Using my mobile/cell phone in japan-how?

I have a Sony Ericsson w880i, which supports WCDMA 2100Mhz, and my network provider supports roaming in Japan. what do i do now?

I understand its very expensive to use my own SIM to make/recive calls and send SMS messages. So what can i do?

Can i rent a japanese SIM? Where from? Will it be cheaper? and will any japanese SIM work with my phone?
Please advise me as i have no idea what im going to do.

Cheers

check out this page here:
http://euc.jp/misc/cellphones.en.html#import

What carrier do you use?

You will have to have your phone unlocked in order to use a SIM from a different carrier. AT&T will do this after 90 days, I don't know about other carriers. You can also unlock it on your own if you carrier won't do it... google around for details.

I have been looking for a sim card to rent myself... I have found plenty of places to rent a sim and a phone though.

Does the w880i support wifi? if so you could try Boingo and use voice over IP for $8 a month instead of your minutes.

oh, I forgot to mention that it looks like a lot of Japanese phones do not use SIM cards... this may be the reason I am having trouble finding a place to rent the sim by itself.

You are right, SIMs are not really in use here- the whole system is different.

Assuming your phone is unlocked and compatible on Japan's network, you can rent SIM cards from the Softbank desk in the Narita Airport Mall. The fees is something like 500 yen per day plus usage. I think it would be more economical to get a rental phone instead.

I suggest getting a prepaid phone maybe from Softbank, but the prepaid cards are quickly used. The best thing would of course to get your hands on a japanese phone with subscription, but maybe you need a japanese person to do it for you. Its not always so easy to get a subscription, unless you are staying as a long term worker or student.

I believe that the original poster is a visitor and not a resident. If this is the case then they cannot get a prepaid or subscription service as you must be a resident to do so.

The only options for visitors is to rent a phone, rent a SIM card, or use international roaming on their own phone.

I just looked at Softbank's sim rental page. It is 105 yen per day to rent the sim, which isn't bad except you also have to pay 105 per minute for outgoing calls. (at least incoming calls are free) and calls back home would be 200 yen per minute.

I don't think I will be making very many calls, so at those rates it is probably better for me to just use phone cards when I can and save my own sim card for emergencies at the $1.69 per minute rate you get with the international plan ($6 per month).

Luckily my (PDA) phone has the ability to turn off the phone portion, so I don't have to worry about being charged for anything. It looks like (hopefully I am wrong) with AT&T you will be charged if you leave your phone on and just let it ring until it goes to voice mail... but it the call goes directly to voice mail you are not charged. And of course you are charged to check your voice mail as well so I will probably leave a greeting that tells people to e-mail me if it is important. My phone has wifi and the place I am staying should have a computer... so checking e-mail will be free for me. I will also look into the Boingo service that supposedly lets you make voice over IP calls for $8 per month.