It’s only a few days away from the beginning of April and a new Japanese school year. If you’re one of the lucky few who are allowed to take secret spring break vacation, count your blessings. Otherwise, you’re probably trapped at your school or office being forced to either look busy or help with spring cleaning. Or, if you are my wife, you’re doing both at the same time: her spring cleaning chore was to lug two dozen old computers down a flight of stairs and then lug them back up after she was done. Seriously.

Since I’m not a JET, I’ve been spared pointless computer lugging, but I do have some tidying up to do. I’ve been hoarding a collection of links that, until now, haven’t fit in any of my previous articles. I might as well join with the spring cleaners and take care of those links here. Enjoy.

• Much to my delight and surprise, a few people other than my mom have emailed me to say they have actually been reading “Hi, Tech.” One reader also asked a good question in his email. He, like me, comes across useful content on the web every so often and was wondering about ways to save that content (even if it later disappears into the internet abyss). I recommend Ma.gnolia for the job. Ma.gnolia is one of those new-fangled “social bookmarking” services like del.icio.us that are apparently required to have nonsensical names. Don’t let the weird name fool you, though; Ma.gnolia is a very well done site that lets you bookmark any web page you want and then access and share that bookmark online. Best of all, Ma.gnolia saves to their servers a copy of any page you mark, so you’ll always have a copy.
• Last week I wrote about my five favorite pieces of free (”as in beer”) software. That article barely scratched the surface of all the free software out there. If you want more, Tech Support Alert has a giant, frequently updated list of the best free software.
• 

  Another update from a previous article, this one from three weeks ago on news feeds. Since then, a company called Square Eight has released Alertbear, a new and interesting feed reader. Most feed readers display your news feeds like email; Alertbear takes a different approach and displays them as “a river of news.” That’s not what caught my attention, though–I think Alertbear’s logo is its best feature. Look at it. A bear! Jiggling the “news feed” icon! Adorable! All that cuteness, and Alertbear is still free.

• I recently installed Microsoft’s Clear Type Power Toy on my Windows XP computer, and it might be the greatest tweak I’ve ever made. Windows machines are notoriously bad at displaying type: on the screen most fonts look jagged, pixel-y and nothing like their printed counterparts. The Clear Type Power Toy fixes Windows’ font problems by applying lots of computer magic to smooth on screen type. Having realistically rendered fonts is a major benefit for doing some of the design work I do, but it’s also advantageous for anyone who appreciates aesthetics. After installing and configuring the clear type tool (you can fine-tune the look of fonts to fit your taste), it takes a couple of days to adjust to the way text looks on your screen, but once you get used to it, you’ll never go back. Microsoft also offers a number of other “Power Toys” for you to play with (as long as you computer is running Windows XP).
• Finally, a note on a semi-new search engine. I used to use Google for all of my searching needs, but if there was one thing Google was missing, it was the chance for me to win fabulous prizes. Blingo fills in that gap quite nicely. Blingo is powered by Google, so you’ll see the same results using either search engine, but with Blingo, search at a “winning time,” and you get a prize like an iPod or a gift card. Really there’s no reason not to switch, unless you’re one of those people who like not getting free prizes. Update: Turns out there is a good reason not to switch. The comment below got me wondering, so I emailed Blingo to ask if one could win a prize from Japan. They sent a rather curt email back telling me that one must be a “US **resident** to win a prize on Blingo.” So no more recommending Blingo for me.

The gospel choir Golden Angels, an “Asian group from overseas,” will perform with three other choirs from Saga on Sunday, March 26 at Avance in Saga City. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m.; admission is free.

In the world of computer applications, there are three kinds of free software, and three weird catch phrases that always go with them. Software can be “free as in beer,” “free as in speech” or “free as in illegal.” Technically I made that last catch phrase up, but does it sound any worse than “free as in beer”?

Software that’s “free as in speech” also goes by the name “open source software.” These programs are written by computing do-gooders who believe that the code used to power their programs (called the “source code”) should be available to the public to encourage collaboration and innovation. It’s actually a pretty noble idea, made even nobler by the fact that most “free as in speech” software also costs nothing to use.

