There are many posts here from fellow Steemians about their trips to Japan, most of them are about sightseeing, food, fun and interesting things of Japan. As a frequent traveler to Japan (20 times over last 3 years), I have lots of such thing to share too. However, I don't think you want to see this kind of stuff anymore, so I am going to give you something more practical: How to get a pre-paid Data SIM card for your Japan trip.
Over last 20 years, I travel to Japan almost every year, for businesses and for personal, and getting connected in Japan is always important. For the frequent travelers here, I believe you've gone through similar path:
-- Using local phone card to make IDD cards
-- Using your own mobile phone to receive and send roaming calls and SMS
-- Get access to Internet from your hotel or Internet Cafes
-- Mobile data network access (Finally)
To get mobile data network access, there are a few ways:
1) Mobile data network roaming services (Easy but extremely expensive)
2) Using a Pocket WIFI device (Easy to use but have to carry one more device with you and battery life is always a problem)
3) Get a DATA SIM and use it with your mobile phone
1 went through the above paths and finally settle down with no. 3. Reason behind is I don't want to deal with the battery life of Pocket WIFI device and it is always nice to have less weight with you around.
B-Mobile VISITOR SIM
One of my preferred DATA SIM for Japan is the B-mobile VISITOR SIM
http://www.bmobile.ne.jp/english/index.html
With this SIM you have 5GB of high speed LTE data access for 21 days in Japan.
Here is the product description FYI:
How to purchase
To purchase the SIM card, click at the "Purchase" button at the top right corner or in the menu:
You can then select which site you want to purchase it, I used to go with VISITOR SIM Official site. So click on the "Online store" link under it.
This will then lead you to an important page: to select where you want to SIM to be delivered and size of SIM card.
You should decide when to deliver the SIM card now. My suggestion is to avoid delivering it to the Post offices in those 7 airports it allows you to choose. This is because those Post Offices may located at different airport terminals than the one you land. You may need to waste plenty of time to figure out where exactly is the Post Office in that Airport and then travel to it to get the SIM. Then you will need to get to your local transportation to reach your destination in Japan. It may not worth all the hustle just to get data access a few hours eariler. FYI, there is always free WIFI available in the Airports. Yes, after leaving the Airport, you may not have data access for awhile, but why not, enjoy the scene of Japan!
I always have the SIM deliver to my hotel and since I am using iPhone, I select "Nano SIM" as shown.
Then you will reach the "Purchase" page. Spend a little time to read through the page (for the first time), when you reach the bottom of that page, you will see 6 buttons that you need to click on ("OK" buttons as shown below). Click on all of them, make sure they all turn green. Then go to next step by clicking "Fill in your information" button.
Next is easy, just fill in the information requested, including hotel address, expected delivery date and credit card information.
You will be asked to confirm the information again in next page.
If no change is needed, click "Place your Order" button.
Then ask for it when you check in your hotel. It should be there when you arrive. If you want to know it's delivery status, you can go to here: http://track.kuronekoyamato.co.jp/english/tracking
After getting the SIM, put it in your phone and use it. You may need to configure your phone's APN settings (normally you don't need to worry about this) and here are the links:
http://www.bmobile.ne.jp/english/site_ios.html (For iOS)
http://www.bmobile.ne.jp/english/site_android.html (For Android)
Hope you find this useful for your Japan trip.
If you have any questions about getting data access in Japan, let me know, I will try my best to help.