Wi-Fi in rural towns and small hotels

[RJMang]

I'll be cycling the length of Japan this summer and will be staying in rural towns and in small hotels/minshuku. Many of theses places say they have "free wi-fi" or LAN ("cable provided"); however, a Japanese fried said this often just means that you have "access" to a paid service such as that provided by SoftBank.
Does anyone have experience with wi-fi offerings in small hotels? Do you think this is in-fact wi-fi as I think of it in most places?

 

[Mike Cash]

The Lawson convenience store chain provides free wi-fi that works fine with an iPhone. You have to get a member's card from one of their stores and register it on a terminal in the store, then you need to have their app installed and you will need to run the app when connecting. Once it is all set up it is very effortless to connect. I don't know if it can be made to work with a PC, but I doubt it. Perhaps it can through a tethered iPhone 5.

 

[RJMang]

Thanks for the info! Then I'm guessing it would work with and iPad mini?

 

[Mike Cash]

Probably so.

 

[johnnyG]

A plus for Lawson's is that they're everywhere. Minshuku I've stayed at generally seem not to have any connection. Business hotels generally do, but instead of wireless, they give you a LAN cable that you plug into a jack in your room. Some hotels (only the big, expensive ones in my experience) will give you a wi-fi dongle that then plugs into a jack in your room with a cable.

And if you haven't come across them:
Map
Japan Cycling Navigator:Course Guideart1

 

[Hiroyuki Nagashima]

"FREESPOT"
freespot.com

"FON"
Fon - Find Fon Hotspots Worldwide

"Wifine"
ﾆ陳照辰ﾆ稚ﾆ叩ﾆ辰ﾆ停?懌?楪?Wi-Fiﾂ、ﾅ?X窶堙可出窶堙ｩﾂ！