Software that’s “free as in illegal,” on the other hand, is the kind that usually isn’t free but can be not-really-legally downloaded via file sharing programs and used with hacked or stolen registration keys. Downloading this software has the advantage of giving you a free copy of sometimes very pricey programs as long as you don’t mind (a) the off chance of getting hit with a big fine and (b) the horrible, horrible guilt of being a software pirate, matey. Okay, so the guilt isn’t that bad, but there’s usually at least a little twinge of remorse involved.

The final category of free software, the kind that’s strangely been dubbed “free as in beer,” is my favorite. This is the kind that’s available completely legally and completely free. Much of this software is also open source, so people nerdier than myself can marvel at all the source code then can handle. The best part about “free as in beer” software, though, is how far its come since the term “free as in beer” was coined. A lot of these free applications are advanced enough to rival their costlier cousins. Free software has gotten so usable, in fact, that I often prefer it to purchased software.

Since a computer is only as useful as the software you have on it, here are five “free as in beer” programs that will make your computer really, really useful without costing you a single yen.

Firefox

If I had to guess, I’d say at least half of the time I’m at my computer I’m doing something on the web. I might actually die if I didn’t have a good web browser that could do everything I needed it to do.

Firefox, then, is kind of a lifesaver for me. Almost all modern browsers are free and have the same basic functionality (and by “modern browsers” I mean “not Internet Explorer,” which is currently about four years out of date), but I only have eyes for Firefox. The Mozilla Foundation, makers of Firefox (along with the also excellent email client Thunderbird), actively encourage outside developers to contribute to the browser, and that encouragement has led to the creation of hundreds of Firefox enhancements.

These enhancements come in the forms of extensions and themes. Extensions are little programs you can add on to Firefox (with a wonderfully simple “extensions manager”) to make the browser do almost anything you could want (like block ads or run faster). Similarly, themes are little packages you can download to make Firefox look almost any way you like.

Bottom line: Firefox is the most useful and most used piece of software I own, and it cost me nothing.

Making it more useful

Many Firefox extensions and themes let you customize the browser to your liking. The Greasemonkey extension out-customizes them all away. Greasemonkey lets you download “user scripts” that can change the look and behavior of individual websites. Don’t like the way Google looks? Annoyed by how Amazon works? Greasemonkey lets you change all of that and more. And, if you know a little JavaScript, you can write your own Greasemonkey scripts.

Links

• Learn more about Firefox
• Download Firefox
• Download extensions and themes
• Learn more about Greasemonkey

OpenOffice.org

The most popular suite of office applications, Microsoft Office, is a bloated piece of software that gets in your way, tries to do too much and ends up doing nothing well. That description fits OpenOffice.org, too, but at least it doesn’t charge $300 to annoy you.

OpenOffice.org is free office suite that comes with all the basic components: word processor, spreadsheet program, database manager and presentation creator. In fact, it works a lot like any other office suite you’ve used, so its learning curve is pretty shallow. OpenOffice.org is also capable of opening almost any file created in any other office suite you’ve ever used, which makes switching pretty painless.

Bottom line: If you need an office suite but don’t want to pay for it, give OpenOffice.org a try.

Making it more useful

OpenOffice.org does do a pretty good job of opening up files created by other applications, including template files. Microsoft has lots and lots of Office template files online for you to download for free, some of which can help you whip up worksheets or resumes in a snap. See where I’m going with this?

Links

• Learn more about OpenOffice.org
• Download OpenOffice.org
• Microsoft Office templates

GIMP

Professional quality image editing programs are some of the most expensive applications on the market; a copy of Adobe Photoshop CS2 will set you back about $650. Granted, for that money you get the power to completely erase your annoying little brother from the family photo and complete any other “professional” image manipulation you can think of, but $650 is still a lot of money.

If you’re just looking to erase annoying little brothers and not worried about getting every professional image editing bell and whistle, try the GIMP. The GIMP, short for “GNU Image Manipulation Program,” is a free image editor that does most everything amateur photographers and graphic designers need (and a lot of what pros need, too). And costing zero dollars, its much more affordable than the competition.

Bottom line: It’s not ready for the pros yet, but GIMP will do 90 percent of the things 90 percent of Photoshop users need.

