Be sure to bring passport photos! I'm sure some people don't realize they will need them for initial applications there, or they will simply forget.
Well, jokes on you. You will have to buy into the National Health Insurance upon arrival/registrations. According to JASSO, insurance premium is about 20,000yen per year. Not bad I think.
ooiling,
doesn't the airline give you some kind of luggage insurance? I remember 2 years ago, someone accidentally took my luggage, reported it the next day, and the airline personally delivered it to me. They said in the case that it is completely lost, they would "try" to reimburse me fully.
>ooilingfan, c0ok1e
Are you all bringing that 150,000 yen in cash to Japan? Or you have other alternatives? By the way, where are you exchanging your money?
I'll go for softbank and white plan.has anyone started looking up cell phone plans yet?
I'll go for softbank and white plan.
>ooilingfan, c0ok1e
Are you all bringing that 150,000 yen in cash to Japan? Or you have other alternatives? By the way, where are you exchanging your money?
menrui, don't worry bout the phone, we shall go phone shopping together. We'll have an advisor and translator for that. =)
You can bring your phone from U.S. if you're retaining your U.S. sim card and allow it to roam. I'm doing that cause i wanted to keep my number.
oh if you're bringing your phone from home to roam in japan make sure the phone itself will work in japan...japan is very picky with phones so a lot of them won't work even if you're using a working sim card
i know for sure all 3g phones work there and newer models that are wCDMA
like i have a nokia prism...which is fairly new...like a year old...and it doesn't work in japan...so if you're planning on roaming for a while make sure your phone is japan-friendly
>menrui
I think Japanese use their mobile phones at web-surfing...
Some are saying that au has a special student discount... I think you can only get that once you have finished with your alien registration and university registration, 2 or 3 days after you settled down?
I think the cheapest one would be around 3000yen? With free calls? And if you sign up for 2 years, you get a free mobile phone. You can't bring your cell phones from the states, if you are signing up for au or docomo. I heard you can use iphone, but the thing is, is iphone sim-locked in US?
>c0ok1e
Where do you have your money-changing?
ooiling,
we have a translator? you mean those international volunteer people?
yeah, softbanks white plan and au's cheapest service + student discount both look good. they both start at 980yen. big difference is, softbanks gives you free in network calling/email, and au gives you a better minute/usage rate.
a free phone for signing a 2 year contract? that seems like a bit too much. How much are phones anyways? Japanese phones seems so fancy, I'm guessing they are really expensive.
yeah that iphone offer does seem really neat, especially with the white plan. a base price of 980 + 1029(4410 for max data transfer) does seem tempting... and you can download a bunch of apps to go with it, including a dictionary. But a 2 year contract... ugh...
Arent the one year contract and the 2 year contract the same thing?? U still need to pay the same amount just that u finish your payment slower or later.. or do they charge interest for 2 yr contract?
I cannot wait to meet you guys! (we'll be with so many at the Frankfurt airport!)