Job Discussion Forums

mushroomyakuza · Joined: 17 Sep 2009 Posts: 140

Tomorrow I'm meeting (supposed to be, anyway) a member of the TA staff of Shane to get to my apartment. I have to call her at 1 PM, but when I tried to call her today just to confirm a few things, something went wrong. I just got a bleep bleep bleep.

I tried using the green payphones, but no joy. I entered the following number, please check if this is in the correct format to call a cellphone (a Japanese one) from a payphone in Japan: 0805-052-6737.

This is quite a time sensitive issue, so any help would be grand. I'm hoping her phone was just off or something, but if I can't get in touch with her again tomorrow, I'm screwed :S.

ShioriEigoKyoushi · Joined: 21 Aug 2009 Posts: 364 Location: Japan

Bread · Joined: 24 May 2009 Posts: 318

Since you seem to have internet, try it with Skype. I've found that Skype is very forgiving with formatting for numbers. But yeah, other than the way you've typed it, the number should be fine. (Usually it would be written 080 5052 6737)

edit: Just to confirm:

Pick up phone
Put in 100 yen
Dial number

Right?

mushroomyakuza · Joined: 17 Sep 2009 Posts: 140

Bread, yes, that's exactly what I did. I'm just gonna have to assume he phone was off. Shiori, London hasn't got back in touch with me since I arrived - think they believe their job is done. Plus, they're now closed for the weekend and won't be open until after I'm supposed to meet the TA staff. Haven't had a chance to call my GABA friend as he's busy working. Thanks both.

Pitarou · Joined: 16 Nov 2009 Posts: 1116 Location: Narita, Japan

That is, indeed, a cellphone number. She's probably just switched it off for the weekend.

Glenski · Joined: 15 Jan 2003 Posts: 12844 Location: Hokkaido, JAPAN

080 or 090 is a prefix for a cell phone in Japan. Depends on the company.

And, yes, I agree with Pitarou that you probably couldn't connect because the other person had set the phone to not receive calls, although you should have gotten a prerecorded message telling you something about that.

Annoying, isn't it? Japanese people can't seem to live without taking a cell phone and using it anywhere (saw 2 adults today using them while riding a bike or coming out of the toilet in a department store, and I also saw a 5 year old on a cell phone standing next to a parent!).

Yet, when you need to use them, well, you know what I mean. Some may even set the phones to an extreme form of privacy mode or filtering so that they only get calls from people they know.