Making it more useful

I’ve used Photoshop since high school and have gotten pretty accustomed to its user interface in that time. I can flatten images in my sleep. GIMP, however, uses a very different interface, making it hard for Photoshop users to switch over. Longtime Photoshop user Scott Moschella fixed that problem by using GIMP’s source code to create GIMPshop, a program that works like GIMP but looks like Photoshop. GIMPshop makes switching from Photoshop easier if that’s what you’re used to. GIMPshop is free, too.

Links

• Learn more about GIMP
• Download GIMP
• GIMPshop

Picasa

If I had been smart enough to write a piece of software to manage my digital photo collection, I would have created an exact replica of Picasa. Now released by Google, Picasa lets you import, sort, edit and share your photos. It’s the little things that make me like Picasa so much, like how it remembers which photos I’ve already imported from my camera (so I don’t waste time re-importing them) and tells me which ones I still need to back up to CD or DVD.

Bottom line: I know I sound like an advertisement, but Picasa really does make managing your photo library a breeze.

Making it more useful

Picasa’s usefulness is pretty much all built-in; check out the support page to find out everything you can use the program for.

Links

• Learn more about Picasa
• Download Picasa
• Everything you can do with Picasa

Scribus

ALTs make a lot of worksheets, and some of them I’ve seen have been, well, less than beautiful. I’m not saying that a worksheet needs to be pretty to be effective, but it doesn’t hurt. And to make a good worksheet, you need the right tools.

Microsoft’s Word or OpenOffice.org’s Writer are not those tools. To make a really good worksheet, you need the freedom you find in a desktop publishing program. My wife, the worksheet queen, uses Adobe InDesign, but that’s only because she already had a copy of it on her computer; most JETs aren’t going to shell out $699 just to spiffy up their worksheets.

Scribus is a free alternative to software like InDesign. As in the case of Photoshop vs. GIMP, Scribus won’t do everything the professional desktop publishing applications will, but it should get the job done for any non-pro. (Full disclosure: I’ve never actually used Scribus before, but I’ve read good things about it).

Bottom line: Break the Word worksheet habit and give Scribus a try.

Making it more useful

The makers of Scribus have a nice collection of online documentation, including a page of tips and tricks to make better documents faster in Scribus.

Links

• Learn more about Scribus
• Download Scribus
• Scribus tips and tricks

The official start of spring and a holiday. What could be better?

The Bangladesh Habitat for Humanity group is putting on a pub trivia night to raise funds for their trip. Competition starts at 5 p.m., March 18 at the Celtic Heart in Saga City and costs 1500 yen to enter. Details and rules are on the message board.

Go on a guided tour (in English!) of Arita, learn about its hina dolls, have a giant meal, paint some procelain. You can get more information on the message board.

When I first came to Japan from America, everything was new and exciting. Signs were unreadable! Food was raw and fishy! Cars drove on the left side of the road! I was living in a different country for the first time, and it was great.

My enthusiasm lasted for a couple of months, and then reality hit: I was living in the middle of nowhere in a different country. I’d left the breadbasket of America to come to the rice basket of Japan and, once I’d learned to read the signs, things weren’t all that different anymore. It was time for a vacation.

Although at that point I was so accustomed to my Japanese home that I wanted to leave it, I didn’t want to see the rest of the world with a tour group like many Japanese travelers do. Rather than turning to a travel agent to help plan the trip, then, I turned to the internet. (Who am I kidding, I would have turned to the internet even if I came from a family of travel agents who would disown me if I ever booked an airfare online.)

Since most JETs I know get a similar wanderlust while they’re in Japan, I thought I’d share ¹ a few good resources you might be able to use to plan your next getaway (even if it is only a prefecture or two away).

Getting there

Step one of going on any vacation is figuring out how you’re going to get there. Sadly, however you choose to “get there” from Japan, it’s probably going to be expensive. Despite my initial fear that a Japanese travel agent would book me a spot in a tour group with 50 Japanese grandparents and one flag-wielding, sash-wearing guide, I’ve had excellent luck finding reasonably priced plane tickets through travel agents. The travel agencies recommended on SagaJET, for instance, have all been used by JETs before, are generally helpful and usually have at least one agent who speaks English.

If you’re either feeling independent or can’t find a fare that suits your needs through a travel agent, there’s always the web. Any of these sites may help you find the perfect fare.

