Advice for using data for 3 months in Japan

I will be staying for 3 months in Japan. What would be the best way to stay connected? data sim card or pocket wifi? any recommended sites or services?

This basically depends on how much money you are willing to put into it. Pocket wifis give a much better connection than data SIMs, but they are also muh more expensive, which may not be worth it if you will have wifi "at home" and only use cellular data when you are on the go. All tourist data SIM offerings seem to be pretty much indstinguishable (I have used b-mobile, econnect and so-net, and have found no difference between them). I am less familiar with pocket wifis.

thanks Firas!

budget is definitely a concern but it is definitely more important that i have some kind of connectivity. i'm going to assume the worst and think i may not have wifi at where i stay (crossing my fingers that i will).

By "better" I basically meant "faster", data SIMs will not give you an outage, just a slower connection. They may even have a slightly larger coverage area than pocket wifis (since they mostly use the docomo network), though you would have to go to quite remote areas to see it.

Firas, how did you find the so-net sims? Since they apparently don't throttle, they should give a better overall experience for heavy data users. Or were they still generally slow like your b-mobile experience a while back?

i was planning on giving so-net a try. heading to narita via nyc now!

I'm not a heavy data user, so I can't really comment as one. I basically only do web, e-mail, maps and various SNS, for those uses all the tourist SIMs are acceptable, although not blazing fast. Pocket wifis are noticeably faster.

My bad experience was with b-mobile's monthly plans aimed at Japanese residents, not with the tourist ones. The monthly plans are really, noticeably slower than what one would reasonably expect, I suspect their convenience is the only thing that keeps them in business. This is not specific to b-mobile, by the way, but seems common to most virtual carriers, especially docomo-based ones. See this speed chart: http://kakuyasu-sim.jp/speed-test-on-8-17-2015

I've used So-net for a while on a variety of devices, including a pocket WiFi that uses a SIM.
The So-net SIMs are 4G LTE (But can be used in a 3G phone) so they are VERY fast. I've never had it throttle back, and they are rechargeable. Initial period is 60 days for the 3Gig SIMS, costs about 5000yen, and you can get them in retail outlets, unlike B-Mobile.
(Yodobashi camera is probably the easiest and best known)

This means that the so-net SIMs ARE different to others....

Hasn't anyone here used a prepaid SIM from Softbank, rather than one of the many tourist sims that rely on Docomo's network?

http://www.softbank-rental.jp/e/selection-acc.php

I never hear any talk about these Softbank sims that appear to be exclusive to their airport locations.

http://www.softbank-rental.jp/e/rental-location.php#_1NXC

I'm interested in trying Softbank's network because my phone better supports their LTE bands compared to Docomo (assuming these visitor sims would let me access all of their bands).

softbank looks like a way better situation. is there a maximum amount of days allowed for the softbank sim? looks like so-net is limited to 30 days and 60 days.

"Hasn't anyone here used a prepaid SIM from Softbank, rather than one of the many tourist sims that rely on Docomo's network?"

Sofbank prepaid is voice only, NO DATA.

"softbank looks like a way better situation. is there a maximum amount of days allowed for the softbank sim? looks like so-net is limited to 30 days and 60 days. "

So-net is NOT LIMITED to 60 days. It is rechargeable, so you can keep recharging either after 30/60 days or when you data runs out.

Thanks for the feedback Firas and Sandy. The So-net sims don't throttle, which seems to be one of their main selling points so that's good to know if you're a heavier user (more than 100mb/day). Also, b-mobile sims can be bought at Yodobashi Camera outlets in case you're looking for a physical retailer of those in the future:

http://www.bmobile.ne.jp/payg_sim/w_purchase.html#retail

Sofbank prepaid is voice only, NO DATA.

But it says "4G Flat Data" right there on the website I linked!

It seems to be a new sim service aimed at tourists, but the available information is really limited.

'But it says "4G Flat Data" right there on the website I linked!

It seems to be a new sim service aimed at tourists, but the available information is really limited. '


That's confusing, because it says this under global RENTAL.
If this is really a prepaid SIM, it's a new service, but it's expensive!!!

7 days for 2916 yen.

It also shows a Prepaid SIM for travelers, 3000, 5000 & 8000yen, but doesn't specify exactly what you get for each "plan"!!!