I was speaking with a friend today who was thinking of buying an iPhone from Singapore and purchasing just the SIM card with dataplan from Softbank here in Japan. It makes sense because the Japanese iPhone can only be used in Japan while the Singapore iPhone can be used all over the world just by purchasing a SIM card. I thought it was a good idea until we spoke to a new friend who is doing just that. Since the SIM card size is different, she even bought a SIM card cutter to get it to the size for her iPhone.
She realised that somehow, the SIM card doesn’t charge as if it’s a Japanese phone and when she went online, she was charged roaming fees. She ended up paying over ¥30,000 for her phone charges. So if you intend to do the Singapore iPhone Japanese SIM card thing, don’t. Unless you do not intend to use the data.
hi gaijinhan
do you mind sharing your experience in learning japanese and the process of getting jlpt1? I have thought of going to yamasa in japan to learn japanese for a year or two and then going for jlpt1, but for financial reasons, I can’t do so. So I am thinking of joining a language school in singapore, but I think it takes longer to master japanese and obtain jlpt1, although its cheaper. Do you think its wise to learn the beginner and intermediate stages and obtain jlpt3 here in singapore, and in the process save up and then go on to japan to learn advance japanese for jlpt1? do you have any experience with the language schools in singapore, such as bunka, ikoma and hougang? How long did you study in yamasa and what was the total costs?
if you don’t mind, pls reply to my email. Thanks.
Hi Chu (that’s an alcoholic drink here in Japan!),
I’d be glad to share more with you but as I’ve been really busy recently and I don’t want to give you a sloppy reply, so I hope you’d wait a couple more days when I can sit down and write you a proper mail.
hey thanks for replying! pls take your time, as long as you please, cos I’d like to hear how you did it and your experience in getting jlpt1 rather than a quick reply.
Great to know that there’s an alcoholic drink in Japan named after me! haha. I hope it tastes nice.
Ahh, thanks for the information, I was just thinking of doing that, this information comes in handy. Thanks!
By the way, I saw that you changed your blog header to “A former Singaporean ALT in Japan”. Does that mean that you are no longer teaching in Japan now? If so, how come? Sorry if I asked too much, but it is kinda sudden though.
Yea, I’m no longer teaching.
I understand it seems kinda sudden since I have been keeping hush about the whole thing but I guess I’ll talk more about it in time to come.
i guess u are using the iphone as a full fledged phone?
else what we do is use a Jp keitai (for mails and calls) + SG iphone (with b-microSIM (データ通信専用). The unlocked SG iphone is good when back to SG can just plug back the SG sim card.
Nope, it isn’t me.
It’s someone I just met recently. She had thought that the Softbank plan could be used on her SG iPhone but doesn’t seem to work that way.