Kayak

Old standbys like Travelocity and Orbitz are always worth a visit when you’re hunting for cheap tickets, but they suffer from two problems: they’re very America-centric and they’re kind of boring. Kayak is neither. It searches the websites of “hundreds of airlines” directly to find the best deals (as well as “travel agent” sites like the aforementioned Travelocity and Orbitz), so it can turn up fares that others may miss. And since Kayak believes “shopping for travel should be simple, fast, honest and mildly entertaining,” it makes shopping for plane tickets a little more enjoyable.

Flyspy

Fine, so technically Flyspy hasn’t launched yet, but it looks like it could be amazing when it does. When the site does go live, you’ll be able to enter your departure and destination cities and Flyspy will look for fares from many different airlines over a 30-day period and give you a graph showing you exactly when you should leave to get the cheapest flight. Right now all you can do is sign up to get an email when (or if) Flyspy is rolled out, which it hopefully will be soon.

JR Train Timetables in English

If you’re planning to travel in Japan, taking the trains is often the most efficient way to get where you’re going. Jorudan’s strangely named “Japanese Traffic Guide” gives you up-to-date route and price information for all JR trains in gloriously understandable English. It also shows you several options for every route, so you can choose speed over price if you’re in a hurry or vice versa if you’re frugal.

Travel in Japan

Traveling in Japan may be expensive, but that’s no reason not to visit at least a few different areas while you’re here. If you have a car, a tent and time to kill, taking a road trip can be an excellent way to see sights within driving distance. Camping rather than staying in a hostel or hotel will save you a lot of money (most campsites charge under 1000 yen per night) and remind you that not all of Japan is covered in pachinko parlors and conbinis. Buy a good road atlas (like Mapple, available, ironically, at most conbinis) that shows the location of campsites along your route and you’ll be all set.

There are, of course, plenty of websites that can help you decide where to travel in Japan whether you plan on camping or not. Good ones include:

Japan National Tourist Organization

The JNTO website has guides for all 47 Japanese prefectures as well as advice on food, hotels and transportation. The site is all very broad and official, so it doesn’t have reviews of the best local pubs and love hotels, but it is a good place to start if you want to see more than just Tokyo and Kyoto.

Kyushu Connection

Kyushu Connection, on the other hand, is all about the best local bars and love hotels. The site was created by former JETs as a way to bring together expats living on Kyushu. They have a growing travel section with user-submitted reviews of restaurants, bars and attractions. Obviously it only covers the seven prefectures that make up Kyushu, but the information is good enough to convince you that traveling to any of those prefectures could actually be fun.

WWOOF Japan

If Japan’s work culture is slowly killing your inner hippie, revive it with a visit to a Japanese organic farm. The idea is you go to an organic farm somewhere in Japan and work there for a while in exchange for free lodging. You have to sign up for a 4000 yen yearly membership to be eligible to stay on a WWOOF farm, but that’s a small price to pay for the chance to help grow organic daikons.

International travel

Japan is conveniently located a relatively short plane ride away from many vacation spots in Asia, and most JETs take advantage of this proximity. Most popular JET destinations (Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia) are also popular backpacker locations, so planning a trip is as easy as buying a guidebook (Lonely Planet and Rough Guide both produce good ones) and going.

The “just go” idea has worked brilliantly in every country I’ve traveled in except one: China. When my wife and I visited China, we were lucky enough to travel with Chinese-speaking friends; I’m pretty sure we would still be lost there if we hadn’t. English-speaking travel agencies, guest houses and restaurants can be hard to find, especially if you travel outside of Beijing. A guidebook can help, or you can look for hotel reservations, plane tickets and advice on Ctrip.com.

Don’t let that deter you from traveling to China or any other destination in either Japan or another country, though. Eating raw fish and driving on the left side of the road are only entertaining for so long, and then it’s time for a vacation.

Notes

1. When I say “I thought I’d share some good travel resources,” what I really mean is “I couldn’t think of an idea to write about this week so my always helpful wife Sarah came up with an idea for me, saving me from horrible, horrible writer’s block.”

Come make Jamaican and American desserts (Jamaican rock buns and pancakes!) in the latest installment of the Saga City International Cooking Class Series. Sunday, March 12, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., third floor cooking classroom in the Saga City Avance Building. More info is posted on the message board.

