Two things I learned in Japan today
 

Today was my first time buying a ticket at a JR station. In the past, I've always used a JR Rail pass. The JR station at KIX doesn't accept mobile payment like Apple Pay. They do accept credit cards, but I had to use a physical card.

I can't remember what my experience using my cellphone in the Shinkansen was like in the past, but wow, the connection isn't very good. It's a bit slow and spotty. I'm taking the Nozomi Shinkansen to Tokyo at the moment and the guy next to see is watching YouTube on his 16" MacBook Pro. It's constantly buffering and stuttering. I expected better from a country like Japan.

High speed on the ground is hard.

Oh, really? Why is that? I'm still on the train and not in Tokyo yet. I've been having connection issues the entire time. We just stopped at Shin-Yokohama. Hopefully, the remaining part of the journey will be better?

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I've only had some issues if its going thru tunnel.

If it's open air, no connection or speed issues loading pages (didn't really stream YouTube)

​​​​​​Softbank was better i believe, on my last trip. Which iphone phone do you have

I've found the free WiFi on the Shinkansen to be pretty lame. Drops often, slow, balky. I guess you get what you pay for.

I’m roaming through T-Mobile.

Your roaming T-mobile connection is throttled. I have Tmobile myself but always rent a mobile wifi device whenever I go to Japan. The connection from the mobile wifi is usually fast and dependable.

Really? That's news to me.

I think even JR taking credit card is only a recent phenomenon (last 5-10 year). It was only cash before that. Not sure about Apple Pay, but you cannot use your usual visa or Mastercard paywave (or any other ‘foreign’ contactless payment methods) in Japan also. They use a different frequency which only works with Japan issued credit cards.

Not that I have a Japanese-issued card, but the lady said they only accept physical credit cards. I saw no indication that they would take mobile payment.

this is the sign which show they accept contactless CC payment. Nothing like paywave lol …

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...82b7b37d33.png
Japan CC contactless payment sign

😆🤣

I think T-mobile roaming came with the usual fair usage cap where the speed got reduced to 2G+ after 1GB or even 500MB per day. Local mobile wifi has no such cap.

Never heard of it. T-Mobile was advertising how I get 5GB for international roaming through my plan.

You expected Japan to be a country that isn’t Japan.