I have a cell phone now.

[snarp]

It has a camera. This is new stuff for me.

It doesn’t have a charger. Or, it has a charger base, but no cable for it. This appears to be standard procedure. I think I’ve actually seen the cables at the 100-yen store, but I’m too hot and grumpy to go get one tonight.

Talking to myself below cut:

I went with KDDI au - the phone’s the Toshiba A5529T, and was 13000 yen. It feels a little rickety, but given that I kept the ugly $30 phone alive for three years, so I can probably manage this one.

(Myuu-san came along to babysit me through the process. The first phone the clerk showed me was pink - Myuu-san, her brow furrowed, interrupted her sharply, “Doesn’t it come in any other colors?” It came in silver and black. Myuu-san said firmly, “The black one.” Evidently this is how people perceive me. I am the sort of person who wants the black cell phone. Not the pink one.)

I hadn’t actually looked at au’s website very hard before - it was insanely hot and I didn’t want to keep Myuu-san too long, so I just said “fine” when they told me the phone was priced something reasonable. I knew their calling prices were pretty close to Softbank’s, but I hadn’t looked at the detailed stuff. Per-minute, it’s slightly more expensive - 100 yen versus 90 - but unlike Softbank, I could keep the same number and phone if I switched to normal monthly service.

They don’t let you top up the phone and check your balance over their website, but it seems pretty easy to do manually (though I cannot swear that it isn’t something I’d mess up when exhausted in an airport). It amuses me how carefully the actor doing the computer voice talks. They’re aware of how many foreigners use this service.

(Originally published at SarahPin.com. You can comment here or there.)