Best Japanese carrier to rent SIM or mobile hotspot while traveling in Japan

[jbarsoum]

All your advice welcome... I'm taking my GNex to Japan for a few weeks.

What carrier would you suggest I rent my SIM from while I'm there? (I'll mostly be around Tokyo and Kyoto).

Or am I better off renting a mobile WiFi hotspot? (I'm not sure how much voice calling I will be doing, since I don't speak Japanese, and I could use Skype for that anyway. We'll probably have the Kindles and Transformer we'd want to tether while we're there anyway)

and.. last question... I've seen warnings that renting from the airport arrivals counter is a rip-off, it's best to arrange ahead of time.

Advice, anyone?

(PS: Any unique gadgets I should be on the lookout for while I'm there? )

[RichardInSF]

Mobile in Japan is expensive. If you want data access, take a look at b-mobile, which appears to be about the easiest to get and use and is price-competitive (for Japan): http://www.bmobile.ne.jp/english/3g.html

I haven't heard that the airport SIM rental card agencies are any more of a ripoff than anywhere else in Japan, btw.

[jbarsoum]

Thanks for the feedback. I think I've settled on one of two options:

http://www.econnectjapan.com/products-page.html
http://www.globaladvancedcomm.com/faq.html

The econnect product is neat -- a disposable 1GB data SIM card, for just over 4000 yen. That's a lot cheaper than most plans you get at the airport.

Other option (globaladvanced) is not bad, gives you tethering and unlimited data for a set rate per day, also the option to call with voice.

Cheers