You got a cellphone in Japan! (Did you get SoftBank or au? I like au for two reasons unrelated to the actual phone. One, au represents gold from the periodic table of elements (coming from the Latin word for gold: aurum). Two, the company has spectacular commercials involving famous Japanese fairy tale characters.) 

Now you would like to give your cellphone number to your friends and families overseas so you can Face Time, etc. Yet, how does one call a Japanese cell phone from an overseas phone?

Here is the formula: 011 + 81 + cellphone number – the first 0 in the cellphone’s number.

Example

Let’s pretend your Japanese cellphone number is 080-1234-5678 (Japanese cellphone numbers generally start with 080 or 090.)

To dial enter 011-81-80-1234-5678

That’s it! Enjoy your call.

Have you seen the au commercials yet? If so, which one is your favorite?