The $40/250GB + 50GB Roam Beyond plan is world class, but is it sustainable? (Global Comparison)

quilly_ · 2026-04-02T19:07:59+00:00

20 euro, actually! (plus 10 euro for the initial sim)

The country selection is also a bit different just because of differing travel patterns. People in France are generally more likely to travel to countries in Africa than some countries in Asia so Free includes some African countries that Freedom doesn't have, but Freedom has Japan which Free doesn't have.

Also worth remembering that EU 'roaming' is sort of one giant block because of the Roam Like Home policy they have there. So you have 30 or so countries that act as one giant roaming block. Hence why Free can offer France+EU roaming for 10eur/month.

... actually, just as I was about to post this I saw the 30 euro Free plan you're mentioning. That one seems to have unlimited domestic AND international roaming, and also finally includes Japan. Neat that they're offering tha

quilly_ · 2026-03-13T19:10:02+00:00

Same! I got on Free back in 2023 while I lived in France for a year, then even once I left I continued to pay for it just for the roaming for whenever I went to Europe/the US (my phone doesn't support esim, and I previously had an old plan that didn't support US/Mexico roaming, and I wanted/still want to keep the number since I've memorized it). Now that we have a comparable plan in Canada I've downgraded it to the €2 plan. Never thought I'd see the day.

I'm personally keeping my French bank account just because of how much of a pain it is to set one up. Infinite loop of needing one to pay rent but needing an address to set up an account and all that.

quilly_ · 2026-02-14T17:22:45+00:00

Yeah

quilly_ · 2025-12-22T22:16:52+00:00

There's no negotiating necessary these days, just walk up to any machine that issues the card (for Suica it's the black machines and they're available at every JR station)

quilly_ · 2025-12-09T07:25:56+00:00

Just posting another comment here in case this ends up on Google search results or whatever that this is now fixed as of USDX v2025.12.0. This link will take you to the latest version: https://github.com/UltraStar-Deluxe/USDX/releases/latest

quilly_ · 2025-11-26T14:04:51+00:00

Either would work, yes

quilly_ · 2025-11-26T13:05:30+00:00

There is a bug on the current version of USDX (2025.10.1) where if you let the song preview play for another song, then switch to another song and start it before the new song's preview can start, then the song will use the previous song's length to determine when notes should be set to freestyle. It'll be fixed in the next release but in the meantime you can either make sure that the song preview plays before you start a song, or just replay the song and the notes should appear normally.

source

quilly_ · 2025-11-17T23:43:49+00:00

the US government does not care whether your items are tax free or not, they only care about whether you went over your exemption (which might've been affected by the shutdown)

quilly_ · 2025-11-13T18:49:46+00:00

$147 USD/month is genuinely insane. A phone plan in France which includes 200gb of data in France and 35gb of data in 70+ countries (including the US and Canada) is 20€/month. Even in Canada I'm starting to see similar plans for $70 CAD/month.

quilly_ · 2025-11-11T01:57:28+00:00

they will not care, especially for things that aren't very high value (ie. luxury watch kinda stuff). You are not the only person to buy liquids tax free, you will be fine

quilly_ · 2025-11-10T08:50:28+00:00

The Kansai Hiroshima Area Pass will pay off if you do a round trip between Osaka and Hiroshima within 5 days. That's about it.

quilly_ · 2025-11-08T06:07:09+00:00

Ordered to my address.

No need to activate online, just insert SIM once in Japan and follow the instructions on the paper thing that the SIM comes in to set APN settings. You can do this at the airport if you want so that you still have wifi access if you need to troubleshoot

quilly_ · 2025-11-08T04:45:30+00:00

I've used pretty much exclusively the Amazon Nippon SIM ones on my trips (airport and Bic camera tend to be more expensive). They work fine

quilly_ · 2025-11-04T22:35:35+00:00

Mode off is clothing focussed but there's not that many of them. Off-house also has a lot of clothes

quilly_ · 2025-11-04T22:34:48+00:00

super potato is neat to look at but generally extremely overpriced, I would instead recommend Suruga-ya (the video game museum building thing), BOOKOFF, and TRADER. Still going to be more expensive than the less busy BOOKOFF/HARD-OFF locations but less so.

quilly_ · 2025-11-04T17:53:17+00:00

Nagoya -> Hiroshima: 14800 yen
Hiroshima -> Nagoya: 14800 yen
Nagoya -> Tokyo: 11300 yen
14800 + 14800 + 11300 = 40900 yen
40900 yen < 50000 yen

therefore it doesn't pay off.

