NAVITIME for Japan TravelFree: All time

Those who have been in Tokyo before know that it’s awfully difficult to locate free Wi-Fi in town. It doesn’t quite make sense, considering that Tokyo is one of the most technology-advanced cities in the world. However, in any case, the Japanese seem to have realized that this problem has indeed posed great inconveniences for tourists. On February of 2014, NAVITIME, together with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone East Corporation (NTT East), has released a free app called NAVITIME for Japan Travel. The app allows user to do an offline search of free Wi-Fi spots in the order of proximity to the user’s current location. An augmented reality mode function will show the distance and direction on screen. To top it off, NTT East also provides the Japan Travel app user the ability to obtain an ID and password to use NTT East’s free Wi-FI service for two weeks with no charge! Users must obtain their ID and password via the app while still overseas, before arriving in Japan (confirmed by GPS) and must be short-stay visitors. If you fail to do this before your arrival, you can still download the app to locate places in Japan that you can visit to receive your two-week ID/PASS card in person. A foreign passport proving that you entered Japan within 90 days will be required. Besides the Wi-Fi Locator function, the app also has other features: train map and transit search, map with GPS, database of 4 million points of interest, and must-see spots around Tokyo.

Website: www.navitime.co.jp/pcstorage/html/japan_travel/english/

Photo credit: NAVITIME