I just came back from a 2-week stay in Japan. It was my first notebook-less trip, experimenting to see if I could travel lighter with only my Samsung Omnia II (similar to iPhone). Prior to my trip, I purchased an AirPort Express and configured it (with the help of an Apple Tech) in the Bridge mode with WPA security. In my Tokyo hotel room with free LAN connection, AirPort Express connected without a hitch and my Omnia II immediately found the wifi. I opened a browser and the hotel’s page came up, allowing me to “enter” the internet connection. This Sheraton Miyako Hotel Tokyo had an Ethernet cable in the desk drawer but, to be safe, I carry a self-winding travel wire. It was much cheaper to make phone calls with Skype Mobile this way ($0.02 per min) than the hotel phone or a rented mobile phone that I carried for emergency ($2.50 per day plus $0.85 per min; incoming calls are free). And it was faster than the Japanese mobile internet connection (I purchased the Verizon Global Data Package but I couldn’t get the 3G connection in Japan, only 1G).

By the way, I bought a SkyLink in Tokyo for $35 which is also a portable wifi converter. It’s smaller and lighter and worked fine unsecured, but it seems to need a computer in Japan to configure the WPA security. So far, it does not work in the U.S.; thus I cannot to set up the security.