Matthew Skyrm’s .Plan in Japan

Japan’s mobile phone carriers do not use GSM. While Vodafone offers a few mobile phones that additionally support GSM, all of the phones are locked and I’ve only found one that can be easily unlocked, the Sony Ericsson V802SE. Unfortunately, Vodafone’s 3G network coverage isn’t very good right now. So, if I were to buy it, I would end up with a phone that works well outside Japan, but poorly inside Japan. This really stinks because the V802SE also includes gaijin-friendly English T9 text input and Mac-friendly iSync bluetooth support without any special software or cables.

Sony Ericsson V802SE

So, I continue to keep a second mobile phone for when I travel outside of Japan. It’s an older Sony Ericsson T68i. I’ve got a T-Mobile prepaid SIM card for the US, and since I got it unlocked back in San Francisco, I’m able to use any SIM cards from any carrier I like in any country that supports GSM 1800/1900/900. Most countries do. The T68i also includes bluetooth support and works quite well with Apple’s iSync.

Sony Ericsson T68i and T-Mobile SIM Card

Last month my wife and I vacationed in Turkey for two weeks and I was able to buy a Turkcell prepaid SIM card at the airport upon arrival for about US$50 that included enough credit for my entire trip, including several short calls to the United States. I wanted to have my phone working shortly after landing in Istanbul so I could more easily meet up with my friend who was picking us up at the Bodrum airport after another connecting flight. I wasn’t sure if there would be a shop at the airport and even considered buying one in advance and having it shipped to Japan before I left. Unfortunately, the service needed to be activated and while I had the activation code, the instructions were spoken only in Turkish. Even so, it was so incredibly convenient and inexpensive to have my own telephone number and mobile phone for the entire trip.
Next time, I want to figure out if the prepaid card supports GPRS Internet connectivity and give it a try.

Turkcell SIM Card

Now, I’m just waiting for KDDI’s AU line-up to include a phone with everything their current 3G line-up supports, plus English T9 text input, iSync over bluetooth, unlocked GSM 1800/1900/900, and a form factor that doesn’t create too large a bulge in my pocket. Something tells me I’ll be holding onto my little T68i for a long time.

I have noticed quite a few of my friends who haven’t been to Tokyo believe that Akihabara is some kind of haven for DVD movie and video piracy. That really couldn’t be further from the truth. After spending many, many weekends going through every little corner of “Akitown”, I can count on one hand the amount of times I’ve seen anything related to piracy. I have seen a few guys on the street selling video game ROMs for absurd amounts of money (¥30,000 or about $300 for one disc full of Neo Geo game roms) and cable TV decoder boxes, but that is about it.

However, Dragon Computer is a physical shop that carries mod chips for both the Xbox and PS2. That’s not to say I believe the only reason to buy a mod chip is for piracy purposes (legit uses include playing personal game backups or running homebrew software) but usually pirated games and tools that enable piracy (i.e. mod chips) can be found in the same place. Dragon Computer doesn’t appear to be selling any games, just chips. I haven’t bought anything from Dragon Computer and can’t vouch for them in any way.