Final day to vote for your AJET national representative. Go to the AJET voting page to cast your ballot.

When I got my very first internet connection about 10 years ago, the only online task I did daily was check email. Back then, only a few major news outlets and a couple of very early adopters updated their websites on a regular basis. Most sites I knew about were either static advertisements for companies jumping on the web bandwagon or places for angsty nerds to publish their “poetry.”

Then man created blogs, and it was, well, if not good, at least more interesting. Suddenly everyone was writing on the web, and some people were even writing things worth reading. Angsty nerd poetry pages were replaced by sites offering fresh, interesting content that could develop a real readership. I started visiting more sites than just CNN.com every day.

But from frequently updated blogs arose a problem precisely opposite than the one I had when I first started using the internet: now I had too many sites I wanted to keep up with. Instead of just checking email and being done with it, I would check email and then go through all of my bookmarks to check for new content. Sure, it was only a matter of a few clicks, but I was living in the internet age, and a few clicks were too many.

Then, man created the news feed, and that was good. Now I only had to make one stop to be able to tell at a glance which sites had been updated since the last time I checked (probably five minutes ago, but that’s just me). And the more I played around with news feeds, the more I found they could actually be used for things more productive than finding out when my friends were writing about me.

Some explanations

At this point in the article you might be asking yourself two things: what’s a news feed and why, Nicholas, should I care about your stupid news feeds? Good questions.

A news feed is basically a file that gets updated every time its corresponding website is updated. Inside of this news feed file are things like the date and title of the update, the actual content of the update (or an excerpt of that content) and a link to the new content. Those who want to be notified when a website is updated can subscribe to the site’s news feed using a news reader–a program or website that, like the name implies, lets you read news feeds. You can subscribe to as many news feeds as you want with your news reader of choice, and can thus read all the new content from all your favorite websites all in one place.

Incidentally, a news feed can go by many names depending on the whim of the author and what technology is used to create it: an RSS feed, an XML feed, an Atom feed, a syndication feed or just a feed. I like news feed because, with “news” in the name, it sounds so much more respectable. I can’t see Bob Woodward reading an XML feed, but I think he’d be all over the news feeds.

Confused yet? Other people have explained the whole news feed concept much better than I have. And don’t worry, actually making use of a news feed is far easier than trying to explain it, I promise.

As to why you should care about making use of a news feed, I think they make keeping up to date with current events, reading quality online content and staying in touch with blogging friends far easier. Plus, SagaJET has its very own news feed, and surely you want to know the minute a new “Hi, Tech” is put online, right? Stop laughing.

Choosing a news reader

If you’re not already subscribing to news feeds and want to–even despite my muddled explanation–getting started is easy. The first thing you’ll need to do if find yourself a news reader.

News readers come in two varieties: programs you install on your computer or websites you access with any browser. Both kinds of news readers have their advantages and disadvantages. Readers you install on your computer are generally more customizable, but you need to be in front of your computer to use them. Web-based readers, on the other hand, usually give you fewer options but let you access them from any computer with an internet connection and a web browser.

There are plenty of news readers to choose from, but here’s a quick rundown of some of the most respected.

• FeedDemon. FeedDemon is probably the best-known newsreader for Windows. It does cost $29.95 (U.S.) to be able to use it legally, but that buys you a very flexible and stylish program that will be able to handle all the feeds you throw at it.
• NetNewsWire. NetNewsWire is to the Mac what FeedDemon is to Windows. Again, it costs money ($24.95 U.S.), but it’s regarded as miles ahead of any of the free readers out there.
• Feedreader. If the thought of paying for a news reader turns you off, check out Feedreader. It’s simple, lightweight and, best of all, free.
• Bloglines. Bloglines is a very easy to use web-based news reader. I’ve been using Bloglines for about a year now, and I haven’t wanted to use anything else since.
• NewsGator Online. If you want to try a web-based news reader that is not Bloglines (though I can’t imagine why), check out NewsGator Online.

Subscribing to a news feed

Once you’ve settled on a news reader, you’re ready to start subscribing to news feeds. In order to subscribe, you’ll need to find the addresses of your favorite websites’ news feeds (if they have a feed, which they probably do). Many sites will have a link to their feeds right on the front page, often in the form of an orange button. If you don’t see that button, look for a link called something like “subscribe,” “feeds” or “XML/RSS/Atom.”

