A digital marketer in his 40s, father of four, and a Financial Planner, sharing real-world savings tips about Rakuten Mobile and Rakuten Points.
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Campaign Info When a conversation with friends about new tablets and phones gets me excited, I end up wanting to review my contract before buying anything new. Here's a rundown of Rakuten Mobile's iPhone discount campaign — eligible models, pricing, and conditions — along with where my own device situation currently stands.
Rakuten Mobile The foldable iPhone Duo was just announced, and honestly, it caught my attention. Here's a look at Rakuten Mobile's device upgrade program, plus how we go about reaching an agreement within the family before a purchase like this.
Campaign Info Rakuten Super Point Screen has launched a new campaign giving away an お買いものパンダ stainless steel bottle to 200 lucky winners by lottery. Here's a rundown of how to enter and the conditions that boost your odds of winning.
Rakuten Mobile I looked into whether I could handle my family's mobile lines together at a store. There turned out to be a few things worth knowing beforehand, like an online-only system and constraints on proxy applications.
Campaign Info Rakuten Bank is running a campaign timed to the Rakuten Super Sale, where opening an account and meeting the conditions gets you a guaranteed 4,000 points. Let's go over the conditions and the things worth watching out for.
Campaign Info I found a campaign where signing up for a new Rakuten Card gets you 10x points on Rakuten Ichiba purchases during the Rakuten Super Sale period. Here's a breakdown of the terms, combined with the regular sign-up bonus.
Family Life We were looking for a stroller for our newborn. At first we were leaning toward a model from Brand A, but once trunk-loading ease became our deciding factor, our pick changed.
EVs & Car Costs I noticed low tire pressure on my car's dashboard screen. When I topped it up myself with a portable compressor, I discovered it tends to overshoot the target reading.
Cutting Fixed Costs I was looking into home security and considering a Google Nest Doorbell. I held off ordering because I assumed Setagaya City's subsidy program required applying before purchase — but checking the official guidelines showed that wasn't the case.
Campaign Info While browsing Rakuten Card's list of campaigns, I noticed a promotion limited to people 25 and under. I'm past the age cutoff myself, but let's break down the conditions.
Campaign Info There was a campaign where signing up for and using the Rakuten ANA Mileage Club Card would earn you both points and miles. The rewards came in two separate tracks with different conditions, so I sorted through the details.
Rakuten Points Rakuten Card's 'Days Ending in 5 and 0' campaign is often talked about as giving 4x points, but when I checked the actual breakdown, the campaign itself only adds +1x. Here's an untangling of this easily misunderstood system.
Family Life When choosing thank-you gifts for people who gave us baby gifts, a catalog gift was on the shortlist. We ended up not going with it, so here's how we made that call.
Rakuten Points I took part in Rakuten Super Point Screen's "Secret Mission." Coins aren't just hidden in the Super Point Screen app — they're also scattered across Rakuten PointClub, Rakuten Pay, and Rakuten Kakeibo. Here's a rundown of what I found when I went looking.
Campaign Info Rakuten Card's Visa brand just launched a campaign where every Apple Pay Visa touch payment enters you into a lottery you can't lose. Here's a rundown of the entry conditions and how the prizes work.
Family Life Our fourth child was just born. Here's what I found out about the lump-sum childbirth allowance, how the 'third child and beyond' count works for the child allowance, and Tokyo's Baby First program.
Using AI I signed up for X's paid plan mainly to get Grok. Around the same time, I was surprised to discover the same Grok had become available inside my Tesla too. Here's everything I found out, from choosing a plan to actually using it in the car.
Campaign Info Rakuten Bank runs an ongoing campaign that guarantees 1,000 points for opening your first account and making a deposit. Here's a rundown of the conditions and what to watch out for when applying.
Campaign Info I found a campaign where sharing a Rakuten Mobile referral link with three people gets you a ¥300-off coupon for Rakuten Books. Let's break down the conditions, including the requirement that the person doing the referring must be a Rakuten Mobile subscriber.
Rakuten Mobile The arrows Alpha2 has been getting attention on social media. Curious about its toughness — it meets 23 MIL-STD test items and survives a 1.8m drop test — I checked Rakuten Mobile's official page for the pricing and campaign details.
Rakuten Points I found a campaign where meeting your SPU target and paying with Rakuten Pay at FamilyMart gets you a coupon for Line socks. First-time Rakuten Pay users are guaranteed to receive one, so I wanted to break down the conditions.
