I Don't Think So Honey - Phone Fun

Friday 5th August 2016
What. An. Effing. Mission.

who would have thought that it would be so bloody difficult to get a phone working in the land of the future? (even if it is in the wopwops…) three trips and many hours in the phone shop later (not to mention a trip to the electronics store) and I finally had a tolerable (if not a little pricey) phone/internet plan.

We had been forwarned of the fight that's involved to get a Japanese sim for an NZ phone, I think the issue is that a lot of the phones in the states are locked so it isn't possible for the Americans to get a sim, and seeing as all gaijin come from America.... We embarked on a trip back to the BOE to try and prove that the gaijin did know what she talking about when she said she thought that maybe (ie. was pretty effing positive that) her phone wasn't locked. After it took two of the employees 15 mins to work out how to get their sims out of their phones we had the required ammunition.

I’m not sure if it’s just me being stingy but 7,000yen for 5mins of calling and 5 gigs of data (which I was to use also to tether to my laptop rather than getting an internet plan) seems a bit bloody cheeky.

After consulting with a couple of people we managed a plan that also got me unlimited internet (which won’t happen until the end of August as they need to install a phone line or something daft) BUT this means that I don’t have to skimp on using the internet (thank Christ coz I used up 1gig last night on skype so 5 gigs to last between my laptop and phone would not have cut it. I had to abruptly put my phone on silent after we turned it on with the new sim card in- having not been connected to the internet for 2 days it had a fair bit of squawking to do…

Where my Japanese may be sufficient for basic chit chat, setting up phone contracts is a whole nother kettle of slippery fish, We had a system sussed by the end though; the shop assistant would explain something in her pretty, polite and complicated Japanese, then I would glance at U-san and she'd translate that into gaijin friendly Japanese - mildly entertaining when all three of us were sitting there with our various dictionaries going... The issue is that by the time someone's found the word that I didn't understand, I've generally forgotten the context...