Alternatively, if you want to subscribe to a news feed from someone’s Blogger/Xanga/LiveJournal blog, many news readers will let you enter that person’s username and will find the appropriate feed for you.

After you’ve subscribed to a few feeds, you can check in with your news reader as often as you like and any new content will be highlighted for you the moment its put online.

A few recommended feeds for JETs

Feedster tells me that there are currently something like 24 million news feeds you could subscribe to. Finding good stuff in that mess can be hard, so here are a couple of feeds I like that may be of interest to JETs. Note that most of the links below go right to the news feeds and not the sites themselves.

• Mainichi Daily News. MSN’s English language Japanese news site. Be warned that some really odd stories get mixed in with the regular old Japanese news here.
• NewsOnJapan.com. NewsOnJapan.com, as one might guess, collects news stories from all over the web about Japan, and its feed features quite a few of the latest headlines.
• tvRSS. Not that I’m saying you should, but if you wanted to, you could go over to tvRSS, search for your favorite TV shows not on in Japan that you might hypothetically download via BitTorrent, and get a news feed that tells you when a new episode is available. Theoretically. Downloading TV shows might be slightly illegal. You didn’t hear it from me.
• USGS Earthquake Tracker. The nice folks at the U.S. Geological Survey offer a news feed that updates every time they record an earthquake anywhere in the world. You’ll either be comforted when you see that most quakes they record for Japan are pretty minor, or terrified by all the quakes happening all the time.
• Saga Blog. It might be blog-cest for me to mention it, but Saga JETs have a community blog where they talk about things JETs tend to talk about. Since a new person is tapped to write each week, it stays pretty fresh, too.
• SagaJET. It’s definitely blog-cest for me to mention it, but we here at SagaJET have a news feed, too. Just in case you’re interested…

Over the weekend I updated WordPress, the system that runs SagaJET, to the latest version. WordPress runs entirely behind the scenes, so the upgrade won’t be noticeable unless something went wrong. All seems to have gone well, though, so you shouldn’t come across anything out of the ordinary. If you do come across an error, let me know by either posting a comment or using the contact form.

Also, WordPress only runs the non-forum parts of this site, so nothing at all has changed with the message board. If you see a message board error, then I should never be allowed to work on a computer again.

Open mic night at Rebeers in Saga City to benefit the Habitat to Humanity trip to Bangladesh. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., music starts at 7:30 p.m. Admission is 1500 yen. You can find more info on the message board.

If the internet is to be believed, there are something like 2.5 billion phones in the world. Chances are, you’ll want to call at least a few of them while you’re a JET.

If the phone you want to call is in Japan, no problem: just dial area code and phone number, get connected and wait patiently for your perfectly reasonable phone bill to come.

It’s when the phone resides abroad that you get into trouble. Calling anywhere else in the world from Japan can be an experience that ranges from mildly tricky to hugely expensive. It took me a while after I first arrived in Japan to figure out all the ways to call home. It took me even longer to figure out how to work the answering machine, but that’s a different story.

What I learned (about calling internationally, not about working the answering machine) is that there are quite a few options, and with just a little research you can find the one that works best for you.

Direct dial

Direct dialing a foreign number is the international calling method that takes the least amount of work up front. You pay for that convenience, though, as direct dialing is also expensive. For instance, a 10-minute call to continental America could cost upwards of 600 yen (about $5 U.S.).

If you like paying a lot for things, or find yourself in a position where you have to make a directly dialed international call, there are a couple of tips you should keep in mind.

First, unless your phone has been previously configured, you have to punch in a few extra numbers to make a direct dial international call. The first numbers you dial let you choose which carrier you’d like to make the call with (all seem to charge about the same rate, though). Some common carriers (and their codes) include KDDI (001), Japan Telecom (0061) and NTT (0041). Once you have entered your carrier code, you have to punch in 010, just for the hell of it, I think. Then you have to dial the proper country code. Then, at last, you can dial the area code and number. So, if you want to use KDDI to call grandma living in New York, “just” dial 001-010-1-212-123-4567.

Second, like in many other countries, rates are often cheaper on nights, weekends and holidays, allowing you to talk just a little longer for the same price.

