You’ve done it.  You’ve made it to Japan.  But if you’re like many American’s (and I’m sure elsewhere as well), you don’t have an unlocked phone and need access to wi-fi in Japan.  Crap! How do you stay connected with friends and family back home and show them all the awesome stuff you’re seeing?  Never fear, staying connected in Japan is actually easier than you think.

Find yourself a Café

Though not on New Zealand level of coffee-love (seriously, every where it was “go see this cool thing, oh, and here’s where to get coffee!”), if your in any semblance of a city, you’ll easy find a coffee shop.  Starbucks, Douter, Tully’s, Pronto, …. the list goes on and on and you’ll be able to get free Wi-Fi. Plus, coffee!

Train Love

Ah, Japan, the land of consistently awesome public transportation.  If you’ve bounced to your location and forgot where you were headed, or playing train roulette like I love doing (hop on a train, pick a time for when you are getting off, and then figure it out from there, no matter where you end up!), JR stations and Tokyo Metro Stations all have free Wi-Fi for your convenience.  Some of the shinkansen (bullet trains) and some liner’s also have Wi-Fi onboard for the long haul trips.

Speaking of Convenience… 7-11

Yes, you’re friendly local convenience store, or こんびに (konbini) as we call them, has free Wi-Fi.  With something like 16,000 stores around the country and 2000 of those being in Tokyo alone, your never that far from a spot.

Finding Wi-Fi in Japan: There’s an app for that

Fun things happen when you do research for articles, you find new things! You can thank Starbucks Japan for introducing me to Travel Japan Wi-Fi.  This app runs in the background and finds you Wi-Fi in Japan hotspots on demand. Haven’t tried it out too much so not sure about the drain on the battery (and I have a Samsung Note so it’s got two days of battery half the time so I’m a bad example), but seemed to do the job. Plus it gives you some suggestions of things to do and food to eat around the area.

There’s always SIM cards

If you have an unlocked phone, there are always SIM cards you can pick up at the airport, just show your passport so they can trace it if you do anything nefarious :P.  Generally speaking, that’s everywhere in the world EXCEPT America (get with the program USA).  Gives you piece of mind that you have connection.  My phone has astronomical roaming rates (4500円/day!!!!) so I tend to get SIM cards but also have found lately that its not that hard to jump Wi-Fi spots when I’m travelling.

Pucks and other gadgets

Pocket Wi-Fi ads are all over the place these days.  They don’t seem to be worth the cost to me and it’s another heavy thing to carry around (I don’t care how light it is, if you’re walking around all day you eventually notice).  The airports here in Japan also offer pocket Wi-Fi as an option though if you don’t have an unlocked phone.

What’s your preferred way to stay connected while traveling? Leave me a comment and let me know!