Oh, the for the love apps
Traveling in Japan you will see from children to old people, checking out their phones. If you have ever been in a crowded metro in Japan, you could see most people still in a crowded metro, most their gaze staring at their screen, and you might wonder, what are they watching so intensively, what might they be playing or reading about, same things as you do back home or something completely different? Well here are some of the most popular phone apps in Japan and links so you can try them out yourself(some are unfortunately not available if your phone region is not Japan) and see whether they are different after all….
Line
If you have been to Japan before or have Japanese friends, you most likely know of Line or you might even use it, after all it is the most used messaging app in Japan. It is very much like whatsapp it offers free messaging and calls, but just as whatsapp it needs you to be online to use it. Line is most used app in Japan, so when you install this app and create a Line ID it will make it easier for you to contact your Japanese friends. The good thing about this app it that you don’t necessarily need a phone number so it also works on iPod touch and tablets.
Image courtesy of Line
Available for: Everything (even computers).
Price: 0$
Hulu
If you are from U.S.A this might come to you as a surprise that Hulu is available in Japan and among the most downloaded and used apps. If you are not from U.S.A you might be asking “what on earth is this Hulu?”. It is a subscription video on demand service and app much like Netflix, but at the moment it is only available in Japan and U.S.A. There are few other the same kind of services in Japan for example Netflix and FoD, but the Hulu app is more popular in Japan than neither of the other once.
Images courtesy of Google Play
Price: Free (but need to have a subscription to the services to actually use is)
Available for: Everything (even computers)
Yahoo weather
Well what can I say, this one is pretty much self-explanatory. It is Yahoos weather app, it tells you the weather. It has maybe a bit more of features than the most basic weather apps, like having information about the wind speed, air pressure and it is possible to watch animated sun rises and sets
Image courtesy of iTunes
Price: Free…… again as you would expect
Available for: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android
NHK NEWS & Disaster Info
Nhk is the biggest news network in Japan and again this app is pretty much self-explanatory It alerts the user of possible Disasters, and it also has the basic news on it. It is only in Japanese so not really that useful if you want to read the news, instead of this there is also the Nhk World tv, where you can read or watch news in English and for the disaster info there is the Yurekuru Call which is in English as well. But I will still put the link down below, so you can get the app if you know Japanese or maybe want to try and learn while reading it.
Price: Free
Available for: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android
My talking pet
And now for something completely different, ever had an urge to see how it would look like if your pet was talking to you, well now you can! well not really but almost. With this app, you can record speech or sound and with a picture of animal or basically of anything you want, can make them talk the words you want to hear. It is a fun little app to try out.
Images courtesy of Google Play
Price: 400yen
Available for: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android
Human anatomy atlas 2017
This is one of the apps that is all over the world popular, it is the most complete human anatomy app there is, and it is used by medical professionals as well as students. It has huge amount of knowledge in it, as well as 3d models of the human body and its parts, pictures and a lot more. This is a must get app for anyone who has anything to do with health or human body.
Image courtesy of Google Play
Price: 110yen
Available for: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android
PhotoScan by google photos
PhotoScan is easy to use and useful little app that helps you make your printed pictures in to digital ones, so that you can save those memories from those old printed photos on to your phone and computer. This is one of those apps again which is very popular all around the world and why should it not be, it is a good way to save old photos.
Image courtesy of Google Play
Price: free
Available for: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android
Snow
In Japan Purikura photo booths (derived from the word purinto kurabu, print club) are super popular. Over the years the Purikura have developed into photo booths with many enhancing features that might brighten the skin, add make up, stylish backgrounds, make your legs longer or add some cute or weird decoration on your photo.
Japan also has a free mobile app version of a purikura and it is called Snow. Snow allows you to take pictures with all these fun features completely for free. So why not take make some bit more special and funny pictures with you and your friends!
Image courtesy of Snow
Price: Free
Available for: Iphone, iPad, iPod touch and android.
You were most likely expecting more games on this list, well do not worry here are couple of the most downloaded game apps in Japan, some might be a bit surprising and some very different of what you expect, unfortunately many of these games cannot be downloaded if your phones region is not Japan.
Minecraft
This might be bit surprising but one of the most downloaded phone games in Japan is Minecraft. If you have not heard of Minecraft, you most likely don’t play games, Minecraft is one of the most popular games there is at the moment. This is a game about blocks and crafting whatever you wish from the different kind of blogs and at the same time trying to survive through the night when the enemies CREEPER out. I feel like this is a game everyone should at least try.
Picture courtesy of Mojang
Price: 840yen
Available for: Everything (including computer, playstation consoles, xbox consoles and nintnendo consoles.
Monster Strike
This is a game that you can a bit more expect from Japan, collecting monsters, combining them and leveling up with a fun little fighting style where you pull your monster and send it flying toward other monsters. use super attacks, skills and such to help you in your battles. Unfortunately, even if it is a big hit in Japan, it was not big anywhere else and the English version is not available anymore, ask from a Japanese friend to let you try it, if you did not have a chance to do so when It was available in English.
Image courtesy of iTunes
Price: Free (microtransactions)
Available for: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android
God eater Pachi
This is a pachinko game for your phone in the style of God eater the game. If you do not know what is Pachinko, well it is a Japanese gambling game where you try move a handle to get balls to fall in to the right holes to win more balls which you can then change to money. If I could give you a better explanation I would, but that’s how much I understood from it the couple of times I played it. This game unfortunately again is not available with phones that are not on Japan region.
Image courtesy of Google Play
Price: 360 yen
Available for: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android
Reversing Otronia
This again is very Japanese game it is basically Othello, where you build your team and level them, so you can use your super attacks and skills in an Othello match, It is a fun bit of a different idea, but again with this game unfortunately It is only able for Japan regionally.
Image courtesy of Google Play and iTunes
Price: Free (microtransactions)
Available for: iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Android
Hope you have enjoyed the list and found some nice new apps to try out even if the games are not able to be played if your account is not set in Japan's.