Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
61
allowed to buy cellphones in Japan). If
you're in Japan for only a few days and are
staying in an upper-class hotel, most con-
venient but most expensive is to rent a
mobile phone from your hotel. A check of
several hotels in Tokyo turned up rental
fees ranging from ¥600 to ¥1,200 per day
(the more expensive the hotel, the more
expensive the rental). I suggest, therefore,
that you rent a phone at Narita Airport.
Lots of companies maintain counters at
both terminals, including NTT DoCoMo
and Softbank Global Rental (see above), as
well as
G-Call
(www.g-call.com/e),
Tele-
com Square
(www.telecomsquare.co.jp),
and
PuPuRu
(www.pupuru.com), which
have the extra convenience of easy pickup
and drop-off and offer online reservations.
Most rentals start at ¥525 per day, though
bargains are often offered online or on-
site. Charges for domestic and interna-
tional calls vary, but incoming calls are
usually free.
For travelers staying in Japan a week or
longer,
Go Mobile
(www.gomobile.co.jp)
offers 1-week, 2-week, and 30-day rentals,
including a limited number of free local
calls. A 1-week rental costs ¥2,995 and
includes 15 minutes of free local calls.
Phones are shipped to an address in Japan
(such as your hotel) and returned via a
prepaid, pre-addressed envelope.
accommodations provide a computer in
the lobby that guests can use for free.
The best place to set up a temporary
office in Tokyo is at the sophisticated
Gran Cyber Café Bagus,
on the 12th
floor of the Roi Building, 5-5-1 Rop-
pongi (
&
03/5786-2280;
station: Rop-
pongi). Open 24 hours, it offers individual
cubicles with prices that depend on the
chair you select: ¥500 the first hour for a
straight-back chair, ¥530 for a recliner,
and ¥600 for a massage chair. Unsurpris-
ingly, given Tokyo's high taxi prices, it also
offers a “night pack” in a reclining chair,
available for a maximum of 6 hours
between 11pm and 8am for ¥1,450, as
well as—brace yourself—booths for cou-
ples. A “Ladies Only” section is also avail-
able. Another 24-hour Gran Cyber Café
Bagus is located in Shibuya, on the sev-
enth floor of the HMV music store at
24-1 Udagawacho (
&
03/5456-8922
).
For free access, try
Marunouchi Café,
located on the tree-lined Marunouchi
Naka Dori avenue in the Shin Tokyo
Building, 3-3-1 Marunouchi (
&
03/
3212-5025;
stations: Marunouchi or
Tokyo), with six computers available
Monday to Friday 8am to 9pm and Satur-
day and Sunday 11am to 8pm (you'll need
to show a photo ID, such as a passport).
Or try the
Apple Store,
Ginza, 3-5-12
Ginza (
&
03/5159-8200;
station: Ginza),
with approximately five Macs on the 4th
floor available daily from 10am to 9pm.
Note that waits can be long.
Although expensive,
Kinko's
has more
than 30 locations throughout Tokyo,
including one at Tokyo Station at the
Yaesu north exit (
&
03/3213-1811
).
Most are open 24 hours and charge ¥210
per 10 minutes of computer time.
With your own computer:
With the
exception of some budget hotels, virtually
all hotels in Tokyo provide Internet access
3
VOICE
OVER INTERNET
PROTOCOL
VOIP
If you have Web access while traveling,
you might consider a broadband-based
telephone service (in technical terms,
Voice over Internet protocol,
or
VoIP
)
such as Skype (www.skype.com).
INTERNET & E
MAIL
Without your own computer:
Cybercafes
are growing in number. In any case, avoid
hotel business centers
unless you're will-
ing to pay exorbitant rates, though some
