Where to buy a phone in Akihabara, wherever w/no 2 yr contra

[wangta]

t?

Just a few days ago my cellphone's contract finished, it was not a Japanese contract and not a Japanese model.

Of course the weirdos I work for and with have been pressuring me to get one of those 'normal' 2 yr contracts with a J phone company, of course fuck the fact that my job contract ends next yr sooner rather than later and I can't predict whether I'll still be in Japan given the stinking pile of gomi that passes for eikaiwa here.

My thinking at present is why put myself through this shit again for diminishing returns - healthcare and pensions that take a big bit out of an eikaiwa salary, possibility of getting treated as PR for tax purposes but no accompanying legal PR benefits that come with that status in my home country for others including Japanese. But I do want a new phone without going through the 2 yr ripoff.

I want to buy a phone that I have to pay totally upfront for so I can go out of Japan if I have to and still be able to use it. Japan is notorious for its jama mentality - can't use products made here abroad mostly, can't use foreign products here. I could only use my foreign cellphone because I bought a special one outside Japan.

Can anybody tell me where I can buy a prepaid phone in Tokyo (seems like Akihabara is the right place) which can be used for international roaming as well? Thanks.

[Coligny]

Buy a second hand phone at goodwill or hardoff and get a sim sumwhere...

Btw, don't blame too much corporate stupidity when it' just lining up with their moronic customers...

In Verdun, you'd cross the border to buy a pack of smoke, have a night out or pick your choice of car litter...

Japanese travel only, either in cocoon packs or to blow Pearl Harbour... Those that work in foreign facilities of japanese companies are provided with their own space suits...

[Samurai_Jerk]

So you've been paying international roaming charges on an eikaiwa teacher salary!?

[wangta]

Yep, it was cheaper than using a Japanese phone but that wouldn't be hard. No matter how much the market has changed over the past decade or so, there are countless phone companies around the world that do phones and international roaming cheaper than Japan does most phone calls.

I also don't have the obsession of some gaijins with drinking lots of alcohol on the weekend and wasting money on new toys, conbini food or whatever else some gaijins waste their money on. I'm good at handling money as I had to do part time jobs for my spending money from early teenage yrs, never had money as a gift from parents, never had a loan from them, never had student financial support from the govt - tho if I had been a uni student later I would have qualified under the different govt rules that came about.

But that doesn't mean an eikaiwa salary with health and nenkin taken out and no tax deductions for work related expenses is anything like a decent deal these days. It just means I can manage my salary but when the job sucks, my usual philosophy of work satisfaction over money goes out the window. It's not worth it in the gomiland of eikaiwa these days.