Before traveling to Japan, you may consider researching a bit about WiFi rentals. You can rent a pocket wifi at a Japanese travel agency for 25 USD/day. You can also rent it at NRT airport, at a very comparable price I assume. These can be great options, but very expensive ones. However, having a pocket WiFi will eliminate a lot of obstacles that you may encounter while traveling.

One way to get a hold of a pocket WiFi in Japan for a very affordable price or even for free is through AirBnB. If you decide to opt out on hotels, try AirBnB. You’ll be able to find affordable rooms for rent at convenient locations. Best of all, most hosts will lend you a pocket WiFi at no additional charge. Our second time traveling to Japan, we only booked AirBnB rooms and all of the hosts lent us a pocket WiFi for free. Furthermore, all of the hosts were responsive to our needs and very kind. You can message the host before booking to make sure they have pocket WiFi available for you.

We booked hotels for our first trip to Japan and booked AirBnB rooms our second trip. AirBnB was far less expensive and very comfortable (although most hosts only offer light mattress on the floor). We recommend AirBnB option for travelers who do not mind sleeping on a thin mattress.

Another  way to get internet on your phone is through carrier T-mobile. If your phone carrier is T-mobile, then that means you’ll have LTE internet speed in Japan. T-mobile has contracts with carriers abroad and so once you land in a country that is on their list, your carrier will be automatically switched to their partner carrier in the country. You’ll have not very slow data connection that you will be able to use for navigation. Texting anyone from the states will be under your unlimited texting plan. However, calling will be $0.20/min.