cell phones
 

can one buy a cell phone in japan for use in japan . a one time use or whatever

You can rent them or you can get prepaid cell phones. There are kiosks in the airport, as well as train stations. Convenience stores often, but not always have prepaid ones. Vodafone shops sell a prepaid version. Renting may be easier, as you need to show residence to buy one.

If you do a web search for rental cell phone japan, you will find lots of companies that offer the service if you want to plan ahead or compare.

Kim thanks very much will do the web search as I have pleanty of time.

I bought pre-pay mobile (keitai) in Japan twice and had no problem with residence requirement. On one occasion the shop accepted a local address (a friend's) and a foreign passport as ID, and on another I was told to just to fill in the form myself and mail it in my own time!

Alec: How much did the phone cost?

Vodafone Enjorno is around 5,000 yen for the basic colour handset. Top-up card costs 3,000 or 5,000 yen.