Denwa o suru, making a phone call, is probably the hardest test of your Japanese language
skills.
There are 80,000,000 users keitai denwa , a mobile phone in Japan. Mobile Phones
You can use your mobile phone number in Japan using Vodafone and NTT DoCoMo's 3G (3rd generation) service areas. Simply bring your own SIM card and insert it to a rental phone or your
own 3G handset. For more details, please check with your local mobile phone
service provider or Vodafone or NTT DoCoMo.
Rental phone service is also available. You can find rental shops at Narita Airport and Kansai Airport.
It means 75% of Japanese people have them and kooshuu-denwa, public telephone box decrease 830,000 in 1989 to 500,000 in 2003. So
sometimes it is difficult to find public phone nowaday. Phones will either
require kozeni, coins, or terehon- kaado, a phone card cost 1,000 yen from vending machines, kiosks at train stations,
and convenience stores..
For finding numbers you can find some methods - there are denwa-choo, phone book, ieroopeeji, the yellow pages. Alternatively you can bangoo-annai, directory enquiries to 104 or 105.
Once you pick it up, the normal way to answer the phone is Moshi Moshi, literally to say'to Tell'.
You may get through to rusuban-denwa, an answering machine, or to boisumeeru, a voicemail service. You'll then hear the prompt to leave a message after the tone, pii to iu oto no ato ni o-hanashi kudasai.