I would like to know how to buy one of the 1month card via rinkya, because I can't find this kind of sim card in any shop. Thanks!

I just bought a 6-month b-mobile SIM, stuck it in, ran tesuri's command, and rebooted. When I try to make calls, it doesn't work. It lets me connect to the data network with the APN, username and password provided by b-mobile, but then all websites redirect to the b-mobile activation page. Is there something else that needs to be done to activate the N900 on the network?

Thank you to everyone who has posted on this amazingly helpful thread.

you can buy in a nearby country which is the Philippines. they are selling n900 that is originally made from China or Korea.

Greetings from a gaijin.
I am living in Japan and so happy toying around with my n900, Hongkong version.
I bought mine online in Japan. You can do it easily too from these sites:
- www.moumantai.biz (payment via Japanet Bank to deliver to your door)
- www.rakuten.co.jp (cash-on-delivery though you can transfer or use credit cards, my favorite because I dont have a credit card, and this site have English option to register membership).

For Japanese input, Kimitate has gathered a metapackage called Maemocjk-him-scim-anthy. I just installed this package using application manager. This work fine for me but I wish it could be better because I have to slide the keyboard in and out too often, making me worry for my N900 life-span!
I try making Japanese input as default by adding this line (learn from Internet teachers like you ofcause):
export GTK_IM_MODULE=scim
right at the last but one line in this file:
/etc/osso-af-init/af-defines.sh
This method work well too, but as a trade-off, I lose the symbol table. So whenever I need some symbols, I have to go to the file and delete the added line, reboot the phone!

For Softbank's Package Data Flat, I use this:
Conncetion name: Open Softbank
Connection type: Packet data (automatic anyway)
Accesspoint name: open.softbank.ne.jp
Username: opensoftbank
Password: ebMNuX1FIHg9d3DA
Prompt password at every login <box unchecked>
Use proxy <checked>
HTTP proxy <leave empty>
Port number: 8080
HTTPS proxy <leave empty>
Port number: 440 <not sure if neccesary>
FPT proxy <leave empty>
port number: 20
Installing Hide User Agent seems to be a must because with the above configuration, before installing Hide User Agent, I could not connect to Internet, but after pulling it in and press the hide user agent button, I have been connecting to Softbank easily for 4410Y/month.
For map, Ovi Map does not work well for me in Japan (only national roads and being located several prefectures away!!!). Google mobile map seems a little bit better, but not useful yet on my N900.
My last experience to share, and with which I so much hope someone else could enlighten me, is Softbank MMS.
I installed fMMS 1.2.5, have tried several useragent like N73, N95, Iphone 3GS (those version Softbank has) using gconftool-2, but the furthest I can have is receiving MMS headers, then "unable to retrieve message" or "Unknown name resolution" or the likes.
I gave a shout to the fMMS thread already. But the fMMS thread seems to be too big for Japan.
So please help if you can
Thanks.

PS. After PR1.3, Hide User Agent seems nolonger needed
fMMS 1.2.6 still not works for me, please help

fMMS was a nightmare for me as well. I flashed few times to get to know how to get it to work.

THIS IS A MUST-DO STEP
================================================== =
Xterm:
sudo gainroot
gconftool-2 -st string /apps/fmms/useragent "New UA String"
(replace "New UA String" with any Nokia UA)
================================================== =

If u do the step correctly, any APN use, be it openmms or others, it seems like each password work for any user name! Its hard to mistake when u do the step above right in the 1st place.

Good Luck!

Hi Yauchildchew
I tried this:
SoftBank/1.0/705NK/NKJ001 Series60/3.0 NokiaN73/3.06.50 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1

and this:
NokiaN95/11.0.026; Series60/3.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1
as "New UA String"
But still I cannot make fMMS work.
What is the mistakes?
Could you please provide a correct "New UA String"?
Or better if you could give me a step by step setting for your fMMS?
I update to 1.2.6 on PR1.3 (global) already.
Thanks in advance

Yes.

1) You can't make any calls whatsoever. They have a new one that does this, haven't tried it.

2) As I noted before, you -must- have access to someone with a Japanese cell phone who can call the number on the back and enter the cell # for the sim card you have. The activation service is automated but requires you call from a cellphone.

Create an account with them, and use their "Rinkya Shops" service, you'll want to paste the URL for the order page and specify that you want the 1 month sim. I ordered two via this method and it worked out quite well.

Additionally, if you do not know anyone in Japan that has a cell phone, you may want to ask Rinkya if they can activate the card for you on a certain date. I did not do this and was scrambling for a day until I met with a friend of mine and activated two cards.

My solution to that is two-fold:

1) Applications I want to run using Japanese all the time I have wrapped in a shell script that sets those variables before running the program. Currently, only EBView is set up this way for Japanese dictionaries.

2) By default, anything not flagged like that can be used by closing the keyboard and tapping a second time in the input field, which brings up an input window. You can type into this using the IME like you normally would.

This thread is so low traffic posts can go missed for months, I hope everyone had their issues resolved since the last time I saw this one become visible

Ah! Nokia, how rude you are! (or am I so ignorant)
I did a complete reflash to PR1.3, update ovisuite to the latest, and wanted to re-download maps to my n900. Guess what? I could not find Japan on the list of ovi maps anymore!
I agree with Nokia that it is very hard to do business with Japanese people the way European want to, so you can pull out of Japan and hurt your faithful customers who have to be in Japan the way you like. But to delete a country from a world map like this is unspeakable!
Ovi maps for Japan were useless to me anyway, so I didnot care much. But to find out that a whole country is nolonger on the map is unbelievable. Are you turning as dirty as those counterparts in japan you did business with, Nokia?

Could any of the Japanese users tell me if your FMRadio can receive frequencies below 87,5 MHz?

I ask because Wikiwide noticed that they removed the "region" files from the FMRadio directory with PR 1.3

Thanks in advance for an reply

Hi Crogge
To answer your question I just install FMRadio on my N900 HongKong PR1.3, plug the wired headphone.
I notice there are two version of this: 2010.03.20 and 2010.03.60. I guessed the later was the latest so I tried it.
FMRadio 2010.03.60 just simply crashes to the desktop.
A reboot won't help.
Without removing this version, I tried to install FMRadio 2010.03.20, but was anable to install.
So I uninstall the 2010.03.60 version, install 2010.03.20 version, and it works without a reboot.
I tried to scan to frequencies lower than 87.5 but NO, it can go no lower than that or higher than 108.0 MHz.
I can not hit any Japanese broadcast with it anyway, neither on PR1.2 nor 1.3.
I tried installing FM-Boost but it still does not help.
After a reboot with both FMRadio and FM-Boost installed, nothing change: frequencies ranged between 87.50 and 108.00.
I do not install Japanese locale on my n900 though. I just use UK locale with GMT+9 for time zone.
Hope this post does answer you