Campaign Info I found a Rakuten Mobile pricing plan where buying the iPhone 17 (256GB) via an MNP switch from another carrier plus the Kaikae Choutoku Program brings the monthly payment down to ¥999 for the 1st through 24th installments. Here's a rundown of how it works and what to watch out for.
Family Life Kai's new-concept razor 'Nadesori' has been getting a lot of buzz. Since my daughter will eventually reach that age, I looked into how it works, along with reviews and things to watch out for before buying one.
Rakuten Mobile Nothing's new sub-brand CMF has released a clip-on earphone that doesn't block your ears. I looked into this ¥12,800 product, which is marketed around how clear it makes your calls sound.
Campaign Info The Japan Housing Finance Agency and Rakuten Group have teamed up on a new perk that lets you earn Rakuten Points by taking out a Flat 35 home loan. Here's a look at the loan-amount-based point tiers and the conditions for the childbirth bonus.
Campaign Info To mark its 25th anniversary, Rakuten Bank is running a campaign offering up to 7,000 points for opening an account and using eligible services. Here's a rundown of the conditions and the things to watch out for, from our household's perspective.
Campaign Info Rakuten Card has an always-on campaign that pays out 5,000 points for a new sign-up plus 3 card uses. Here's a look at how the reward breaks down, and the conditions that are easy to overlook.
Campaign Info I looked into a Rakuten Rakuma campaign that pays out a combined 1,000 points once you complete both your first purchase and your first listing. Here's a rundown of the conditions and things to watch for, from a family's perspective.
Campaign Info Rakuten Carshare is running a campaign that gives you 1,000 points for signing up and using the service for the first time. I break down the entry process and usage conditions from our own household's perspective.
Watching free catch-up streams on Rakuten Channel can earn you up to 900 points a month. Here's a rundown of the conditions for doubling that rate, plus a few things I noticed worth watching out for.
The Google Pixel 11 is set to launch on August 20, 2026, and it turns out Rakuten Mobile is the cheapest carrier option after Google's own store. I compared the reservation page with the launch-day coverage to sort out the specs, pricing, and campaign details.
Campaign Info There's a campaign where you can get 100 points just by checking your result on Rakuten Mobile's fee simulation page. Here's a rundown of the eligibility conditions and steps, based on trying it with my family's line. I also found a separate route that only needs a quiz answer.
Family Life I pre-ordered the Rakuten-exclusive お買いものパンダ edition of the Hobonichi Whiteboard Calendar 2027. Along with a look at the discounted 2026 version you can start using right now, here's a rundown of this write-and-erase, full-surface whiteboard calendar.
Rakuten Points Rakuten Points aren't just for earning and spending — there are several ways to grow them too. I took a casual look at three options: Rakuten Point Interest, Rakuten Point Investment, and R-stock.
Rakuten Points A look at how our family uses Rakuten's lottery and game-style content, like Lucky Draw and Karuta. Why we open it every day, and how we keep it from becoming an obsession.
Family Life Every summer, finding jiyu kenkyu topics for all four of my kids has been a struggle. Here's my hands-on experience trying Gakken Kids Net's new AI service, plus a few things I learned to watch out for along the way.
Family Life When choosing an electronic dictionary as a study tool for your child, how should you weigh grade level, content volume, and price? Here's a rundown of the points we actually compared when picking a digital dictionary for elementary school.
Campaign Info From free LINE stickers to freebies at Rakuten Mobile shops to the anime and four-panel comics, お買いものパンダ turns up all over the Rakuten Ecosystem. As a father of four, here's a casual rundown of how our family enjoys it.
3D Printing & DIY Turns out my family owns a 3D printer. This time I want to share how I've turned that hobby into projects with my kids — from choosing the right design tool for the job, to the builds that were a hit, to using it for kanji learning. Here's a rundown of what's worked well for us.
3D Printing & DIY I've actually gotten interested in 3D printing lately. Before buying a printer, I tried designing parts myself and outsourcing the actual printing. Here's that experience and a sense of the costs involved.
3D Printing & DIY Since starting 3D printing with a Bambu Lab A1 mini, I've picked up real-world lessons on when to use PLA, PETG, or TPU, plus the 0.2mm nozzle and how to store filament properly.
3D Printing & DIY A record of how I used Gridfinity, an open-source storage standard, together with my home 3D printer, the Bambu Lab A1 mini, to organize my desk drawer and my kids' study supplies. Here's a rundown of how the system works and how to get started.
