Internet access - pocket Wi-Fi

Hello:
I've browsed the phone and Internet section in attempt to determine if rental of a pocket wifi is necessary.

My stay in Japan will consist of Tokyo, Hakone, Nagoya, Kanazawa and Kyoto. The majority of the time being in Tokyo and Kyoto.

I've read pros and cons, yes and no replies - just trying to get a sense if it's worth the money to do so.

Any advice is appreciated.

I always rent from GlobalAdvancedComm for all my Japan visits. I can afford it, so it's not a financial issue for me. It works just about anywhere I've been and have had no problems with it.

I rented one, and it came in handy on the road (for navigation and looking up train schedules etc.). I saw one tourist getting the turn-by-turn guidance on her smart phone connected via pocket WiFi (her phone was on speaker mode and everybody heard it). Back in the hotel there is no need for it, because you can use hotel's in-room WiFi.

I used mine in the hotel as well, as it comes with unlimited data and the daily limit (I know, ironic) was never reached.

Never had need for one. But then I always plan my trips in advance and have train and bus schedules and directions to where I'm going downloaded on my phone.

I don't hire them. I use the hotels internet and plan the following days trip in the evening. Sometimes morning of said day at breakfast.

I also use it to go on FB and IG and to send messages to my friends in Japan.

To op's

If you have a smartphone, you can just rent or purchase a sim, if you intend to share, then a pocket wifi is better, althought most android phones with tethering can also share, but batteries do drain faster than a pocket wifi. If you do travel alot, it's advisible to purchase a pocket wifi, they are not really expensive.

If you do spend alot of time in your hotel room, and they do have a wifi you can use that, most are free, although you can find some hotels do charge you for using their wifi, you can also a purchase a travel router to connect to a lan in a hotel room for wifi, if the hotel does not have wifi, or if their wifi is weak.

Last I checked pocket wifi with unlimited data was cheaper than an equivalent SIM (makes no sense, but there you go.) If you're not going to use much data, a fixed data SIM can be cheaper though. If you go the SIM route, note that the radio frequencies used in Japan's networks only has partial overlap with those in other countries, and your phone may or may not support them all (which could result in reduced coverage or speeds, or even not work at all in the worst case.)

You should also check what your current provider's international roaming policy is. It used to be that this was universally stupid expensive, but some of them are coming around now. I always rented a wifi unit from GAC until I got Google Fi, which has no international roaming charges at all for data.

WiMax is better and cheaper than a data SIM.