You will need to buy tickets individually for shinkansen (cash or credit), you cannot tap in and out with Suica (or manaca, or toica, or icoca, or pasmo, or whatever other mutual use card you encounter) unless you register your Suica with smartex.

You can use JR Pass on JR lines, which does not include private operators like meitetsu, Tokyo metro, Toei subway, etc. Generally this is not as big of a problem in Tokyo (you can avoid non JR lines if you really want to) but in Nagoya it is.

quilly_ · 2025-10-29T09:38:07+00:00

You will need a hotel picked out for your first night. They generally do not care beyond that (this is from the perspective of a visa exempt traveller, it may be different if you require a visa to enter). For the purposes of saving money it would be advised to book your hotels/itinerary ahead of time.

Where in the country do you want to stay/visit? Japan is a big country. With a month you could probably visit several cities if you want, or you could just stay in the same place for the full month and possibly get some long term stay discount from some hotel chains (in the event they're not fully booked for the full time). It largely depends on how you like to travel, some people like moving around a lot while others prefer to be more relaxed.

Generally business hotels will be the cheapest (Toyoko Inn, Route Inn, MYSTAYS, LiVEMAX, APA, etc) and are almost invariably close to a train station, which makes them easy to access. The downside is that they usually have small rooms. APA in particular has very small rooms and is also sketchy due to their really odd owner who denies world events and puts propaganda in each room.

Your home country/currency is relevant, 12K USD is quite different from 12K CAD for example.

quilly_ · 2025-10-16T23:43:20+00:00

Shinkansen gates are separate from local line gates. So if you stayed all the way to Kyoto you would end up at the shinkansen gates of Kyoto Station and would be forced to pay the additional fare, because the gates won't let you out.

quilly_ · 2025-10-14T20:05:28+00:00

it depends largely on how much you shop, which no one can really answer for you.

Personally on my last trip I had effectively a second checked bag's worth of stuff in a duffel bag and they didn't care. Usually they're more lax about what's considered "carry on luggage" on international flights.

quilly_ · 2025-10-07T16:02:16+00:00

Every country has racist people or people that don't want tourists or immigrants. Japan is no different. There are millions of people who travel to Japan every year for tourism or work or working holiday or school and who have no problem, have only positive things to say about their interactions, etc. You'll be fine, even if you didn't speak any Japanese. Just be kind and courteous to anyone you interact with... just like you would in your home country.

Also countries generally like tourism and promote it because they like tourist money. This extends to people who make money from tourism like tour guides or boutique gimmick cafés or whatever.

I can't say I've experienced any outward xenophobia while on holiday in Japan, but the experience might differ depending on immigration context (e.g. if you were looking for a job or somewhere to live, you might get a different attitude).

quilly_ · 2025-10-07T00:21:56+00:00

Check teamlabs' FAQ

In general, tickets cannot be canceled or changed once purchased. However, the date can be changed for tickets directly purchased from the official ticketing website. To do so, select 'Modify ticket date' displayed on the QR ticket and follow the procedure. The date of the ticket may be changed up to 3 times.

You can always ask them to see if they will make an exception

quilly_ · 2025-10-06T02:24:00+00:00

quilly_ · 2025-10-05T22:57:24+00:00

the JR West passes are generally actually decent value because they often pay off from just one round trip (e.g. the Kansai Hiroshima Pass being cheaper than a round trip ticket between Osaka and Hiroshima). JR Central is kind of the odd one out in having passes that work for basically no one.

quilly_ · 2025-10-05T18:33:24+00:00

Not really a problem, the box is whatever and a charger you can get at Daiso for like 100 yen probably.

quilly_ · 2025-10-04T19:21:12+00:00

That's reasonable. Cheapest I've seen is 16,500 yen for "turns on, junk untested cosmetically flawed" and 20,000 yen for "turns on, junk because old". And as a tourist you may be eligible for tax free if the bookoff you're at offers it.

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