For those who don't know, a keitai is a cell phone. And I got mine today...!
There were really 3 services to choose from: AU, DoKoMo, and Softbank. Although I opted for Softbank first cuz it was the cheapest, it's also the newest and have been known to lose reception in random spots (aww, just like at home with Sprint/Nextel!). So Su and I decided to go with AU, also since like 99% of the other teachers went with AU.
The entire explanation process between us, our IC, and the AU rep was approx. 3 hours. Yes, we sat there on these little stools while the home center cheesy children's music played over and over again in teh background. I swear if I was an employee there I would go INSANE! It was like being stuck on "It's a Small World" but you can't even understand what they're singing cuz it's all in Japanese! I kept hearing "Happy!" this and "Happy!" that... oh god, I even started unconsciously singing along!
Basically the thing that baffles me the most about the phones in Japan is how many people have, how much they're constantly on it, how much they accessorize, and then after today, how much they freaking cost!!!
It took us 3 hours, but Su and I finally decided on what I think was the best plan for our money:
I'll be paying (now follow me here, it took us 3 hours to get all of this!) 3465yen/month (that's about $30USD) for a grand total of 121 minutes for the entire month.
Yes. for the ENTIRE MONTH.
After that, it's .14-.16yen every minute. Regular price for the plan we got was actually 5145yen/month, and then they were gonna give us a discount of 4620yen/month, but then we decided that we were going to make ours a "family plan" thus getting our discount to be 3465yen. So I have to go to Su's every month to grab my bill from her mail, but hey, it's worth the savings!
There is no officlal "text messaging" in Japan, which was hard to understand because they have C-mail, E-mail, and Short Mail. Basically C-mail and Short mail are the same, and they are like text messages except you can only send them to people in your same service, and you'd still have to pay for it unless you got a family plan. So Su and I can C-mail each other for free, but even though most of the other teachers are also with the AU service, it would cost us money to C-mail them.
That's why most people in Japan email each other through their phones. Now that is a separate price! You would think they would charge based on the number of emails, incoming/outgoing, etc., but no. They divide up emails into a unit called "packets" which for some reason are unexplainable by any AU representative. But if we paid an additional 1050yen/month, we could get 10,000 packets! Su broke it down as a 1kb email being about 10 packets. And the 10,000 includes all incoming and outgoing. There's the additional .105/packet if you go over 10,000, but hopefully that won't happen to me.
We signed up for one year each and so we got to choose from only a certain section of phones because of the plan we got. Then when we told her we wanted it in English, she pointed to a grand total of 5 phones that would offer us an English mode. 2 were white, 2 were pink, and one was black. Haha... So I got a slick new white one. I asked for one that might be GSM so I could take it back to the states, and through the channels of my IC was told that they didn't have that service. As in the phone didn't exist for their services. I was sort of confused by then, isn't Japan supposed to be the technologically advanced capital of the world!?!? And they can't show me a GSM freaking phone!? So basically when I leave Japan, I have a free piece of plastic that no one in the states can use, or that no one in Japan will want cuz it was a free cheapy phone. Yay.
Whew! The only good thing I can say about my 121 minutes (I know my family must be laughing at that cuz they know how many minutes I normally use. I've gone through an easy 800 minutes when working on set before alone!) is that all calls that come in through my cell phone are FREE for me. So I only get charged for calls that I make. So if anyone ever wants to call me, feel free and I"ll send you my number!
It just blew me away the number of minutes that these Japanese people have to endure! And mind you, the way the plans are written out, it's the most confusing thing! Instead of simply stating: You get 121 minutes free with this plan, they write out how much each minute will cost according to the cost of that particular plan. Then in small letters below in parenthesis, it will state: for a total of 121 minutes max. Then any additional minutes are charged by the minute, every 30 seconds, some even had them broken down into 15 seconds! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!?
Another funny thing... they picked our free phones and started doing the paperwork, and she handed us our chargers an told us it would be 940yen for the charger. So the PHONE is free, but we have to pay for the charger? haha.... that's how they get you, those sneaky Japanese people! She also told us that there would be a one-time charge to our bill for her "services" having done our paperwork. I thought that was quite self-righteous of her, but apparently that's how they do it in Japan. No, they don't take tips but they'll charge you for their "services." Can't really say not to that by that point, huh?
Oh Lord, so now you know why it took us 3 hours. Then she told us to come back in an hour to pick them up, so we went around and I bought a new bicycle that I'll have to bike home tomorrow after meeting my school. So now I have my new cutesy phone, and yes, my LA cell phone is still working and at home missing me!
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