Apps and services that will improve your Tokyo stay
We’re putting together a list for our new Tokyo office Swedish Oceanite Per on useful apps and mobile services to navigate Tokyo, and we’re sharing it here for anybody who is planning to visit Tokyo.
For this to work you’ll need your mobile data switched on. Data roaming through the operator is still ridiculously expensive and charges so haphazard, so don’t switch that on! Instead, rent a POCKET WIFI at Narita Airport, it will share wifi with your smartphone, tablet or laptop. The cheapest one is 6,700 JPY for a week (8,800 JPY for 2 weeks) and can be used for up to 5 devices at a time. Read more
Once you have your wifi up and running you can use GOOGLE MAPS to find your way. (please note though, that Japanese addresses written with the alfabet don’t always work. Still, it is helpful to have a map)
HYPERDIA will let you plan your travel from station to station throughout Japan (in English). This excellent service even includes travel by flight. All trips are specified with time and price. Hyperdia offer apps, but these have a monthly fee, while the web service is for free.
To find all the art and museums TOKYO ART BEAT has an app with the same nameboth for iPhone and Android. To get a better overview what’s going on right now they also have a coupon app, MUPON for current exhibitions. This is only available for iPhone.
Then Tokyo may also offer the occasional earthquake. YUREKURU is an app for iPhone and Android that will warn you up to 30 secs in advance and tell you the strenght and position of the earthquake. The Japanese iPhones have a similar feature, but the alarm it sets off will scare you more than the actual earthquake.
For things to do and eat we have our own Google map - TOKYO ACCORDING TO OCEAN with our favorites, that is updated whenever we find new spots worth mentioning. Please visit it here
Enjoy!
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A few days ago we had a late shinnenkai to celebrate the new year with our oldest and dearest friends, clients and co-workers in Japan, the good people that was there when it all started and that helped us to successfully launch our Japanese business and office.
And since it was a shinnenkai we really took the opportunity to let our hair down and not worry about the boss/employee formal relationship or the rank and age divisions and just had a great time…
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Finally it works!
The Japanese version of iPhone’s iOS5 has a built in alert system for earthquakes. Today at lunch, the first iPhone earthquake alert appeared. Suddenly all phones in the restaurant started to alert. Including the iPhones.
The earthquake was not that big and had it’s epicenter in Fukushima. In Tokyo we hardly felt it. The 1st of January there was a bigger earthquake but the iPhone didn’t give the alert.
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