Are you sick and tired of skiing and ice skating? Why not take a trip to see one of America’s mind-bendingly amazing ice castles. It’s like a walking through a frosty landscape dreamt up by Richard Serra but built by nature. Tickets are now available!
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There was a time when well-traveled luggage looked like the suitcase above: covered with travel stickers, trophies of every adventurous explorer. My father, who spent his youth traveling across Europe in the 60s and 70s kept his weary suitcase for a long time; as a child, I admired all those well-aged little pictures of remote hotels and places I’d never been to.
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Taking a vacation to Venice can be a real pain in the ass. Tourists flock to the watery city like like fire ants on a fallen sandwich. Every restaurant is overpriced. The place floods all the time. But you can now avoid all those annoyances thanks to Google Street View.
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Foreign tourists visiting Japan are often frustrated at the lack of free Wi-Fi spots available in the country. Not only does this prevent them from accessing maps, information and recommendations about Japan whilst they are travelling but they are also unable to ‘share’ their experiences with friends and family on SNS. This is annoying to visitors, but also a major loss for promotion of Japan in general. After all, imagine how many millions in free advertising have been thwarted by the inability to say “I am in Shibuya!” to everyone back home via Instagram.
Finally having recognised this frustration major Japanese telecoms supplier NTT East has accounced the implementation of FREE Wi-Fi spots available for foreign tourists to access during their stay.
How does it work?
It’s actually quite simple, which surprised us given the number of really complicated wifi spots in Tokyo that never seem to work anyway. Keep in mind, this is purely for visitors to Japan.
1- Pick up a free Wi-Fi-card from one of the official distribution points by showing your passport and tourist visa at Narita Airport, Akihabara in Tokyo or at major cities in Eastern Japan.
2- The Wifi ID and log-in password are printed on the card so just enter this information when accessing an NTT East Wifi-signal (0000FLETS-PORTAL). There are already more than 17,000 NTT East Wi-Fi spots around Japan (as of January 2013) supported by a network of fiber optic cables, guaranteeing fast and stable access (according to them of course).
3- Once logged in you can make use of the free Wi-fi spots for 14 days. Ideal for your short stay in Japan!
According to JNTO the process is perfect for first-time visitors to Japan as there are no application forms, you don’t need to send any emails to begin- all you need is your Wi-Fi supporting device.
Where can I access the free Wi-Fi?
The number of NTT East’s free Wi-Fi access points are increasing and for the moment you can find them at major sightseeing accross in Tokyo including Akihabara, Asakusa, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ginza, Ueno and Roppongi.
So far they the free Wi-Fi spots are limited to specific shops and restaurants in those areas (as pictured above), but I think it’s safe to say that this will be taken up rather quickly around the country.
Increasing Visitor Numbers to Japan?
Information and instructions about this free Wi-Fi service is provided in English, Korean and Chinese highlighting the importance NTT East places on reaching out to Asian tourists who form the majority of visitors to Japan.
Asian Tourists in Japan. Image via AFP/Kazuhiro Nogi/Getty Images.
A greater number of free Wi-Fi spots and more variety of Wi-Fi services catered specifically to tourists in Japan is certainly overdue, and is in direct response to one of the biggest annoyances to people who make the trip here. That, and it’s kind of embarrassing that the country perceived to be the most high-tech doesn’t even have wi-fi available in most places.
Editors Note:
What we’re really curious about is the business model of this approach. Who is paying for all of this? The government? Are the shops involved paying for the hardware? Short term it gets people connected, but how sustainable is this? We’d love to see business owners really understanding the necessity of catering to these kinds of needs for tourists because it will open their eyes to the laundry list of tasks ahead. Great to see this progress though.
Were we really expecting a different outcome? Several months after Google bought Frommer’s to bolster its location efforts, Skift hears that the iconic travel guide maker has completely stopped publication of print editions as its focus swings to the online realm. Authors say that many of their scheduled Frommer’s books now won’t be published; a few say their contracts were simply delayed, but the usual raft of guides that would show at this time of year just haven’t materialized. We’ve reached out to Google to confirm what’s going on, although the writing may have been on the wall when the bookstore disappeared from the Frommer’s site in September. If true, many travelers will have to either switch to rival guides or use Google’s digital parallels to learn what’s interesting in a strange new land.
[Image credit: Caitlin Regan, Flickr]
Source: Skift
You might remember Google’s unveiling this spring of the Street View Trekker, a seeming cross between a backpack and Van de Graaff generator that lets the mapping team produce 360-degree imagery where even trikes dare not tread. The portable camera ball is just going on its first trip, and Google has chosen the most natural destination for a novice tourist — the Grand Canyon, of course. Staffers with Trekkers are currently walking trails along the South Rim of the canyon to provide both eye-level points of reference for wayward hikers as well as some breathtaking, controllable panoramas for those who can’t (or won’t) make it to Arizona. Once the photos make it to Street View sometime in the undefined near future, it’ll be that much easier to turn down Aunt Matilda’s 3-hour vacation slideshow.
Filed under: GPS, Internet, Google
Google Trekker goes to the Grand Canyon, takes Street View souvenirs back home originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Oct 2012 20:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Richard Branson has long said that he’d be on board Virgin Galactic’s first commercial space tourism flight, and he’s now confirmed that will take place sometime next year with his two adult children along for the ride (a bit of a delay from the company’s original 2011 target). That trip will of course be made with the company’s SpaceShipTwo craft, which has already completed a number of test flights, and which is capable of flying 100 kilometers (or just over 60 miles) above the Earth for a planned two and a half hour flight with five minutes of weightlessness. As the AP notes, some 529 people have already signed up for the $200,000 per person rides into space, each of whom will have to take part in a week of training prior to their trip. Bookings can still be made on Virgin Galactic’s website.
Filed under: Transportation
Richard Branson confirms Virgin Galactic’s first space tourism flight will launch next year with him on board originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 15 Jul 2012 16:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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