<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by anthonyanthony:
I've been using Cognicall (www.cognicall.com) to make calls from Japan at 39 cents per minutes. It even works from Japan payphones without inserting coins. Cognicall works from most all other Asian countries too. Cognicall does their billing online, charging to a credit card, so if you need paper bills in the postal mail, you'll have to pay extra.
It's been a while since I surveyed calling card rates so I don't know if Cognicall is still the among the best rates...
The cell phone idea sounds good if you're going to be in Japan a while. There's a cell phone rental shop right in the NRT airport mall. Don't know if you'd save alot of money going elsewhere...
[This message has been edited by anthonyanthony (edited 07-28-2003).]</font>
IDT is 20 cents a minute but is by no means perfect (yes it works in Japan but it's international network of numbers is poor). Genrally, if I can call home for less than 50 cents a minute from far off places, I'm happy.
Edited to add: Cellphone rental can be expensive (I paid £5 per day plus calls) but I go cold turkey if I don't have a phone these days. If going to Japan often, or for prolonged periods, getting a local to set you up with a local contract phone is very cost effective (and you'll get a phone that makes your US/european model look like something from the Stone age).
[This message has been edited by Internaut (edited 07-29-2003).]