Technology has quickly changed how we people we live our lives. Both young and old people can't live without internet. They feel as if it's an eternity if they're stuck in public places without an internet connection. Thankfully, for the people of Shizuoka City, they won't have to live a second without it because they city began a free mobile Wi-Fi router-lending service for inbound travelers on November 1.
Tourist visiting the country can now rent routers at the Shizuoka City Tourist Information Center at the north entrance to JR Shizuoka Station. The routers will provide free Internet connection anytime and anywhere while travelers are in Japan.
The city is conveniently situated near Mount Fuji which has been labeled as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site. It will take an hour from Tokyo and two hours from Osaka. Borrowers will be issued a unique password to ensure security.
Routers can be rented for free without reservations. Inbound tourists can borrow mobile Wi-Fi routers for free if they can comply with the following two conditions:
- Tourists need to present their passports and register for the service
- Photographing a designated POP on a smartphone or other mobile communications devices and upload it to their SNS accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram)
*One router is originally loaned to an individual, so if you're in a group tour, one router may be loaned to each member of the group.
- Travelers can borrow the routers at Shizuoka Station and return them at the respective airports where they depart from Japan.
- Those who borrow routers can use them anywhere in Japan until they leave the country.
For people who are traveling to Japan in the next couple of months, these are the things you need to remember if you want to borrow a router during your stay in the country. Below are locations, contact information, and business hours of possible places you can borrow the routers from and where to return it after.
- Location for borrowing routers: the Shizuoka City Tourist Information Center at the north entrance to JR Shizuoka Station.
- TEL: 054-253-1170
- Business hours: 9:00 - 17:45 (closed from Dec 29 to Jan 1)
- Location for returning routers: "Vision" counter at airports where travelers leave Japan: Narita International Airport, Haneda Airport, Kansai International Airport, Osaka International (Itami) Airport, Chubu Centrair International Airport, Fukuoka Airport, New Chitose Airport, Niigata Airport, Komatsu Airport, Naha Airport and Shizuoka Airport which will have the service starting the 1st of November.
