Internet for rural areas

Are there any recommendations for internet connection for rural Japan in particular? I'll be heading to the countryside in Oita, on top of usual places like Tokyo and Nagoya.

Either pocket wifi or SIM card is fine! I'm not a heavy internet user, just want it to communicate with my hosts/google maps/search for places to go.

Thanks!

I'm a local, but I find that there are always certain spots where internet access is available.

For example, you might not get it in the middle of a forest, but you might get it at a road crossing. At least you can get it in the town. We have a summer house, and when we drive 30 minutes to town for dinner we use pocket wifi to research the places we need to go the next day. If we're lucky, we might get to send emails from the house or the yard as well.

If you have a host in Oita, you might want to ask them as they might know best.

Ah - apologies if I wasn't clear, what I meant was that there are any recommendation for the type of internet connection (portable wifi, SIM card) and which brand/company particularly excels when being used in rural areas.

Nonetheless thanks Uco for your experience, it's good to know!

Docomo based data sims typically have the best coverage, but the speeds may not be the fastest outside major urban areas. Au based data sims may be the fastest, but are the least well supported. There shouldn't be a difference between a sim or personal hotspot that are on the same network.

I am also investigating mobile data coverage at Kyushu as well... and I will be going further south to kagoshima.

Y!mobile / emobile seems to have a new much wider service area coverage - japanese map here

http://www.ymobile.jp/area/map/index.html?pref=46&device_type=305zt

However it is for a specific device (305ZT) which it not uncommon to be rented by global advance comm or a few others as their super premium.

this is the coverage for a "normal" 75mps mifi for y-mobile. Still not bad for city area near Oita.

http://www.ymobile.jp/area/map/index.html?pref=44&service=4g17&use_ser...

Softbank also seems to have expanded their coverage as well since 2014 when I was last in Japan.

http://www.softbank.jp/mobile/network/area/map/?pref=44&use_service=us...

Softbank generally has the worst coverage for rural areas. Y!mobile is part of softbank now. They use a different network than Softbank proper if I'm not mistaken, but in our experience last year they're rural coverage was still average to sub-par. Looking at Oita for example, only the highest density places are covered. Go outside the city, Yufuin for example, and your coverage is more limited.

Thanks all!

yllwsmrf, which provider of Docomo would you suggest? I saw Sakura Mobile but it seems rather expensive. I'm travelling from 17 April to 11 May, and it costs 14,250 yen.

Would there be any providers that go below 10,000 yen for that period?