110V vs. 100V in Japan
 

I have read that most U.S. electrical items run ok at 100V in Japan. But what about electronic equipment like personal DVD players (and I suppose laptops)? We are taking a DVD player and want to use it there some nights over our two wk. stay. Has anyone done this without problems? I'll get a transformer if it is needed to protect it, but if you've done this without trouble I'd like to know. Thanks in advance.

Things like laptops and shavers generally have built-in voltage converters. My iPod has a built-in converter. Your DVD player...I don't know...check on the back, the plug itself or in the instructions. We have used some US devices here like coffee makers and mini stereo system. What we found was that it took an hour to brew a pot of coffee - immediatelly bought a Japanese one! The stereo seemed to work OK. One other thing to consider is that US plugs have one tongue bigger than the other...many Japanese outlets cannot accept this type of plug - they only take the Japanese kind that have two identical tongues. Newer and better grade hotels shouldn't have this issue though. If you were hoping to rent a dvd in Japan and watch it in your US dvd player, be aware that unless your player is multisystem, you will be unable to view Japanese market dvd's.

Thanks, Kim. Read the instructions- what a good idea (I admit, I don't always do that first...)
I will call the Westin Tokyo and Westin Miyako and see if they have the plug oultets we need. I imagine Tokyo does as it a realtively new hotel; Miyako is older I think so I will check. One issue is that we bought an extra battery for the DVD player (because we won't have movies on the NW flight- we got the seats in back that have better configuration and won't be able to see the screen)so we really need to be able to recharge them again before the flight home. If we stay in another royokan on Miyajima we will just use the battery. Some nights we may want to just watch a DVD late at night- we are taking a bunch of them.
Thanks again. I didn't know about the plug deal and the built in converters.

and geezlepeezle- an hour for a cup of coffee???!!! I'd be NUTS. I stand and watch the coffee drip in the morning and get the first cup.

Our hotel loaned us a converter for the plug. Basically, it took our 3 prong and had a japanese 2 prong on the other side. No transformer. our camera, laptops and CD players all worked fine on 110.

They only had one of those plug adapters at the moment, so they also loaned us an extension cord that only had a 2 prong input. My daughter plugged her laptop into it and the 3rd prong hung out over the edge. Don't know how safe that was, but it worked for 4 days!

If you look at the info label on your electronic device you will see something like "Input 100-240v" - this indicates the range of voltage on which the appliance will run. The danger is greater when you to exceed the input limit (this could fry the device) than when you use a source that is less than the low end of the device input range (may not work at all, or may work slowly as in the above one hour pot of coffee.)
The polarized plug issue is separate, and adaptors are usually readily available.

I called Audiovox, the DVD manufacturer. They said the DVD player will be ok on 100V. But they did cauton me about the different plugs needed. I think I will get an adapter for the plug outlet to take with me; anyone have ideas about where these are available online? I looked at a set of adapters today but it had like 4 different adapters and it was $45. I should be able to just buy a plug adapter of the type used in Japan, but where?

nevermind, I found it immeditaely online. Thanks very much everyone.