Finally, internet!

4:00 pm. I finally go online from my room as opposed to the other times I go online through latching on to unsecured wireless connections around the neighbourhood. One time, I was out from 8:00 to 9:30 (pm) sitting at the bus stop downloading a weeks worth of e-mail though a wireless router while surfing the net and dropping a line out to friends and family at home.

Now after getting connected, speeds from the residence is slow... ridiculously slow! I'm talking about slow enough that I'm going at the speed of a 56k modem while I'm connected through a cable modem. Ridiculous. I'm paying about 3000 yen/mo for this connection and from the flyer, the connection was rated at 10 mbps. Ouch. I knew about the speed problem but I didn't know it was this bad.

There exists other ISPs over here but the other popular serives go through ADSL. The problem of that is that the phonelines here go through a switchboard meaning ADSL connections are impossible short of getting your own phone lines independent of the switchboard. From what I have heard, that isn't a huge problem however the problem is that the Japanese require that you get a *license* to have a phone line and that costs 75,000 yen (approimately $800) when you give up your license, you aren't refunded this money... though licenses are transferable (ie you can buy them from other peopl... Summary here.) Looks like I'm stuck with what I've got for the time being.