Prepaid phone cards

If you still want the ease of making international calls from your regular home phone but don’t want to pay the high direct dial fees, one option is to get a prepaid international phone card. Cards are available at pretty much any convenience store you come across, in international airports and online.

Using the card does require you buy a card first, but since you probably pass four dozen conbinis on your way to work, that shouldn’t be too hard. Once you have the card, making an international call with it is about as complicated as direct dialing. Just call the number on the back of the card and follow the instructions you hear.

You can save a pretty good amount over direct dialing with a calling card. Using KDDI’s Super World Card, for instance, will save you between 11 and 38 percent. That same call to New York grandma could cost as little as 370 yen ($3.20).

Callback services

Callback services offer the ability to call internationally using your home phone at rates that are even cheaper than calling cards. When you sign up for a callback service, you are given a specific number to dial to make international calls. Call that number, hang up, wait for your phone to ring (callback, get it?) and then enter the number you want to dial per the instructions you are given.

I’m not really sure of the specifics of how a callback service works, but I do know it works for cheap. My wife and I have used Talkback, a callback service based in England, since we’ve been in Japan. We’ve been reasonably happy with the service from Talkback, although sometimes it takes a while to get a call back. We’ve also been pretty happy with the rates. If you want to call New York grandma for another 10 minutes using Talkback (you must be her favorite grandchild by now), you’d spend about 140 yen (about $1.20 U.S.)

VoIP

I can’t believe I’ve gone 13 paragraphs without mentioning the word “computer” once. Luckily, VoIP will help me rectify that situation.

VoIP, or voice over internet protocol, is a new-ish technology that allows you to make phone calls using an internet connection. Since you aren’t using a telecom to make your call, you don’t get charged telecom rates and can thus make ridiculously cheap international calls. On the downside, you also aren’t using the decades of telecom infrastructure, so you may experience the occasional dropped call or slow connection using VoIP (although things are getting better pretty fast).

To start making VoIP calls, first you have to install a VoIP application on your computer. Then, as long as you have a system with microphone and speakers, you can start making computer-to-computer calls (i.e. calling computers with similar VoIP applications on them) for free. If you want to use your computer to call regular landlines or cell phones, you’ll need to buy “call out” credits. With those credits in your account, you can dial pretty much anyone in the world and feel like a fool talking to them on your computer. If you want to feel less foolish (and improve the quality of the call), you can invest in a headset to use with your computer or an adapter that lets you use your regular phone on VoIP networks.

The most popular VoIP application is probably Skype. Lots of people use Skype, so you’ll be in good company if you go that route. If you want to be different, though, there are tons of other VoIP providers to choose from. I’m a big fan of the Gizmo Project, and especially its integration with PhoneGaim, an instant messaging client and VoIP application all rolled into one.

VoIP is hands down the cheapest way to call internationally. One more 10-minute call to New York grandma will set you back about 25 yen ($0.21 U.S.) with Skype and a piddly 12 yen ($0.10 U.S.) with Gizmo.

Summary (with tables and footnotes!)

Now, because I was a science major in college, here is a table comparing rates for all the services discussed above, and some footnotes explaining how I came up with the numbers in the tables. Hopefully this will help you keep in touch and keep some extra money in your pocket.

Rates for five international calling methods

Method	To U.S. (yen/min.)1	To U.K. (yen/min.)1	To Canada (yen/min.)1	To New Zealand (yen/min.)1
Direct dial2	50	140	160/100	260/140
Phone card3	42	99	58	99
Callback4	14	12	14	14
Skype5	2	2	2	2
Gizmo6	1	3	3	4

Notes

1. When necessary, rates were converted to yen from U.S. dollars or U.K. pounds using XE.com’s currency converter on 1 March 2006. I just chose some random places that people I know call.

2. Direct dial rates calculated using KDDI’s economy rates, available weekdays after 7 p.m. and all day weekends. Rates from other direct dial providers are similar.

3. Phone card rates are calculated using KDDI’s Super World Card rates. Specifically, the price of a 7000 yen card was divided by the “maximum conversation time” listed for the card.

4. Callback rates taken from Talkback.

5. Skype rates calculated from Skype’s SkypeOut rate page.

6. Gizmo rates calculated from Gizmo’s Call Out rate page.