Rakuten Mobile As the number of mobile lines and online accounts for your family grows, it's easy to lose track of which email address is tied to which contract. Here's how I use email aliases to keep it all organized.
3D Printing & DIY I actually started a new hobby a while back: 3D printing. This first post covers how I decided on the Bambu Lab A1 mini — the process type, the size, solo unit or combo set, and even the timing of the purchase.
EVs & Car Costs After switching to a Tesla Model Y L, our family takes an honest look at how running costs compare to a gas car. Parking fees stayed exactly the same, but electricity and maintenance costs told a different story. We also cover how much subsidies really help, plus a few EV-specific quirks worth knowing.
EVs & Car Costs Our home has no garage, so the car sits in a monthly rental parking lot. Here's why we decided to charge our new Tesla exclusively at Superchargers instead of installing a home charger, plus the real charging data from our first month.
EVs & Car Costs When I bought a Tesla Model Y L, I applied for both the national CEV subsidy and Tokyo's ZEV subsidy. Here's how they added up to about 2.12 million yen, plus the four paperwork pitfalls I ran into along the way.
Rakuten Mobile The Galaxy Z Fold8 launches on August 7, 2026. I compared hands-on reviews from multiple outlets to sort through the good and the not-so-good — weight, screen ratio, camera, and more — plus pricing and campaign details from Rakuten Mobile.
Rakuten Mobile The 'Number Sharing' add-on lets your Apple Watch make calls on its own, without your iPhone nearby. Here's what it costs and how to decide if it's actually worth it for you.
Campaign Info A Rakuten Mobile flyer showed up in our mailbox with the headline "iPhone 17e, ¥1/month." I broke down what's behind it, working through the full 48-installment payment schedule to see what it actually costs.
Rakuten Mobile Comparing Docomo MAX, SoftBank's Teigaku Unlimited, and au's Unlimited MAX+ against Rakuten Mobile's Saikyo Plan on the same footing: unlimited data, with the family discount applied.
Campaign Info A flyer in my mailbox listed four age-based discount and points-back programs. Here's a look at easy-to-miss details, like the account-ownership rule for the kids' discount and how the senior program's points work.
Campaign Info A flyer for Rakuten Mobile's family referral campaign turned up in our mailbox, promising "8 months free for the whole family." I ran the actual numbers for our four-person household, including the point payout timeline and the conditions that come with it.
Rakuten Points Should you concentrate your points and miles into a single program, or hold several depending on the purpose? Drawing on my experience with a card I used to carry, I sorted out how to think about the decision.
Using AI I'll share how I turn plans I hear through family LINE chats or conversations, like 'next month's sports day starts at 9am on 10/25,' into a Google Calendar link just by telling an AI. No scanning, no app install needed.
Marketing A long-standing framework breaks down what personalization needs into three elements — data, content, and logic. Let's revisit it, along with what's changed now that generative AI is in the picture.
Marketing The job title product manager has come up on tech podcasts lately, which got me thinking about how it differs from roles that have existed for a long time.
Marketing CRM and customer loyalty are terms that stretch from vague mindset talk to concrete tactics, so the definition tends to blur. Let's think it through again from the angle of "not creating bad revenue."
Investing & New NISA Looking back at my old habit of switching corporate DC funds every month, plus a rundown of the 2026 reforms that removed the matching contribution cap and raised overall contribution limits.
Cutting Fixed Costs Are you unknowingly paying for more than one subscription that does the same job? Here's a practical checklist for spotting those overlaps.
Rakuten Mobile If your monthly phone bill still feels high, the culprit might not be your rate plan at all — it could be the 'remaining balance' on your device installments. Here's how that balance works, how to check it, and whether paying it off in one lump sum is worth it.
Marketing A rundown of the classic behavior-triggered email patterns commonly used by e-commerce sites and apps.
Marketing A paradox I keep running into in advertising and promotions work: the better an ad is, the less it looks like an ad. Here's a look at why that happens.
Marketing The idea of measuring advertising effectiveness through modeling — known as Marketing Mix Modeling — has been getting renewed attention over the past few years. Here's a rundown of what's changed.
Marketing After many years in data analysis and web analytics, here's what I've come to believe this job is really asking of us.
Marketing Why do companies that make decisions by the numbers stay strong for so long? Introducing a book from my marketing career that still shapes how I think today.
Cutting Fixed Costs Switching my everyday household goods to Amazon's subscription service saved me almost 30,000 yen a year, combining the discount with never forgetting to reorder. Here's how I set it up and what to watch out for.
