Prepaid Phone

Firstly, I am completely BUGGERED.

I left again for Roppongi with time to spare, and found myself running late. Why? Because I was overconfident, and got on the wrong train. LOL oh noes.

I was late for church but at least I went. The church service here is probably the largest congregation of Filipinos I have ever seen. Filipino English ftw. I reckon they could do a better job than the priest himself. He speaks with a monotonous voice, and it’s really hard to understand him sometimes as he mumbles. Really annoying. Anyway, after leaving the church I noticed some of the stores in the area were run by Filos as well! Note the Filo pride (aka the flag) in the photo below.

Afterwards I went for a walk around Roppongi; I started at Softbank (a mobile phone carrier over here) and spoke to a salesperson about getting a prepaid phone. So far, I’ve done some research on gaijin (foreigners – you probably already know this from Tokyo drift) getting prepaid phones – apparently, according to many many foreigners (none of whom speak Japanese) it is impossible because of a variety of reasons. I expected the worst, however the saleslady told me that it would be easy for me and they could do it with just a passport (as opposed to what it says on forums, i.e. you need an Alien Registration Card, etc). However, as they didn’t have the prepaid phones in stock, I was asked to go to Don Quixote down the road to check out their mobile phone section.

Don’t need to ask me twice; I LOVE DON QUIXOTE!! 😀

So I went over to Don Quixote; I wanted to take some photos but realized that I’d left the SD card at home. So I figured I’d buy a second one at Don Quixote, I needed one for my Electronic Dictionary anyway. I went in and spoke to a salesperson in the mobile phones section; he said it would be fine and asked me to fill in a form whilst he made a copy of my passport. Then he asked me to come back in half an hour whilst the information was sent to Softbank Head Office.

No biggie. I just went to McDonalds for dinner. Yes I am aware that I traveled to another country and eating McDonalds is a waste. Just that everything else in the vicinity was uber expensive. Went for a walk around… I saw a Hard Rock Cafe which I didn’t really expect. It was coupled with a merchandise store.. O.O” oh and a Tony Roma!

Came back to Don Quixote and asked about how the application went. This other salesman (aka not the one I dealt with earlier) said it was all good to go, and was going to charge me even, when the other guy shows up.

Salesperson: I’m sorry, your application has actually been declined.
Rik: Excuse me?
Salesperson: It has come to our attention that you are only 19 and thus underage. We would need your parents to come in and apply on your behalf…
Rik: Er, just in case you didn’t notice, I’m not from here. My parents are in Australia.
Salesperson: Hmm, well, let’s just say if someone over 20 were to appear, there’s nothing stopping you from getting them to apply for you.
Rik: Very subtle. Thanks for that (!)

Waste of bloody time. I bought the SD card then left the store. As you probably know, Rik doesn’t give up without a fight. I called my sister back in Aus and got her to send my friend’s number to my phone. And so that’s how I called Jae Eun…

I found out from Jae Eun that she lives in an area called Tsukishima, coincidentally the same place Alice (aka Kumiko) is from in Tokyo. I jumped onto a train and went to meet with Jae Eun at Jonathan’s (a family restaurant) in Tsukishima. I got there and she was sitting in the non-smoking section, so I asked her to come to the smoking section. We caught up – just like old times, back at UNSW, laughing alot and talking in an American accent to match hers… I had a mango parfait; at the time I was excited to see Jae Eun so I forgot to take a photo. They made it with real mangoes – over here, if you want mango, you can get it anytime of the year. <3

I asked her to apply for the prepaid phone and she said yes 🙂 <3 Nuna, gamsa haeyo!

So we checked the time for the shuuden (last train) so that we wouldn’t miss it, then went back to Roppongi and to Don Quixote. This time around, once again, no problems. Softbank offices were closed, so they were willing to take a copy of Jae Eun’s Alien Registration card and then let me take the phone home, and complete the application tomorrow. Just as I was about to buy the phone…

Salesperson: This is a good model, isn’t it. You wanted it in black, right?
Rik: Yep.
Salesperson: Okay, not a problem. The phone is currently Â¥3880 (NB: AU$38.80 – unbelievable price for a phone we’d pay at least $200 for…)
Rik: Yeah thats also okay (haha more than okay ;))
Salesperson: And you’re aware that both the phone and the contract mean that you can’t send “meeru” (kinda like SMS in Aus, but e-mail based. $3 a month gets you unlimited usage)
Rik: Excuse me???
Salesperson: Yeah, I probably should have mentioned that earlier. I’m really sorry…
Rik: You bloody think so???

So there you have it, I dragged Jae Eun out for nothing 🙁 Nuna, mian haesseoyo!!

We just sat around and talked for a little bit, and then we went home. I just made the last train and passed by the supermarket on the way home; bought a 1L carton of lemon tea, and some gyoza. Really really tired. Need sleep… Note to self – when using the Oedo line, at any station, the escalators go on forever and become tiring. Same goes for the 50 thousand elevators you need to get onto to get up to ground level from Roppongi Station. Completely unbelievable. If I walked up the actual stairs from Roppongi Station until Roppongi Crossing, I’d be like 300% skinnier in 2 weeks even. The view in the photo below is from the middle of the escalator, as I had to rush to get out my camera. Stairway to heaven, anyone? 😉

PS. Akiko Wada is bloody scary. If you can find her, yes her on Youtube check her out.