Email on rental phone

I apologise for still not fully understanding Japanese email v sms from cell phones.

If my travel companion rents an iphone from GAC, GAC advise that they do not supply an email address.
(Softbank and Rentafone seem to supply a Softbank address)


SO how does she contact another local JAPANESE cell phone by email/messages from a GAC iPhone?

Does that mean
1.she has to have her own AUSTRALIAN email set up on the GAC iphone,
OR
2. she will need to set up a temporary gicloudh email on the GAC iphone
OR
3. will an gsmsh message from her GAC phone number to a Japanese cell phone number work as an email?
ie just messaging gnumber to numberh?

There are 3 of us travelling, and my husband and I will also have a wifi router. She will not necessarily always have access to that router.

Our companionfs current Australian phone will not work in Japan, so she plans to rent a GAC iPhone.
She ONLY needs to be able to freely and regularly contact her family member, who lives in Japan, by calling or messaging.

I just cant work out how she can send emails/messages to another Japanese cell phone .

Sorry...it confuses me no end....

Thanks!!!

Help? Anyone??

in Japan when u say SMS, it is a text msg send via phone no. to phone no.

email is done via email address, i.e. japanese phone email will always be something like

1234rg@xxx.ne.jp ( xxx will be telco, softbank,docomo or ezweb(au kddi) etc.)

so if your friend will rent GAC iPhone, then she can just email them using email system as what she normally do. Or else use LINE which is free, and u can make free call within LINE user.

FYI SMS will cost money and email will be free(if the rented iphone come with unlimited data)

p/s: I don't used iphone.

Thanks: still unsure: so we need to set her up with her own email address on the iphone, as GAC say they dont supply one?

Doesn't she have an e-mail back home, that she uses from PC? I mean, something like @gmail.com, or @yahoo.com, or something completely different? And if that e-mail is viewable on a browser (which @gmail and @yahoo certainly are), she can just use that on an iphone.

just use whatever existing email that ur fren have, and email as usual, I mean whatever free web based email like yahoo, gmail etc.

not sure how ur fren can setup existing iphone email to the rented iphone.

p/s:dun have iphone.

Ah, OK, so we DO have to use her existing email. Thats fine. Thanks

Ah, OK, so we DO have to use her existing email. Thats fine. Thanks


Yes, and it's a simple setup process if she uses one of the popular free web based services like gmail or yahoo. If not then you might consider making a throwaway address just for this use.

Does she currently have an iphone or use apple products?

3. will an gsmsh message from her GAC phone number to a Japanese cell phone number work as an email?

No, I believe it would go through as an sms if sent as an sms. But it is more common for people to send text messages via email instead of sms. To put it simply, just treat everything like email and you should be fine.

ie just messaging gnumber to numberh?

Generally people don't do this as it costs more.

I just cant work out how she can send emails/messages to another Japanese cell phone .

Yea, it's very confusing for people who are used to the sms system. Basically Japanese phones have an email address associated with them. It works like normal email.

Thanks yllwsmrf: Ifll check again with GAC but they did state they dont supply an email address

Think I like the gthrowawayh address: thinking icloud cos its an iphone, but can easily set up a gmail address

...thanks again

can't you just open a browser and just login to hotmail, gmail, yahoo or any free email base system.

Please also note that emails sent from gmail/yahoo/hotmail etc (non mobile phone addresses) to a Japanese phone's email address like 1234rg@xxx.ne.jp (mobile phone address) may sometimes be blocked.

It will be best to ensure you have a non mobile phone email address of the Japanese person you want to contact and make sure they read it instead of expecting what the Japanese normally term as email (mobile phone address).

Great. Thanks everyone. Still no clearer now. And no, logging into Australiafs bigpond webmail is like watching grass grow...SO SLOW....was hoping to avoid that.
We shall see....
Thanks for trying to help though everyone

Think I like the gthrowawayh address: thinking icloud cos its an iphone, but can easily set up a gmail address

Either one would work. It doesn't really make a difference especially if she doesn't use apple products already.

can't you just open a browser and just login to hotmail, gmail, yahoo or any free email base system.

Sure, but then you don't get notifications for new messages...

Great. Thanks everyone. Still no clearer now.

Not sure how we can help anymore. Do either you or your friend currently use a smartphone? Doesn't have to be an iphone, setting up email is basically the same process on all of them and will get you the equivalent of texting.

Think I like the gthrowawayh address: thinking icloud cos its an iphone, but can easily set up a gmail address
Either one would work. It doesn't really make a difference especially if she doesn't use apple products already.

Great. Thanks everyone. Still no clearer now.

Not sure how we can help anymore. Do either you or your friend currently use a smartphone? Doesn't have to be an iphone, setting up email is basically the same process on all of them and will get you the equivalent of texting.

Thanks so much yllwsmrf: I now actually think wefll be fine.

She doesnft use a smartphone; my husband and I do: we both have used iphones for years. My husband is confident, after reading all this, he can set up her existing Australian email address: if not, wefll get her an icloud account: her family member clearly gets her Australian and my icloud emails on his phone, so the post above re Japanese phones not receiving some emails is moot, fortunately: have checked!

Thanks everyone: shall report her in March!!