{Shikoku Hachijūhachikasho Meguri}
--WALKING--
--TELEPHONE & INTERNET CONNECTIVITY--
--WALKING--
--TELEPHONE & INTERNET CONNECTIVITY--
When it comes to connectivity from the henro trail to the outside world, i have to tell you that there is both good news and bad news. The bad news first.
The Bad News
If you are not bringing your own computer or PDA, public internet connectivity is almost non-existent on Shikoku. At least one henro has reported that there are some internet cafes, but they are few in number, and those that do exist will be found in the heart of the bigger cities — not on the henro trail. Luree Schneider (Known Henro) says that there are "International Centers" in the major cities and that these will have both public access to the internet and newspapers in English so you can catch up on the news. Anthony Kimple (Known Henro) says that some bookstores and gaming arcades have internet access for ¥400 to ¥700 per hour. But, basically, while you are on the trail forget about public access to the internet and email. Sorry.
The Neutral News
As you would expect, though, if all you want is some way to talk to family and friends in the outside world, telephones are everywhere on the island. It doesn't matter where you go, or how rural the area is, you will be able to find a telephone. You can find pay phones in restaurants, coffee shops, gas stations, bus & train stations, post offices, phone booths along the road, and many more places. Many minshuku, ryokan, and hotels will also have a fax machine so you can send and receive faxes (for a fee) from these places as well.
Telephones accept both coins and pre-paid phone cards. If you opt for coins, there is a good chance that you are going to find yourself getting cut off quite often unless you carry a lot of change and can feed the phone as fast as it uses them. This is avoided by carrying the phone card. These can be purchased in some vending machines and at kiosks at train stations, but the most convenient place to buy them is at one of the several million convenience stores located around the island. Telephone cards are business-card-sized thin, bendable, plastic, pre-paid cards and come with fixed amounts on them (e.g., ¥500 or ¥1,000). The most common telephone card is sold for ¥1,000.
When you insert a phone card in the slot of a telephone, the phone will display how much money is left on the card. You can also get a good idea of how much is left by looking at the back of the card. A time scale is printed along the bottom of the back side of the card and just before it is ejected after each phone call, the telephone will punch a small hole along the line of numbers to indicate approximately how much money is left. If your card runs out of money before you complete your call, it will be ejected and you have only a few seconds to insert a new one before your call is disconneted. When the the card is ejected at the end of your call, the phone will beep to remind you to take it with you. The cards are not reusable so when one is used up, just throw it away.
Telephones in Japan are color coded so that even the Japanese can figure out which one to use. There are about four different colors of phone, depending on their use, but the most common phone is green and these are the ones that are found everywhere. As i said above, you'll find them in stores, restaurants, bus and train stations, on the street in front of all of these, and in phone booths along the side of the road.
All green phones accept coins, but not all of them accept a phone card (although most do). When using coins, you use either ¥10 or ¥100 coins. A ¥10 coin will last about one minute (depending on how far your are calling) and just seconds before it runs out you will hear a beep. If you get another coin in the slot within seconds, you stay connected; if you don't you get cut off. You can feed up to six ¥10 coins into the phone at one time. If you pre-feed several ¥10 coins at the start of your call, but don't use them all, they will be returned at the end of your call. A ¥100 coin will last about 10 minutes (again, depending on how far you are calling), but if you don't use it all during your call, change will not be returned.
Green phones are mainly used for calls to other desinations inside Japan and not all of them can be used to make international calls — in fact, most can not be. If they can be, this will be indicated on a gold plaque somewhere on the face of the phone. Green phones can not be used to connect to the internet.
Gray phones, like the green variety, can be used to make local calls, but all gray phones can also be used to make international calls. In addition, these are the phones you need to look for when trying to connect to the internet. Only gray phones have a data port that allows you to plug your laptop or PDA in and make the connection. Gray phones are much rarer than their green brethren, but they are far from uncommon. While they are hard to find (if not impossible) in the very, very rural areas, they are found in most cities and towns of any size, and in phone booths along the highways in between. In the cities, look near the train & bus stations, near the post office, and near the city or town hall. Or, just keep walking; sooner or later you'll come across one. It was my understanding that there are so many of them because salesmen use them to stay in touch with the office all the time.
Gray phones also accept either coins or telephone cards. When connecting to the internet, i recommend the cards because you are going to be occupied with your computer or PDA and don't want to worry about feeding coins while trying to stay connected. If you look at the picture of the gray phone, the slot on the very bottom right is the coin return slot. Above that, on the bottom right of the slanted face section of the phone, and just below the number keys, is another slot. That is the data port into which you plug your modem cable. Also notice the LCD screen at the top left of the face of the phone. This offers a menu of options and you will need to select one of these options when you want to make your connection. For how to make a connection, see below.
Two phone numbers to keep in mind: 110 is for police emergencies and 119 is for medical and fire emergencies. While i'm not positive, i think that 120 is the prefix for frre numbers, like 800 in the US.
The Good News
The good news is that, given everything i've said above about public access to the internet being non-existent, in fact, the internet is very accessable and very affordable — if you are willing to bring your own laptop or PDA. GOL (www.gol.com), an internet service provider in Japan, has connection numbers all across the country. There don't seem to be any access numbers on Shikoku, but there are in cities very close. They offer an account that they call 'GOL SuperLight' and this gives you connectivity for up to 5 hours a month for only ¥500 (¥525 with tax. There is a ¥2,100 set-up fee if you sign up via mail or fax, but this waived if you sign up online. You have to pay by credit card.) If you connected every day, this would give you 10 minutes of connectivity each day, and that should be plenty of time if you use the service wisely, but there will be days where you can't find anywhere to connect, so that gives you more minutes per day on average.
I subscribed to this service through their web page on the internet before leaving for Japan (and cancelled it over the internet after returning home) and they charged my credit card directly so i didn't have to worry about how to pay the monthly fee while on the trail. During my walk, i uploaded my journal to this web site most nights of the week. While i had to call Honshū to connect, there were dialup numbers in several cities along the Inland Sea between Okayama and Hiroshima and this kept the phone charges to a minimum.
As i have said above, you connect by plugging into data ports found in gray public telephones in phone booths along the side of the road and at many other locations. I was able to find a phone to connect most nights, and probably uploaded new diary entries to this web page four of the seven nights each week. You'll want a phone card to pay the phone charges, but you can buy phone cards at all the convenience stores.
How to actually connect to the internet
Follow the setup instructions on the GOL web site to set up your computer with the dialup numbers before leaving from home. Once on Shikoku, when you are ready to connect, find a phone booth with a gray telephone in it. Then follow these simple steps:
For those of you that only use web mail from services like Yahoo!, Google, or Hotmail, this is a different story. You have to stay connected to read your mail. If you are willing to pay the extra money after going over your 300 minutes each month, just do email as you normally would at home. If you want to read mail as often as possible and yet not go over your 300 minute monthly allotment, here is my recommendation.
Obviously, i think it is much simpler and less time consuming to use Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, or some other email client while on the road. But, this assumes you have an email address that can be downloaded to an email client. If not, you can probably buy one from GOL or your normal ISP for the few months you are on the trail.