in law went so I'll ask him how it went when he comes back. I imagine it hasn't changed except fro the name. I too plan to just use it next yr too as there may be cheaper or better but heck, it works and it's convenient and i know it's worked before, so one less stress to think about.
their prior msg response back to me. so seems the same. i remember it was only $35 or $40 from memory but i think the 31 days is a longer expirey. for $5 less you can get 3.5gb and 16 days.
i mean for $5 i would just pay it for the 500mb extra incase i wanted to stream or look at something in acafe while 'chilling', in the grnad scheme $5….
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/JP-Mobile-Prepaid-Travel-Data-SI…
Hi
Apologise for the late response.
Thank you for coming back to us again and yes we are still selling the same SIM but under different brand "JP Mobile SIM"
The procedures are still the same. (i.e. insert your SIM, set up APN and ready to use!!)
We currently offer 4.0GB but i can manually increase the data so please let me know. The current rate is $10 per 1 GB
For the reception, yes we should have reception in Niseko as we use Docomo Network (largest coverage in Japan)
Kind regards
FYI I’ve actually gone ahead and bought from him again. He advise it was the same supplier but they’ve improved the activation process.
I wish someone did an actual download/upload speed comparisons of the various visitor SIMs. Reviews on Amazon are usually mixed and doesn’t help much.
I don't really have any speed tests of it while I used it in Japan but I had no problems streaming 1080p 60fps youtube content and had 4G reception almost everywhere I went, including a time when I got a lost trecking though random paths on some mountains in Kyoto.
This might have something to do with the phone that you use. Make sure your phone supports the bands they use on that network. I was using a Xiaomi, and from memory, there was only one 4G band on B-Mobile I could use. I was mostly in cities, and I didn't have any dropouts and was on 4G most of the time.
Having just come back from Japan, I can say that 1 week is nowhere near enough to experience what Japan has to offer. Try to extend your stay to 2 weeks if you can, and get a JR Rail pass if you do.
I used NinjaSim. They have 2 options: 3GB for ¥4,900 or 7GB for ¥7,700. Not the cheapest but uses NTT network so had coverage everywhere and the speed was great. Burned through about 95% of the 7GB data option in my time there so definitely got my money's worth.
How on earth did you burn through that much data? I used google maps and google translator most of the time and that was enough to get around.
Gotta instagram/snapchat/facebook/twitter that shit fam.
For me, it was Imgur and uploading photos. Wifi at our Air BnB there was hopeless.
The speed of the network was much faster and more reliable than the public wifi networks so I almost never used them. A lot of skype calls back to family in NZ as well as it's only a data sim. Figured that if I paid for the data, I may as well use it too. Netflix occupied the kids downtime as well as a bit of hotspotting for my 2 kids pokemon go hunting.
I used this SIM in September… And I can't recommend it. It was incredibly slow.
I found a speedtest result on my phone:
That's actually as fast as my ADSL at home. I'd be okay with that speed. What phone were you using?
I've used the SIM with 4 different phones… all with average results.
This trip:
Motorola Z Play (speedtest result above)
Motorola G4 Plus
Previous trip:
Samsung Note 4
Samsung Galaxy S6
I'll be trying a different SIM on my next trip to see if there's a big difference.
Thanks. That's good to know that you've tried on different phones. Being an OzBargainer, do you use a Citibank card for travelling. I'm asking because whenever you remove a SIM, the app on the phone needs to re-authenticate, but I can't even log on to change the mobile number of the new SIM. Do you have this problem?
Yep, always use my Citibank card for international travel.
I remember I had a few issues with it on my recent trip (regarding changing SIMS and having to re-authenticate), but I was able to work through them. Just make sure you configure the app to generate the mobile OTP (instead of an SMS based OTP). I think it's called the Citi Mobile Token.
@j4ck: I'm going to try this out. Mind if I put your comments in the forum? I think it's something worth sharing. I was so scared I wouldn't be able to access my cash. I brought enough to last me, and I used my card just once, but I didn't dare try it a second time just in case my card got blocked.
Sure, but I don't want to be held accountable if it goes wrong for anyone :) Just make sure you set the app up correctly before you go, and it should be fine.
Why would your card have been blocked? Citibank advertise that the Citibank Plus account is useful for travelling.
@j4ck: If they think I should be in Aus, and suddenly I'm taking $1000 out in Japan, they might think my card was stolen or something and lock it down. Might be a little paranoid here, but I just want to make sure that I have access to all my stuff when I'm overseas.
And good thinking about not being held accountable. Hahahah! I won't mention specifics then. I'll try it out myself before I post anything.
You used to be able to call up and register your travel dates to prevent that from happening. But last time I did, there was a recorded message saying that's no longer required :)
@j4ck: Same thing, my card provider explicitly told me I didn't need to update my travel details. I contacted them after my card didn't work at the first two things I attempted to use it (in HKG), but it worked fine after that. (They also had no record on their side of attempts from that counrty, so likely the machines were faulty). Note: Not ATMs.
Will be in Japan mid of January and planning to activate roaming with Vodafone. Any thoughts?
I used vodafone last decemeber and it was pretty slow. I checked my speedtest saved results and I was in Asakusa and got 2.88Mbps/0.34Mbps. It's still better than nothing, and I'm not torrenting, just google and maps and tabelog so I didn't notice the speed.
BTW, this is a LOT faster than hotel and airport and public wifi speeds so well worth the $5/day.
Just need it for maps though. Also some airbnb will provide free pocket wifi, I heard
Just pop into any Yodabashi or Bic Camera store and buy your SIM there. It's super easy and there's heaps of range to choose from.
There's a bic camera in T2 in the departure hall.
What if I booked Air B N B?
As mentioned above, go to Yodobashi or Bic Camera and buy one there.
Get it sent to that address. Probably best to tell the host first though so that they know to hold it for you. Alternatively just buy one at the airport or yodobashi when you arrive, it's only about $6 more.
So this is data only? Can anyone recommend a SIM that lets you make local calls while you're there?
I think by law you can’t. I worked around it by using Skype credits which you can get on sale in Oz supermarkets.
Yeah, you need an ID with a Japanese address to get a SIM with voice capability.
Thanks guys. Looks like there's only work arounds, not a straight forward solution. Telstra lets you use the FON Wifi for free, I guess I can hope coverage is good in the cities and rely on FB Messenger or something.
If I need to make phone calls whilst overseas I use WiCall app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wicall&hl=…
You make phone calls over your IP so all you need as a data sim or even wifi.
You have to deposit some money (5USD is usually enough as call rates are pretty cheap even for international calling) and away you go.
What's better, a sim or pocket wifi? Thought most people used pocket wifi but lots of love for sim cards here?
Have you found better value pocket wifi?
Do you really want to keep two devices charged while travelling around?
Sim is generally better for speeds and convenience of not having to carry around a second device and keep it charged. Pocket wifi though is often provided free by airbnb hosts or tourism organisations (eg. Shizuoka). I'll be using both on my trip next month.
Had a really disappointing experience with this SIM. It NEVER went over 2G speeds (painfully slow) despite being connected to LTE the entire time!
I'm in Japan using it now. Pretty consistent 3-5Mbps download speeds everywhere between Tokyo and Hiroshima. Maybe depends on the bands on your phone? I'm using an Australian stock Samsung S6.
Any recommendations for 7 days travel in Japan?