Now, you may have already begun considering this question on your own. For me, it was one of the first things I started wondering about when I seriously began planning my semester abroad about this time last year. And that question is simple to ask, but a little bit complicated to answer:
How are you going to stay connected to the internet while you're in Japan?
Now, I get that to some, this may seem like an overblown question. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. are all hardly what one would truly consider necessities, and I would agree with that. I'm not out to offend any older generations with my attachment to the web and/or social media (though I do have lots of friends on some of those sites whom I do genuinely hope to be able to stay in touch with).
But internet access means so much more than being able to access these sites. It also means having a GPS in your pocket everywhere you go, which can help keep you from getting hopelessly lost in a foreign country. It means having an app that alerts you when your train is pulling into the station at a given platform, so you don't end up getting on the wrong train (and thereby ending up hopelessly lost in a foreign country). It means being able to stay in touch with your friends and family back home, as well as being able to reach emergency services if something goes wrong (in Japan, 119 for fire/ambulance, and 110 for the police). It means having live weather-monitoring services, earthquake early-warning systems, and what basically amounts to a pocket translator (Google Translate, while not always 100% accurate, is still your best friend, especially if you can read/type kana).
Essentially, for the student traveling abroad, internet access is, indeed, absolutely essential.
"I have a smartphone," you say. "I'll be good to go. I'll just be careful with the amount of data I use; my talk and text are unlimited." Unfortunately, most unlimited talk and texts plans only cover North America. Verizon Wireless, for example, will charge you $15 a day to use your plan as normal while in any other region of the world. If you're going to be abroad for, say, around 140 days, that means you'll be spending $2100 on just having your normal cell plan available to you (and that's besides whatever your plan normally costs).
This, obviously, is not an option.
You could, theoretically, just buy an entirely new cell phone abroad, but I didn't end up going that route (buying a new phone sounds a bit more expensive than I want to deal with). Similarly, most smartphones sold in the US are bound to a certain company (unless you specifically buy it "unlocked"), so you can't just get a new SIM card while abroad and trade it out for your old one. (Plus, then you have to worry about losing your tiny home SIM card while you're outside of the country, and with it, your mobile phone number.) Also important to note is that just as you have to pay extra money to call foreign numbers from a North American mobile number, you'd have to pay extra to call friends and family back home from your new Japanese number.
"Well, I'll just use public WiFi," you argue. But, as I believe I've mentioned once or twice in earlier posts, WiFi is not nearly as ubiquitous in Japan as it is in America. In fact, one of the things Kansai Gaidai made clear to students applying for a homestay is that homestay families are not required to have WiFi (or even Internet access) available at all to their homestay students. While most hotels and many tourist attractions have WiFi (and usually whichever school you're attending will too), it's certainly not able to be found everywhere. And besides that, how are you going to use Apple Maps (or Google Maps, whichever it may be that you prefer) if you're stuck hopping from hotspot to hotspot everywhere you go, entirely at the mercy of the shops and businesses around you and their willingness to offer free WiFi?
The answer, basically, is that you're not. You can't.
Unless you can take the WiFi with you everywhere you go.
Enter the genius invention that is pocket WiFi. You are given a little hotspot, basically a mobile WiFi router, that fits in your pocket. (The name is fairly self-explanatory.) The router is connected to one of Japan's cellular networks (which are, thankfully, pretty much omnipresent at this point, at least in the populated areas). As long as you're somewhere with a cell signal, and you have this little doohickey in your pocket, the internet is at your fingertips, like always.
(To make sure your phone company doesn't hit you with extra fees back home, make sure to let them know you're studying abroad soon. Verizon told me to just use my phone only in airplane/WiFi-only mode, and that doing so should prevent me from stacking up any extra charges beyond my normal cell plan. And since it's still technically connected, and able to access Japanese cellular networks (even if for an extra cost), I'll be able to use it as normal in case of emergency.)
Something important to note about pocket WiFi is that it's not unlimited (so far as I know). I'm signed up for 30GB of data a month (which is considered a medium-sized plan at the company I'm going with). I'll have WiFi access for free whenever I'm at school, and I have all of my fingers crossed that I'll have internet access at my homestay too (though it's certainly not a dealbreaker if they don't, by any means; I know what I'm possibly signing up for). So, when I'm out and about, I'll have around a gigabyte of data available to me every day. Considering I'm probably going to be using the GPS built into my phone a lot, that's probably a good thing. If I end up needing more or less, I will definitely let you guys know, so you have a better idea of what to expect you'll need.
The 30GB data plan I'm going to be working with is going to cost me around $50 a month, but that's very little compared to the $2100 we were talking about just to have my normal 1GB a month I get through my cell plan. So, assuming it works well, the connectivity is strong, and the battery life of the hotspot is decent, I should be good to go.
And again, I'm not being paid to endorse any particular company, but I'll tell you that I'm getting pocket WiFi through Sakura Mobile, since they offer special plans for travelers planning to use the pocket WiFi for more than 90 days (and because their name is, objectively speaking, really, really cool). Sakura Mobile can deliver the hotspot to an address/hotel, or allow you to pick it up at the airport. And if you don't want to use your credit card to pay, you can also pay with cash at several different convenience stores, such as Lawson's and FamilyMart.
But, interestingly enough, not 7-Eleven. 7-Eleven, apparently, is not the answer to every question the Japan-bound student may have.
TL;DR: If you want to maintain internet access while studying in Japan, looking into pocket WiFi is probably the most cost-efficient and user-friendly way to go.
And this information is important enough that it bears being included again in the summary: In Japan, you can reach emergency services at 119 for fire and ambulance, and 110 for police.
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