Family Life I opened a bank account in my child's name at Rakuten Bank. Here's what I learned about how few online banks actually offer minor accounts, and why keeping the money separate turned out to be worth it.
Cutting Fixed Costs Do you really need to cancel the credit card tied to a paid membership service? Here's the case for checking your annual-fee waiver conditions first, then keeping the card around purely for auto-debit duty.
Cutting Fixed Costs Instead of bundling all my furusato nozei donations into one year-end rush, I switched to donating a little each month. Here's what I noticed after sticking with it, plus how I now choose my return gifts.
Investing & New NISA I cancelled a foreign-currency savings insurance policy I'd taken out back when I was single, right as I was giving my finances a proper overall review. Here's what the actual numbers looked like, and what I came away feeling about how to approach insurance.
Using AI I built a system that has AI pull together my schedule, email, and chat messages into a single briefing I can glance at while getting ready. Here's how I gather the information and keep the layout from breaking, in enough detail that you could build it yourself.
Using AI I built a system that has AI automatically tally up each day's card spending and notify me only when a purchase crosses a threshold I set in advance, flagged as an 'expense worth discussing.' Here's a full implementation walkthrough, including the formula for judging sync delays and the design behind capping API calls.
Using AI I built a system that has AI auto-generate hiragana practice sheets for my preschooler, timed to a forgetting curve so review happens right when it's needed. I'll walk through the question pool structure and the scoring data model in enough detail that you could build it yourself.
Using AI I built a system that scans worksheets from multiple kids all at once and has AI automatically sort them by child and by subject. Here's the actual code and scoring rules, in enough detail that you could reproduce it yourself.
Cutting Fixed Costs When you juggle several credit cards, both your points and your household budget tracking tend to get scattered. Here's a look at the benefits of consolidating down to one main card, plus some tips on how to go about it.
Using AI Using Claude and an integration with the accounting app freee, I built a setup that automatically reviews my card spending every morning and evening and gives me exactly one improvement suggestion. Here's the actual tool setup and how it's worked out.
Family Life Weekday evenings had turned into a bit of a tightrope walk between housework and childcare, so I tried splitting the time into fixed blocks. Here's what I noticed after putting it into practice — the benefits and a few things to watch out for.
Rakuten Mobile A look at the pricing and mechanics of Rakuten Mobile's "Call Waiting" add-on, aimed at people whose work means calls tend to overlap.
Campaign Info Fiber internet switching campaigns can look appealing at first glance, but they often come with easy-to-miss catches — like requiring a 'first-time application.' Here's a rundown of what to check before you consider switching.
Rakuten Mobile A look at how Rakuten Mobile's "Number Sharing" service works, along with its pricing and which devices qualify. It's an add-on for anyone who wants to make calls and use data through just their Apple Watch.
Rakuten Mobile I signed up for Rakuten Mobile's '15-Minute (Standard) Unlimited Calls' add-on. With four kids, calls to schools and clinics add up fast — here's how much it actually saves.
Cutting Fixed Costs For anyone who knows they should review their fixed costs but isn't sure where to start, here's the 3-stage process my household actually uses, from listing everything out to actually acting on it.
Rakuten Mobile Every time a kid starts a new school year or someone gets a new phone, your family's mobile lines tend to multiply. Here's how to find 'dormant lines,' where the contract holder and the actual user don't match, plus what to watch out for when you clean them up.
Campaign Info A roundup of limited-time point-back campaigns on Rakuten Travel, Rakuten Books, and Rakuma for Rakuten Mobile subscribers, with conditions and things to watch for. Note that these details change over time.
Rakuten Points Bundling Rakuten Mobile with electricity, fiber internet, or a home router unlocks a system where points keep piling up over time. Here's the mechanics behind the "effectively free" pricing, and what to watch out for if you cancel early.
Rakuten Mobile People switching to Rakuten Mobile from au, SoftBank, or Docomo often hit the same three 'wish I'd known that' moments. Here's what they are, with real experience, and how to avoid them before you sign up.
Campaign Info A rundown of the typical types of Rakuten Mobile campaigns, plus the checkpoints worth confirming before you apply. I'll keep this updated as things change.
Investing & New NISA Combining Rakuten Mobile with Rakuten Card and Rakuten Securities can boost your Rakuten Points multiplier (SPU). Here's how, with real examples.
Rakuten Mobile A step-by-step walkthrough of switching to Rakuten Mobile using MNP (number portability). Covers timing to avoid double-billing, how long each step takes, and things to watch out for.