Originally Posted by
freecia
To derail this thread a little further - is that the sim available at the Softbank rental airport locations? I e-mailed them for Haneda's Simple Style device price list and they had the Blade Q android. Rather more than I need or want to spend. I think you mentioned sometime back that the Prepaid Sim had a fixed expiry date while sim in prepaid handsets could extend expiry date with recharge?
To bring it back and tie it into data connectivity - the iPhone needs a mobile/data connection to add money to Suica via app/Apple Pay but can be used in airplane mode going through ticket gates as long as there is enough stored credit. So repeat visitors could use the Wallet Suica stored value without a data connection (in case they want to pick up a sim in town vs airport)... Just like a regular IC card.
Yep, that's the one, and the main problem with that is that the price including the Blade Q+ is tough to swallow if you already have a phone. The plus side is that if you wanted, you could sell off the Blade Q+ at certain shops that don't ask too many questions (or rather, will accept your foreign passport as ID for sale as opposed to requiring a Japan-issued ID), and stick the SIM in any phone that supports a MicroSIM (they won't give you a NanoSIM on that one, though, you'll have to cut it yourself).
And on the second topic, sometimes I've had all the cards in my wallet "freeze up" until the iPhone is done updating the cards, whatever that means.
Originally Posted by
bocastephen
Am a little confused by this since I am able to use any of my registered US credit or debit cards to recharge my SUICA account on my iPhone via ApplePay, and then use the balance at any SUICA terminal.
Are you trying to do something different?
You can do that. What you can't do is directly set your US credit or debit cards to work directly for tap payments in Japan, and thus the tangent about getting a Japan-issued prepaid Visa/JCB card to work in that scenario. Of course, when you come right down to it, there's not a whole lot of reason to get a Japanese card for this purpose, since Suica works most places. But, if we're going to talk about Apple Pay, the conversation was bound to go in that direction sooner or later.