Mobile communication

What's some good and cheap ways to stay in touch in japan? i'm from australia and can activate international roaming, but not sure if this also activates data roaming. ill be using my gps on the phone but dont want it to download any maps.

a japanese friend asked about prepaid sims, but they were quite expensive.

ill be using my gps on the phone but dont want it to download any maps.

We each use iphones, and recently had 2 x $340+ bill from Telstra for 2 weeks in Japan (they have now refunded after a BIG hassle) for data roaming even though we had it turned OFF: push data, (on "manual", and never used while we were in Japan) and cellular data, kept happening, so BOY did we get a fright. SO if you have an iphone turn data roaming, push data and cellular data ALL off.

So DONT use GPS on your phone...it will still cost a fortune. Why will you need it? If you hire a car it can have GPS. For general tourist stuff you can use maps.

My cousin rented a Softbank phone at the airport for 2 weeks: no SMS's made, no international calls made, no data activated at all, only minimal calls to her son, who generally rang her back: $90+ AUS bill on return.

So keeping in touch is expensive: suggest International roaming for SMS only, and minimal at that. We take a laptop and use email/Skype in the hotels for free.

I used a "Travel SIM" in another old phone: $49 from AusPost: used it for SMS and brief calls home at times not in the hotel, (we have kids...) and calls to family in Japan: went through about $50 over 2 weeks...

Hope this helps

yeah i've got iphone4. i called 3 about it and they also suggested i turn off data roaming, but i think ill use international roaming for just sms now.

we wont be hiring a car but i've downloaded offmaps app for tokyo and osaka thats why i want to use the gps. and knowing now that the data roaming can be turned off i'm relieved to be able to use offmaps gps no worries.

friend will be bringing a laptop so ill use skype.

thanks for your reply!

glad to have helped.

MAKE SURE you ALSO turn off ''PUSH'': [settings-mail contacts calenders-fetch new data-push-OFF: even if set to manual it still will cost] AND ''Cellular Data'': [settings-general-network-cellular data-OFF]

Both the iphone experts at Telstra AND the consultants at the Apple store here told us to do this: otherwise you'll end up like us with about $25 A DAY data roaming, EVEN if data roaming is OFF...

Have fun!!